Calculate your personal nitrogen footprint!

I have come across an interesting online tool that allows you to calculate your personal ‘nitrogen footprint’.  It seems like a fairly good way to engage the public with the problem of anthropogenic nitrogen deposition and, like the carbon footprint concept, it promotes taking some personal responsibility in solving the problem.   Unfortunately, because the tool has only been recently developed, there is not yet a version of the calculator designed for UK residents (it is currently in development), but if you happen to live in the US, the Netherlands or Germany it is ready to use! 

An explanation of the methodology used by the creators (James Galloway, Allison Leach and colleagues in the US and Netherlands) to develop the N-footprint calculator is due to be published in January 2012, a draft copy of the paper (Leach et al.) has been made available online.  At a basic level, the calculator works by scaling the average per capita data on reactive nitrogen loss to the environment based on how an individual answers questions on resource consumption.  The ‘N-Calculator’ is a an attempt to improve communication to help consumers minimise their disruption of the nitrogen cycle, it is planned that the tool will sit alongside other tools that calculate the footprints of producers and another that calculates the effect of policy decisions on nitrogen footprints.  These tools are part of an overall system called ‘N-Print’.  An article was published back in February on ScienceDaily describing the project.  Included is a quote from Allison Leach stressing the importance of wider awareness of the issue:

"Solving the nitrogen dilemma is a major challenge of our time…..By calculating our individual impact, and taking small steps to reduce it, we can all play a part -- and send a strong message to our nation's leaders that we want this issue taken seriously." (A Leach, ScienceDaily 22/2/11)