Agriculture and Climate change
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Guide for your final paper 1. Abstract The purpose of the abstract is to consolidate the principle points of your paper in one place. Present the questions that your paper will answer, and a brief overview of the paper itself. The abstract shouldn't exceed more than 150 - 200 words. 2. Introduction The introduction is the key to letting your reader know where you are headed and what you will accomplish. Remember always that while the organization of your paper may be clear to you, it is not clear to your reader. Therefore, the introduction is something like a road map that acquaints the reader with the journey ahead. This will make it easier for the reader to understand what follows and will improve the reader's evaluation of your work. Tell the reader in concise terms (1) what the subject of the paper is, (2) what it is that you hope to find out, and (3) how you will go about it. 3. Literature review: Provide any literature review you have gathered for the paper. 4. Main body of the paper. The main body is the largest part of the paper. It should have a logical organization. Especially if the paper is long, it is often a good idea to divide the main body into sections designated by headings and subheadings. Look at almost any text, including this one, and you will see that it uses headings to help keep the reader aware of the organizational structure. Also about your main body, do not assume knowledge on the part of the reader. Include all important information, explain its significance, and detail your logic. Write your paper as though its reader will be a reasonably intelligent and informed person but not an expert on your topic. Your instructor wants to know what you know and will not "read into" the paper information that is not there. 5. Conclusion: The conclusion should sum up what you have found and stress the evidence that supports your analysis. There is something very human about wanting to have things summed up, so do not leave your reader hanging without a conclusion. 6. References: follow APA style citation. Note: Please use MS Word double spaced, 12 font size. If you are using Apple products, please upload a pdf file.
How Agriculture Leads to Climate Change
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How Agriculture Leads to Climate Change
Abstract
Food is a basic human need. Everyone needs food to survive, and hence the globalization of food production. However, the production of food happens to be one of the most notorious factors that lead to global warming. As the world is increasing in number, the field of agriculture intensifies its activities. Unknowingly to many, this intensification happens at the expense of the earth’s climate. Today, agriculture is considered one of the major factors that contribute to anthropogenic global warming. However, instead of finding alternatives to help change the production mechanisms, the world is investing in more sophisticated ways of farming. Therefore, the world continues to waste away. There is a likelihood that things will not change soon since the developing nations are catching up with the developed nations’ means of food production. However, alarm calls are already going off all over the world because the inevitability of global warming intensifying is imminent.
Introduction
Food remains a basic human need. Individuals need to consume a healthy diet to ensure their health and wellbeing. The production of food has become globalized. Complex systems have been developed to ensure that food produced in one part of the world can be consumed in a different region. For instance, European foods are consumed in the rest of the globe. Before food reaches our plates, it undergoes processes like processing and transportation. All these processes contribute to the production of greenhouse gasses (GHGs). A growing population and changing diets are increasing the demand for food. Production keeps on straining to meet the crop yields. The challenge remains agriculture’s vulnerability to climate change. Because of climate change, the world experiences increased temperatures, rainfall variation and extreme weather events (Kundzewicz, 2016). Climate change minimizes crop yield, livestock production, and the major cereals’ nutritional quality on the farms. As climate change adversely affects agriculture, it is important to note that agriculture is a major part of the climate change problem. This paper examines the contributions of agriculture towards climate change. It examines the topic by reviewing relevant literature about the topic. The paper outlines how the use of energy and food wastage leads to the production of GHGs, contributing to global warming.
Literature Review
Agriculture is considered one of the major factors that contribute to anthropogenic global warming, according to Lynch et al. (2021). The main reason for the above is that it leads to or contributes to methane and nitrous oxide emissions, which contribute greatly to global warming. Some of the pollutants from agriculture are stock pollutants, which will impact the environment for years to come (Lynch et al., 2021). For agriculture, the damage is done from two fronts. The first one, as already indicated, is the result of gaseous emissions from agriculture which the OECD (2016) reports being “17% directly through agricultural activities and an additional 7-14% through land-use changes.” Such figures reveal the direct impact that agriculture has on the climate.
Consensus is commonplace on the importance of agriculture on the global food system. However, as Mbow et al. (2020) indicate, its contribution of 21 to 37% annual emissions is worrying. Such numbers contribute to global warming, and as reported by the European Environment Agency (EEA) (2015), the world could be headed to worse conditions, especially when one considers the focus on agriculture in the developing nations. Apparently, as the developed world is moving to reduce its emissions from agriculture, the developing nations are moving in the opposite direction. The EEA (2015) reports that because of a rise in food demand as well as increased incomes, developing nations are producing more food, thus pushing the emissions from both livestock and crop production to higher levels. The implication of the above is that even as the world is working hard to reduce the impact agriculture has on the climate, the different development levels will continue to impede such.
Energy use
The production of food leads to the emission of GHGs. The industrial food system relies heavily on petroleum, which leads to the emission of GHGs (Canning, Rehkamp, Waters & Etemadnia, 2017). The current food system over relies on non-renewable fossil fuels. At the initial stages of food production, energy is needed to power irrigation pumps and the application of pesticides. At a later stage, energy is needed in the processing, storage, and transportation of food. In most cases, the source of energy is petroleum. Most of the stages also rely on electricity that is derived from fossil sources. The burning of fossil fuels is the most significant contributor to climate change (Perera, 2018). Fossil fuels lead to the production of carbon dioxide, which leads to global warming. Additionally, land use because of agriculture contributes to GHGs. The conversion of forests into agricultural land leads to deforestation. The process contributes to the release of carbon dioxide, which is a GHG. Further, the cultivation of rice leads to the release of methane, a major GHG. As more forests are cleared to make room for agricultural land, increased ca...