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[martinuzz]

We have a right wing Wilders government.

Their basic government agreement: Farmers are allowed to emit unlimited amounts of nitrogen at 130km/h.
To compensate, we will throw all black people out of our country with more than 130km/h so they can go and emit their stinky foreigner farts elsewhere.

[Egan_BW]

What do you mean by nitrogen? Isn't nitrogen gas harmless? Or do you mean nitrogen in solid stuff, like fertilizer? Then "emit" would be a strange word, that's usually associated with gasses.

[dragdeler]

Mainly too much meat production, lots of the fecal matter is simply strewn on the fields to get rid of it, also nobody in the industry is that concerned about overfertilization, besides lowering yields or overspending. So too much nitrogen gets fixed in the soil. It's also problematic for aquatic life.

[martinuzz]

'Nitrogen emission' is a BIG theme in the EU. It's about fixed nitrogen in fertilizers, but also nitrogenous emissions by building projects, industry etc etc.
Out late elections were won by pro-farmer anti-EU populists and anti-foreigner anti-EU populists.

The 130km/h is an inside joke. Our last government reduced the maximum speed on highways from 130 to 100, to reduce CO2 and nitrogen emissions.
Our new government cancels that and brings it back to 130.

[McTraveller]

I think it's more amusing that the emissions rate was quoted as a speed (kilometers per hour), which is a fairly odd unit to measure emissions.

I just have this silly image of farmers, cackling wildly as they are "emitting" while riding fast-moving vehicles.

[Maximum Spin]

What do you mean by nitrogen? Isn't nitrogen gas harmless? Or do you mean nitrogen in solid stuff, like fertilizer? Then "emit" would be a strange word, that's usually associated with gasses.

Nitrogen gas is harmless, but various nitrogen compounds can cause air and water pollution. In the air the main issue is nitrogen oxides, called NO_x, but farming is not a very significant source; there used to be much more of them in the air from industrial pollution, but pollution controls have reduced this to a minor problem. Although ammonia and nitrates used in farming can break down and release NO_x over time, they are highly water-soluble and so tend not to stay resident in the soil long enough, so the main issue with farming is runoff. Under some circumstances there are worries about groundwater quality, but the main concern driving laws is the effect it has on fishery production - the extra fixed nitrogen washing into surface waters tends to drive growth of large amounts of algae which can deplete other nutrients from the water, especially when they decay, which consumes oxygen and can lead to "dead zones".

Fixed nitrogen in soil isn't a major issue either; extremely heavy application can make the soil acidic but this is rarely a problem except in drought conditions when there is nothing at all to transport the nitrate away. For the same reason, dry conditions are also when the breakdown into NO_x is greatest, which obviously removes it from the soil, although I understand it can't be too dry because the microbes responsible need to, you know, be able to live. (Acidic soil also suppresses them.) For example, those dry valleys in California are often said to be where NO_x emissions from farming are highest, although of course even there it's nothing compared to the industrial emissions of a few decades ago.

[martinuzz]

Grrrrrrr. Fuck you Avast!

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