What is the Green Revolution? What have been its limitations and ...

[fahad]

What is the Green Revolution? What have been its limitations and its gains?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Describe three methods of land disposal that were used in the 1970s. How has their use changed over time?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

[T4T]

Answer to Question 1

The Green Revolution was the implementation of the technologies (described in Question 1) developed in the industrialized world to increase agricultural productivity. The Green Revolution was dependent on the development of crop varieties that would produce more food. This led to selecting plants that partitioned the energy captured from the Sun differently than normal. Plants with less root material, less vegetative material, and more seed material were chosen for breeding. This selection process resulted in the need to increase herbicide use: weeds would compete more effectively for sunlight. These new plants also had an increased need for fertilizer and irrigation because the root system was less extensive.

Answer to Question 2

In the early 1970s, there were three primary land-disposal methods: (1) deep-well injection, (2) surface impoundments, and (3) landfills. With the conscientious implementation of safeguards, each of these methods has some merit, and each is still heavily used for hazardous-waste disposal. Without adequate regulations or enforcement, however, contamination of groundwater is inevitable. The total amount of deep-well injection has declined over the years, from 685 million tons in 1988 to 116 million tons in 2001 (representing 5.4 of on-land disposal).