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Pollution is also a result of centralization. Methods that are cost effective in huge projects are usually ones far too unsafe to be used in small projects. A
by antt 8y ago
Pollution is also a result of centralization. Methods that are cost effective in huge projects are usually ones far too unsafe to be used in small projects.
A stupidly obvious example is farming. Small scale manure production is a net benefit to the local soil. Factory farming destroys rivers, lakes and small seas.
- jcranmer 8y ago> A stupidly obvious example is farming. Small scale manure production is a net benefit to the local soil. Factory farming destroys rivers, lakes and small seas. Small scale farming is literally destroying the Chesapeake Bay--manure is the single biggest source of pollution. The advantage of large-scale production is that you can apply centralized remediation efforts. It's easy to make a sewage treatment plant that handles 100 million gallons of water a day clean up all of its toxicity before dumping the water out. It's hard to tell 10 million people to stop dumping so much manure on their farms, especially when they're all going to say "eh, what is adding 50 extra pounds of manure going to do?" What may be safe on the scale of an individual use may not be so safe when it is repeated for millions of individual uses.
- selimthegrim 8y agoSee also: crop burning in Indian Punjab
- kwhitefoot 8y agoI suspect that the comment you are replying to had a crop rotation system in mind where the manure from the animals directly fertilises the fields, see, for instance, Norfolk Crop Rotation: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Norfolk-four-course-system https://www.britannica.com/topic/Norfolk-four-course-system.