This article from April this year is posted on the Guardian environment section; it highlights the key headline statements made in the European Nitrogen Assessment (ENA), a publication discussed previously on the blog.
The main claim selected by the article is that the damage to water, health, wildlife and climate caused by nitrogen pollution has a financial cost of £650 to every person in Europe. It is later explained that the annual Europe-wide cost is estimated at €70bn-€320bn (£62bn-£282bn), working out at between a minimum of £130 and a maximum of £650 per person. The financial argument is weakened slightly when the €25bn to €130bn (£22bn-£115bn) benefits to agriculture that artificial nitrogen fertilisers deliver are considered, this is a very similar figure to the estimated environmental cost of €25bn to €145bn (£22bn-£128bn). However, the additional cost to our health and well being is significant, it is claimed that nitrogen pollution in the atmosphere reduces life expectancy over much of Europe by up to six months. This and the damage to fish stocks and enhancement of global warming have far more than simply a financial cost to the people of Europe.
The article tells us the ENA calculates that up to 60% of nitrogen damage occurs from fossil fuel burning for energy and transport, so more efficient energy use in the home and in our transport might be an important part of mitigating the problem.
Furthermore, a highly significant portion of agricultural nitrogen pollution is due to meat and dairy farming, because livestock require vast quantities of food grown using fertilisers. This point was made in comment from Dr Mark Sutton, of the UK's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, who stated that the numbers of livestock we keep are important in determining the scale of environmental impacts. The diet of most Europeans contains 70% more meat and dairy than is necessary, so it seems that there is room to reduce the problem, although this not an easy sacrifice to convince many to make!
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