Watts Up With Nitrogen Science Denial

Anthony WattsThose that are familiar with the website Watts Up With That know that some very strange content has shown up on it. A lot of it focusses on trying to discredit valid research on climate change and global warming, but in general it is also very dismissive about environmental concerns. Basically anything that can be used to cast doubt will get published, no matter how wrong or far-fetched it is.

This time Watts went after nitrogen pollution, something that is a real concern and can have serious consequences. Fertilizers contain nitrogen as it is a nutrient plants need to grow properly. But this isn’t the same nitrogen as we breathe, plants can’t absorb nitrogen gas. That’s why the nitrogen in fertilizers often is part of a compound, most commonly as NH3 or NO3. This what distinguishes nitrogen in fertilizers from the nitrogen in the air (which has the chemical formula of N2).

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The Lorax

dr. seuss the lorax

For me Dr. Seuss wasn’t a big part of my childhood. Not that strange considering I grew up in The Netherlands and English is a foreign language for us. Which means that his materials aren’t as widely spread here as they are in the United States.

You do come across Dutch translations of his books and of course the odd movie from the United States. But that’s just noise compared to Dik Trom, Puk van de Petteflet or Kruistocht in Spijkerbroek. Now those are big and recognizable parts of my childhood (yeah I’m old, shush).

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Understanding the rise of China

China has been, and still is, a wild card to us westerners. There is a fundamental difference in how we run our countries and view the world. And which is ironically allowing China to take the lead in things like building a green economy and infrastructure. Although it’s also one of the worst offenders with pollution and it’s output of…