As natural disasters rise in frequency and intensity, already strained state budgets struggle with disaster relief. Moving into an uncertain future of climate change, what can states do to protect themselves?
NASA has been studying debris hazards to (and caused by) spacecraft for over a decade, and there is a host of international organizations involved with the dense thicket of regulations governing environmental issues in outer space. Of particular concern is debris, more colloquially known as “space junk.”
Since the Green Revolution in the 1960s to 1980s, which introduced high-yielding varieties of crops, improved fertilizer, irrigation, and pesticides to agriculture in developing countries, South Asia’s appetite for inorganic fertilizer has not stopped. In 2012-3, fertilizer consumption in this area accounts for 18 percent of the world’s total usage. India alone consumed 28.1 million tons of fertilizer in 2010, making it number two in the world, after China. However, farmers in South Asia do not use the appropriate ratio of nitrogen (N), phosphate (P), and potash (K) fertilizer that would increase their yields.