Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
fossil fuel-based inputs, livestock production, soil erosion, land
conversion and deforestation. Agriculture, the second largest
industrial sector, directly accounts for approximately 14% of
global greenhouse gas emissions and indirectly for an addi-
tional 17% of emissions (IPCC, 2007). Hence, the agricul-
tural sector acts both as the contributor to the climate change
and,through adjustment in practices, as a potential mitigating
and adaptive force (Figure 6.1). Research and development of
new technologies have always been important to agricultural
production to achieve the goal of increasing output per unit of
land, labour and other input. The need of agricultural innova-
tion has become even more apparent with the emergence of the
issue of climate change. Here, we describe the potential role
that biotechnology and other advanced agricultural practices
can play in climate change mitigation and adaptation.
6.2
Industrial agriculture and the climate change
In the twenty-first century, climate change is one of the most
serious and extensive challenges faced by the modern world
and, as per the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it is
mainly caused by the upsurge of the greenhouse gases in the
Earth's atmosphere. Greenhouse gases are constituents of the
atmosphere (both natural and anthropogenic) that absorb and
emit radiations at specific wavelengths within the spectrum
of infrared radiation emitted by the Earth's surface, the atmo-
sphere and clouds (IPCC, 2007). The primary greenhouse gases
in the Earth's atmosphere include water vapour (H
2
O), carbon
dioxide (CO
2
), nitrous oxide (N
2
O), methane (CH
4
) and ozone
(O
3
). Certain man-made greenhouse gases such as the halocar-
bons and other chlorine and bromine containing substances
are also present in the atmosphere besides sulphur hexafluo-
ride (SF
6
), hydrofluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons. Infrared
opacity of the atmosphere increases with increased levels of the
greenhouse gases, an imbalance that can only be remunerated
by an increase in the temperature of the surface-troposphere
system. This phenomenon is termed as the greenhouse effect
(IPCC, 2007). With the modernisation of the society, the level
of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere has increased,
leading to an increase in anthropogenic changes in the climate.
According to Yohe and Tol (2007), due to the increase in green-
house gas emissions, global temperatures could rise by 2-3°C
by 2050, resulting in the rise of sea levels and a change in the
prototype of vegetation and animal migration.
