Could+Switchgrass+Help+China's+Air+Quality?

__** Could Switchgrass help China’s air quality? Science News September 6, 2017 **__

**Summary:** Because of the large amounts of soil erosion, which plays a role in China’s poor air pollution, agronomists are turning to alternative methods to improve the air quality. The Loess Plateau is the major source of this erosion, so they proposed using switchgrass, which fertilizes the soil and can also be used as revenue to the farmers. They chose switchgrass because it has a large amount of biomass and needs limited irrigation and fertilizer. However, it has already been introduced to China and has not caught on as a biomass crop yet. The goal is to just at least begin to reverse the thousands of years of erosion caused by intensive farming.

**How the article relates to the source:** This article relates to class because of the tragedy of the commons (12). For years the land has been exploited by the public in order to make money. The situation is a case of output pollution control (18) since the agronomists are attempting to reverse years of land manipulation that has led to such severe soil erosion and air pollution. Researchers, agronomists, and environmentalists are also using agroforestry (25) by hand planting trees in addition to the switchgrass. Since the people rely so heavily on the land it is an imminent issue that needs to be resolved, especially because it is a factor in much of China’s air pollution as well.

**My opinion:** I think it is good that people are beginning to take more action in terms of China’s pollution in combination with farming. However, I think this alone will not work. The goal is to continue farming which means things would eventually revert back to how they currently are. I also don’t think this will have a huge impact on air pollution because there still are coal burning particles, and not everyone will use switchgrass or continue to use it if it doesn't work. The pollution needs to be tackled by a much bigger plan because the pollution is so bad that people can't see and their [|health] is suffering.

**An environmental law:** The environmental law that applies to this best is the Farm Act of 1985 which established a strategy for reducing soil erosion. In the US farmers had to not use some land for saving grass and trees for 10 years. This is not quite the level things have reached in China but it is a group effort with the goal of reaching an equivalent effect. It also applies to the Clean Air Act of 1963, which set standards for pollution levels or limiting emissions of pollutants based on current technology. It also aligns with the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 because it declares that pollution should be prevented, which is what this switch to switchgrass would be doing.