Perhaps for once, humans have, though unknowingly, been serving the environment while trying to make their ends meet.
While on one hand, scientists are getting concerned with the environmental effects of vehicular emissions, on the other, a few of the fraternity are approving ‘a bit’ of these emissions as a blessing for holding the planet’s ‘green.’
Yes, researchers have recently found that small doses of ‘nitrogen’ spewed by human – be it from cars, factories or farm chemicals – is favorable for forests’ growth! Thus, this in turn can absorb the key climate-warming greenhouse gas — carbon dioxide.
It has been found that the level of nitrogen capable of nourishing a forest and helping it suck up carbon dioxide is about 10 percent of what is annually applied to farmlands.
In support to this fact, Beverly Law, a professor of forest science at Oregon State University and co-author of a study on the phenomenon in the journal Nature said,
It’s not, ‘if a little is good, a lot is better. It can reach a point where there is saturation of the effect of increased growth.
The nitrogen-amount ranging from about 11 pounds to 33 pounds (5 kg to 15 kg) per 2.47 acres (1 hectare) per year deposited in the forests, provide only a small boost to the amount of carbon a forest can absorb by its natural processes of photosynthesis and respiration.
So, “hold on” those who are expecting to get a good reason for practicing all those emission-triggering activities – it is still true that, too much of the gas can be damaging.