Peter J. Welling III Professor Brewer Assignment 2 24 October 2021
Environmental Impact of Straw Utilization
A major topic of concern is the impact of Straw Utilization in China. This has been a growing problem and has serious potential consequences. With China expanding their agriculture sector and now being the largest producer of wheat in the world, they have a major responsibility to alter the extermination of their remaining crops in an alternative fashion. China also happens to be one of the most polluted countries in the world and the topic of burning straw adds to that continuing problem. There are many issues that are a result of this process, but also future solutions to help assist in damage that has been made to the environment and human development.
The environmental impact of straw utilization in China has had a significant impact in numerous ways. Following the harvest seasons many of the farmers exterminate their remaining crops by burning them off, rather than recycling them. This has created an enormous environmental problem for China leading to lots of smog and pollution in Northern, Eastern and Northeastern China. According to “Burning in Agriculture Landscapes: an emerging natural and human issue in China”, energy producing regions including Shanxi province in Northern China have cheap energy sources available to the residents. This causes the farmers to burn off the remaining straw in the open field rather than recycling it. In the regions with sparse population, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces, there is a great amount of straw to be burned. In these areas where the straw is being burned off, the air quality has significantly worsened and many harmful toxins are now released because of that. According to “Emission Characterization, environmental impact, and control measure of PM^2.5 emitted from agriculture crop residue burning in China” the harmful toxins of ethene, ethyne, propene, benzene, ethane, toluene, propane, alpha-pinene and 1-butene have all increased to significant levels that are dangerous and risk the result of climate change and poor health quality. According to a study in “Burning in Agriculture Landscapes: An Emerging Natural and Human Issue in China”, it investigated the summer and fall crop seasons during 2009 and 2010 and it found that the emissions from the burning were transported in various regions in China depending on the burning seasons. This had an immediate effect on visibility throughout the area and caused travel concerns. Even worse, when the temperature rises during the summer harvest, the organic matter in the soil is reduced and affects soil fertilization. This is due to the fact it reduces the soil water content and microbes, causing the soil to harden.
The effects of air pollution has led to other negative effects in the surrounding society. According to a study done by Wangyang Lai, et al, the impact of air pollution has an effect on cognitive health in china. This was conducted by linking households with PM^2.5 emissions taken from data on the fire activity. In the study, the wind direction played a major role in the cognitive test scores that were recorded. It found that upwind straw burning had a negative impact on people aged fifty-five and above and affected cognitive test scores by about 0.04 deviations. With these findings, it was concluded that they lead to other serious implications. In the article by Wangyang Lai, they suggested that serious health conditions including cardiovascular events, dementia and a decrease in life satisfaction is all connected to the air pollution that’s distributed from the burning of straw. It was concluded that a person who was impared by cognitive implications is 23 percent more likely to reach mortality. Using this evidence it is concluded that straw burning has a deeper effect on not just air pollution but on cognitive effects of people in the surrounding areas.
Further analyzing the complexity of this topic, it is much more serious than predicted. The rise of PM^2.5 toxins in the air creates many problems that must be addressed in the future. The first is how to contain the amount of greenhouse gas that gets released into the air. According to Gurraj Singh et al. the rise in sea level is something to be concerned over. He states that in the previous century the global temperature increased by a half of a degree and by the end of this century, it is expected to increase anywhere from 1.4 percent to 5.8 percent and the sea level would rise by 0.88m by the end of the century. This would cause numerous problems for farmers who have crops on the coast, the salt water would kill the harvest and the soil would be depleted. Another complex problem related to the burning of straw is the rise of temperatures along with the carbon dioxide levels. Sinnarong et al. conducted a study in Thailand and used historical data that dated from 1989 to 2009 for analyzing the effect climate change played on rice production. The results are in terms of mean production and it was found that there was a decrease in mean production by 4.56 percent to 33.77 percent. The increase in temperatures was the main focal point of these results. Carbon dioxide increase also plays a role in the effect on the decrease of production. Another study was conducted in Japan where they analyzed the levels of carbon dioxide. They predicted a yield improvement of around eight percent with increasing carbon dioxide concentrations.
Inorder to eliminate the negative effects of straw burning, alternatives must become adopted and implemented in the future. One of the alternatives is by using the straw as mulch. Since the straw is light in weight and has a neutral pH value it can be very effective in eliminating the use of chemicals and leads to less water utilization. According to Gurraj Singh et al, a field study was conducted on the effectiveness of using straw as mulch. It was concluded that straw mulching had a positive effect on water retention in the soil and on weed growth. Another alternative use is using the straw for energy purposes. According to Gurraj Singh et al, the straw can be converted into different forms of heat energy in the combustion process and ultimately used for electricity generation. A study was conducted by Cheewaphongphan et al, and their goal was to evaluate the straw being used to power small power plants in Thailand. It was concluded that the demand and supply of straw in relation to the spatial analysis had an efficiency of 29 percent. Indicating that the use of straw for energy is a definite alternative. The last alternative that could be pursued is to use straw for biogas production.
