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NewSecurityBeat

The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
Showing posts by Karen Mancl.
  • Soil’s Key Role in Fighting Climate Change in U.S. and Chinese Agriculture: The Wisdom of Dr. Rattan Lal

    ›
    China Environment Forum  //  Guest Contributor  //  March 9, 2023  //  By Karen Mancl
    Vineyard,Rows,Flow,Down,A,Hill,,With,Green,Grass,And

    Soil degradation affects one-third of the Earth’s surface, triggering dust storms, floods, and landslides. It is also a global threat to our food supply, and diminishes the soil’s ability to sequester carbon to mitigate climate change. China has only 0.21 hectares of agricultural land per person, which is well below the global average. Worse yet, over 40 percent of that land is already degraded.  

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  • Rice: A Recipe for Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the U. S. and China?

    ›
    China Environment Forum  //  January 17, 2023  //  By Karen Mancl
    Rice header photo

    Go to the Arkansas Rice Festival in Wiener, Arkansas and you will discover how delicious – and diversely flavored – this cereal grain can be. Savory, sweet, or even spicy: Each dish at the festival’s annual rice recipe contest shows the many ways to prepare this international food staple.

    Why look to Arkansas for rice? The state produces 4 million tons of it every year, which is nearly half the rice grown in the United States.  But that U.S. annual total is dwarfed by the amount produced by China, which at 207 million tons is the world’s largest rice producer.  It’s also natural that the world looks to China for rice; genomic mapping has suggested that cultivated rice was first grown in the Pearl River valley in southern China.

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  • The Forgotten Greenhouse Gas: Nitrous Oxide as an Issue for U.S. and Chinese Agriculture

    ›
    China Environment Forum  //  December 1, 2022  //  By Karen Mancl
    Luannan,County,,Hebei,Province,,China,-,March,9,,2021:,The

    During the November COP27 climate talks in Egypt, Presidents Xi and Biden agreed to restart bilateral climate talks that would build on the clean energy and the green and climate-resilient agriculture priorities highlighted in the U.S.-China Climate Crisis Statement and the U.S.-China Glasgow Declaration. While details remain to be ironed out, the renewed dialogue could open up a new area of collaboration around greenhouse gas emissions from food production, targeting an oft-overlooked long-lived climate pollutant, nitrous oxide (N2O).  

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  • Biodegradable Plastic in Chinese and U.S. Agriculture: Hero or Villain?

    ›
    China Environment Forum  //  July 28, 2022  //  By Karen Mancl

    Agriculture,,Field,,Mulch,Film,Biodegradable,Plastic

    Biodegradable plastic mulch seems like a dream come true for organic farming. Its use eliminates the need for herbicides and pesticides, conserves water, extends the growing season, and allows for the harvesting of clean fruits and vegetables. This mulch also lightens the load of farmers. Rather than assuming the expense and labor to gather up and haul plastic mulch to a landfill, farmers can till biodegradable mulch safely back into the soil. Yet these benefits will only be realized if biodegradable mulch films are 100 percent degradable by microbes in nature, and if they break down to carbon dioxide, water, and minerals without damaging the soil. 

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  • Microplastics in Soil – Small Size Big Impact on U.S. and Chinese Agriculture

    ›
    China Environment Forum  //  Guest Contributor  //  April 28, 2022  //  By Karen Mancl
    farmers are planting sweet potato seeds in the fields in Hebei Province, China

    Collecting plastic fragments was a game he played while helping his parents farm when growing up in rural Shandong Province, says Dr. Zhao Kaiguang, who is now an associate professor of Environment and Natural Resources at The Ohio State University: “I wanted to collect the most, but did not realize the serious negative implications of leaving plastic in the soil.”

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  • The Dirt on Agricultural Plastic Pollution of the Soil in the U.S. and China

    ›
    China Environment Forum  //  Guest Contributor  //  March 10, 2022  //  By Karen Mancl
    Cultivation of strawberry

    Farmers in the United States and China who grow strawberries, melons, and other fruits and vegetables often face the same arduous challenge—after harvesting they must gather up and dispose of the plastic mulch used to increase production. After months in the hot sun, the plastic sheeting starts to shred and break apart, leaving fragments behind in the soil. 

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  • U.S. and Chinese Aquaculture Taps into a Carbon-Free Geothermal Energy Source

    ›
    China Environment Forum  //  October 28, 2021  //  By Karen Mancl
    Water,Vapor,Rising,From,A,Hot,Spring,Under,Jangbaek,Falls

    From Friday night fish fries to shrimp cocktails, people sheltering in place have learned how to cook their favorite dishes at home. As a result U.S. seafood sales have doubled during the pandemic. Globally, the United States ranks fifth in seafood consumption and China—where hunger for seafood has skyrocketed with rising incomes—is number one. While wild fisheries are on the decline, aquaculture is expanding to increase the global food supply.

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  • China and U.S. Aquaculture Open Doors to Invaders

    ›
    China Environment Forum  //  Guest Contributor  //  August 26, 2021  //  By Karen Mancl
    Flying,Asian,Carp,Massively,Jump,Out,Of,The,Water

    “Gui Jie” in Beijing, meaning Ghost Street, is dedicated to crayfish and is filled with towering bright red crayfish statues. While it might just seem like a show for tourists, the Chinese are responsible for 90 percent of the world’s crayfish consumption and crayfish is on menus throughout the country. Between 2006 and 2016, crayfish production more than tripled to 850,000 tons. Surprisingly, crayfish is not native to China but the Chinese began raising them when aquaculture began expanding in the 1980s. 

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