Nitrogen and Climate Change An Explosive Story

It is the perfect storm. Limited food, water and energy unequally spread between an expanding population, and a warming climate as the bitter icing on the cake. In all these global challenges nitrogen has a leading role to play. In Nitrogen and Climate Change, Dave Reay looks at just how hard-wired into all of human civilisation nitrogen is, and whether the future will see it as our quiet savior or the toxic villain of the piece. Its story is of the peculiar and the mundane, of water turning red and people turning blue. It is one of climate friend and pollution foe, of meaty feasts and looming famine. If your main thought of nitrogen is as a boring corner of the periodic table, then it is time to look again.

Dave Reay is Professor of Carbon Management at the University of Edinburgh, UK. He has worked on nitrogen and climate change for over 20 years. His research has taken him from stormy seas in the Southern Ocean to evil-smelling Scottish ditches. He has written several popular books on climate change and directs the award-winning Masters in Carbon Management at Edinburgh.

1. A Brief History of Nitrogen
2. Nitrogen and the Anthropocene
3. Nitrous oxide as a driver of Climate Change
4. Nitrous oxide Sources
5. Airborne Nitrogen and Climate Change
6. Terrestrial Nitrogen and Climate Change
7. Freshwater Nitrogen and Climate Change
8. Marine Nitrogen and Climate Change
9. Agricultural Nitrogen and Climate Change Mitigation
10. Nitrogen in Food and Climate Change Mitigation
11. Nitrogen and Biofuels
12. Nitrogen and Geoengineering
13. Nitrogen and Climate Change Adaptation
Conclusion