The scientific question the authors are trying to answer is what are the solutions to the problem of straw burning and how is it achievable. In all the articles, the authors discuss the problems that are caused due to burning the straw and the potential improvements it can have on society if solutions are implemented. There are multiple human development patterns the authors are investigating. They are studying the actions of the farmers following every harvest season and why they do it. The articles follow the amount of straw output after each year and the utilization rate to see how much is being burned off. For example, in the article Straw Utilization in China - Status and recommendations, it states that the production of straw in 2014 was 700 million tonnes and the utilization rate was approximately 80 percent. They also study the health of nearby citizens and discuss the complications that could affect them. In the article “Controlling Air Pollution from Straw Burning in China Calls for Efficient Recycling” it discusses the health of local people by saying “local residents were advised to stay indoors or wear protective masks when outdoors”. In respect to human development, Amartya Sen describes it as expanding the freedoms for humans. This is directly related to the burning of straw in China. Focusing on improving the process of burning straw, there are many positives that would affect human life. These include the new emerging markets revolving around future solutions and better environmental quality. According to the article “Straw Utilization in China - Status and Recommendations”, the increased use of straw as a material and fuel requires new business and marketing strategies. With more than two thousand people in Anhui province in 2015, more people are expected to join in the near future. Another improvement is the air quality and the environmental impact. China has put forward the Renewable Energy Development Plan where they projected the annual production of biogas to be 8 billion cubic meters in 2020. This will significantly improve the air quality in China, resulting in healthier people who are affected.
In context with the topic of straw burning in China and its numerous effects, there are many resourceful data science methods used inorder to illustrate the data in a powerful and innovative way. In the article “Straw Utilization in China” it displays many figures that involve tables and graphs which show a deeper understanding of the information being stressed. In table one, it shows the energy benefit of using straw as biofuel instead of open-field burning in 2020. In the graph it shows scenarios in regard to straw use and the percentage of straw converted to biomass energy. It gives the percentages to the straw use in regard to the biomass energy it outputs. It provides a baseline of 69 percent along with scenarios where the 69 percent stays constant with the two scenarios in the percentage of straw in use. In connection with the biomass energy output, the percentages increase with the scenarios, from 16 percent to 21 percent further meaning the amount of energy being translated to energy from the straw in use. Scenarios one and two show increased bioenergy conversion rates, in turn lower burning rates which pushes the total straw utilization rate to 85 percent. In the next part of the tables it illustrates the energy being saved compared with the baseline. It says the amount of straw as biomass energy is 27 million tonnes in scenario one and 55 million tonnes in scenario two. In the chart, it also displays additional content regarding annual air emissions due to straw burning in 2015. The pie charts show annual straw burning emissions similar to the 2015 annual anthropogenic emissions in China.
After studying the topic of straw burning and its effects, there are numerous questions that are generated in response to what has been done. The first comment is why has there been a lack of investment in adopting new techniques when it comes to the end of the harvest seasons? Although the farmers are in search of the cheapest alternative, the alternatives of using straw as mulch and also as energy should have a larger focus. Another question is what are the long term impacts if the burning continues and will it have effects in a larger setting? With its contribution to climate change, it could play a role in the overall world temperature rising and be a primary reason why the arctic is melting.
Citations Shi, Tingting, et al. “Burning in Agricultural Landscapes: An Emerging Natural and Human Issue in China.” Landscape Ecology, Springer Netherlands, 20 July 2014, link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10980-014-0060-9. Ren, Jiqin, et al. “Straw Utilization in China - Status and Recommendations.” Sustainability, 23 March 2019 Zhang, Hefeng, et al. “Emission Characterization, Environmental Impact, and Control Measure of Pm2.5 Emitted from Agricultural Crop Residue Burning in China.” Journal of Cleaner Production, 12 February 2017 Qu, Changsheng, et al. “Controlling Air Pollution from Straw Burning in China Calls for Efficient Recycling.” ACS Publications, 23 July 2012 Singh, Gurraj, et al. “Rice Straw Burning: A Review on Its Global Prevalence and the Sustainable Alternatives for Its Effective Mitigation.” Environmental Science and Pollution Research, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 1 May 2021, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11356-021-14163-3. Review on the Crop Straw Utilization Technology of China. http://article.ajoese.org/pdf/10.11648.j.ajese.20200404.12.pdf. Lai, Wangyang, et al. “Air Pollution and Cognitive Functions: Evidence from Straw Burning in China.” Wiley Online Library, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 24 May 2021, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ajae.12225. Zhou, Ying et al. A Comprehensive Biomass Burning … - Acp.copernicus.org. https://acp.copernicus.org/preprints/acp-2016-560/acp-2016-560-manuscript-version3.pdf.