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| Titel |
Globalization of agricultural pollution due to international trade |
| VerfasserIn |
C. O'Bannon, J. Carr, D. A. Seekell, P. D'Odorico |
| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| ISSN |
1027-5606
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| Digitales Dokument |
URL |
| Erschienen |
In: Hydrology and Earth System Sciences ; 18, no. 2 ; Nr. 18, no. 2 (2014-02-10), S.503-510 |
| Datensatznummer |
250120273
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 copernicus.org/hess-18-503-2014.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Almost 90% of freshwater resources consumed globally are used to produce
plant and animal commodities. Water-scarce countries can balance their water
needs by importing food from other countries. This process, known as virtual
water transfer, represents the externalization of water use. The volume and
geographic reach of virtual water transfers is increasing, but little is
known about how these transfers redistribute the environmental costs of
agricultural production. The grey water footprint quantifies the
environmental costs of virtual water transfers. The grey water footprint is
calculated as the amount of water necessary to reduce nitrogen
concentrations from fertilizers and pesticides released into streams and
aquifers to allowed standards. We reconstructed the global network of
virtual grey water transfers for the period 1986–2010 based on
international trade data and grey water footprints for 309 commodities. We
tracked changes in the structure of the grey water transfer network with
network and inequality statistics. Pollution is increasing and is becoming
more strongly concentrated in only a handful of countries. The global
external grey water footprint, the pollution created by countries outside of
their borders, increased 136% during the period. The extent of
externalization of pollution is highly unequal between countries, and most of
this inequality is due to differences in social development status. Our
results demonstrate a growing globalization of pollution due to virtual
water transfers. |
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