The Secret of Global Warming

Companies fight to keep global warming data secret
In the current day and age, people are obsessed with numbers, statistics and anything that puts quantitative data to everything. The EPA's recent proposal would require the largest emitters of greenhouse gasses to make available online the amount of gasses they release. The major concerns are that other businesses will learn the company secrets and that people only need to know what is put into the air. If competitors learn the secrets then the theory states that prices will begin to rise for consumers. This means that consumers would be paying for the extra costs that are involved with gas emissions rather than the businesses. The EPA wants to limit greenhouse gasses so the companies that produce way too much heat-trapping gas would be put in the spotlight which would be better for consumers. The belief that people only need to know what factories put directly in the air seems somewhat unfair. If the data was placed online, there would only be a select few that could accurately understand all the numbers. The masses would likely only hear about what all the data means rather than attempting to understand it themselves. If the data was not released online then fewcould "double check" the data leading to more quick assumptions.

The Fertilizer Dilemma

Fertilizer Overloading Earth's Plant Life
The creation of synthetic fertilizers was a monumental moment for crops. Farmers started seeing yields that were much larger than they had before. At first glance that seems like everything is good. More crops means more food for more people and with the ever increasing population there needs to be an increase in crop yields. The article mentions that fertilizer use has increased 800% from 1960 to 2000. Unfortunately the synthetic fertilizers are expensive and very bad for the environment. The nitrogen from the fertilizers is having an effect on climate change, creating more dead zones in oceans and is drastically changing the nitrogen cycle. The report that came out with these findings gave solutions such as better crop rotation or limiting the amount of fertilizer use. This may seem like a hassle but as prices increase for synthetic fertilizers farmers only option is to find a better way to see increase crop yields.