This topic contains a solution. Click here to go to the answer

Author Question: Describe the differences between subsistence and modern agriculture. What are the major components ... (Read 56 times)

shofmannx20

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 562
Describe the differences between subsistence and modern agriculture. What are the major components of the agricultural revolution? What are the environmental costs of each?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

What two laws pertaining to the disposal of hazardous wastes were passed in the early 1970s? Describe how the passage of the laws shifted pollution from one part of the environment to another.
 
  What will be an ideal response?



Related Topics

Need homework help now?

Ask unlimited questions for free

Ask a Question
Marked as best answer by a Subject Expert

bob

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 343
Answer to Question 1

Subsistence farmers focus on growing food for a small number of individuals to survive, whereas in modern agriculture, large plots of land are farmed with primarily one type of foodstuff in order to feed massive amounts of people.
The major components of the agricultural revolution are infrastructure, machinery, fertilizers and pesticides, irrigation, and the discovery of high-yield plants. With infrastructure comes buildings and technology, which can have environmental consequences. Similarly, machinery increases efficiency in farming, but it can also add greenhouse emissions to the atmosphere and cause soil compaction and other destruction. Fertilizers and pesticides have also increased production but have environmentally devastating impacts because of resistance, contamination of water, and eutrophication. Irrigation has allowed areas that were previously not farmable to be farmed, but has depleted ground water resources significantly. Finally high-yield plants, like those that are genetically modified, have known and unknown environmental impacts. Possible allergic reactions in food-sensitive individuals and loss of wild species have been speculated upon.

Answer to Question 2

The Clean Air and Clean Water Acts and their subsequent amendments remain cornerstones of environmental legislation. However, their passage in the early 1970s left an enormous loophole. If you can't vent wastes into the atmosphere or flush them into waterways, what do you do with them? Industry turned to land disposal, which was essentially unregulated at the time, as an expedient alternative. Indiscriminate air and water disposal became indiscriminate land disposal. Thus, in retrospect, we see that the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, for all their benefits in improving air and water quality, also succeeded in transferring pollutants from one part of the environment to another.




shofmannx20

  • Member
  • Posts: 562
Reply 2 on: Jul 15, 2018
Thanks for the timely response, appreciate it


TheDev123

  • Member
  • Posts: 332
Reply 3 on: Yesterday
Gracias!

 

Did you know?

This year, an estimated 1.4 million Americans will have a new or recurrent heart attack.

Did you know?

Approximately one in three babies in the United States is now delivered by cesarean section. The number of cesarean sections in the United States has risen 46% since 1996.

Did you know?

In most cases, kidneys can recover from almost complete loss of function, such as in acute kidney (renal) failure.

Did you know?

Alcohol acts as a diuretic. Eight ounces of water is needed to metabolize just 1 ounce of alcohol.

Did you know?

Multiple sclerosis is a condition wherein the body's nervous system is weakened by an autoimmune reaction that attacks the myelin sheaths of neurons.

For a complete list of videos, visit our video library