and in 2019 a pollution crisis led the Dutch government to set a goal of halving emissions from the gas by 2030.
WARNING THIS ARTICLE IS MISLEADING UND UNSCIENTIFIC
It is not about elemental nitrogen gas. Elemental nitrogen N2, which is gaseous makes up 79% of the atmosphere and is unproblematic. The problem are nitrogen compounds such as NH4, NO2 and NO3. These are magnitudes more bioavailable and are used in mineral fertilizers as well as contained in high levels in animal manure. They lead to Eutrophication, which you probably know as algae bloom in water bodies. Additionaly high concentrations of them lead to soil deterioation, as they interfere with the biome in the soil, destroying the usefull balance between different mircoorganisms. Finallly with having too much NO2 and NO3 in the soil it eventually leaks into the ground water table. There it interferes with the microorganisms that are needed to clean the groundwater. When the water is used for drinking water, the high concentrations of NO2 and NO3 can aid the formation of cancers in humans. Currently in affected regions the water users are paying extra for the additional steps needed to remove these from the water in the process, while the polluters dont pay.
Elemental nitrogen is actually one way to safely remove nitrogen from the biological cycle in waste water treatment plants. There specialized bacteria turn NO3 into N2 using the oxygen for their metabolism.
The confusion of the journalist might have risen from harmful nitrogen compounds being expressed as the weight of the nitrogen contained. This is done to be able to compare them better, as the molecular weight of NH4 is very different from the weight of NO3, but one NH4 molecule can be metabolized into one NO3 molecule.
According to Jan Arie Koorevaar, who owns 115 cows on a 90-hectare property in South Holland and produces 100 million litres of milk per year in an almost 100% organic way,
The numbers here seem off, That would be 2382 litres of milk per cow per day.
A quick google tells me that an average dairy cow produces 28 liters a day, or up to 60 liters for high-yield cows, over the course of 10 months, so I think the number is off by at least a factor 100. Good catch.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
In high concentrations, the chemical element is dangerous for both nature and water quality, and in 2019 a pollution crisis led the Dutch government to set a goal of halving emissions from the gas by 2030.
This, of course, set itself on a collision course with the Dutch farming establishment, given that almost all human activities produce it, but in the Netherlands agriculture is the biggest culprit, responsible for 50% of all nitrogen.
“On the other hand, the Netherlands has taken a rather strict interpretation of the European Habitats Directive, which stipulates that for every new kind of activity, we have to realise nitrogen reduction elsewhere.”
According to Jan Arie Koorevaar, who owns 115 cows on a 90-hectare property in South Holland and produces 100 million litres of milk per year in an almost 100% organic way, the government should focus more on boosting innovation, rather than reducing the size of farms.
“A lot of farmers are worried because it’s not clear to them what they need to do on their farms to meet the demands of the government,” Koorevaar told Euronews.
They’re asking for mandatory buyouts, instead of voluntary ones, halving emissions by 2030, and stricter targets on livestock reduction.
The original article contains 507 words, the summary contains 200 words. Saved 61%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
