{"id":15022,"date":"2012-10-19T06:50:04","date_gmt":"2012-10-19T12:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=15022"},"modified":"2012-10-19T06:50:04","modified_gmt":"2012-10-19T12:50:04","slug":"family-planning-can-help-keep-our-lakes-blue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/family-planning-can-help-keep-our-lakes-blue\/","title":{"rendered":"Family Planning Can Help Keep Our Lakes Blue"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"algae<\/a><\/p>\n

A human population of 11 billion might turn Wisconsin\u2019s gorgeous lakes green. Not green as in environmentally sound, but green as in covered in slimy, stinky, toxic blue-green algae.<\/p>\n

Think I\u2019m exaggerating? Bullcrap. Or fertilizer<\/a>, to be more specific.<\/p>\n

Fertilizer \u2013 along with better irrigation and improved seed varieties \u2013 has allowed American farmers to feed the world. The \u201cGreen Revolution<\/a>\u201d \u2013 a history-shifting boost in agricultural production that saved millions from starvation \u2013 wouldn\u2019t have happened without chemical help.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, this modern miracle comes with a bad side-effect: toxic algae blooms. Fields are fertilized. Rain washes that fertilizer into waterways. Blue-green algae \u2013 also called cyanobacteria \u2013 loves fertilizer. It grows so much that ponds and lakes turn pea soup green. The blooms suck up all the oxygen. Other plants and fish die. So too do other animals.<\/p>\n

This summer, a Kansas rancher lost 22 cattle when they drank from an infested pond. Dogs die after swimming in the water. People get sick. When blue-green algae blooms close lakes, businesses that cater to families enjoying those lakes also close. Entire economies are affected.<\/p>\n

Climate change might make it worse. Blue-green algae loves warm water, and strong rainstorms can increase fertilizer runoff.<\/p>\n

Luckily, there are actions we can take. We can improve farming techniques to reduce fertilizer usage and runoff. We can protect waterways by leaving land around them untilled. And we can make universal contraceptive access a priority.<\/p>\n

I know what you\u2019re thinking: “This Seager guy is crazy. What does birth control have to do with blue-green algae?” Here\u2019s what: the planet has slightly more than 7 billion people right now. The United Nations projects that we could add up to another 4 billion by 2050. If there\u2019s one thing that everybody needs, it\u2019s food. America\u2019s farmers provide it. That won\u2019t change \u2013 but the number of hungry people they\u2019re feeding will.<\/p>\n

The more people there are to feed, the more food we need to produce. The more production we need, the more land we\u2019ll likely cultivate and fertilizer we\u2019ll spread. More fertilizer means more runoff. And more runoff means more toxic algae blooms.<\/p>\n

There are an estimated 222 million women in developing nations who want to avoid pregnancy but don\u2019t have modern contraception. In the United States, nearly half of pregnancies are unplanned. If we make sure all women have access to family planning, we can slow down population growth, take some pressure off of our farmland, and help reduce the fertilizer flowing into our lakes. It\u2019s not the only action we must take. But it might be the simplest piece to a very complex puzzle.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll never eliminate toxic algae blooms entirely. But with a little hard work and planning \u2013 including family planning \u2013 we just might keep our lakes blue.<\/p>\n

\"john<\/a>John Seager is President of Population Connection<\/a>, the nation\u2019s largest grassroots population organization. He can be reached at john@popconnect.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Image credit:<\/strong> eutrophication&hypoxia<\/a> via photopin<\/a> cc<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A human population of 11 billion might turn Wisconsin\u2019s gorgeous lakes green. Not green as in environmentally sound, but green as in covered in slimy, stinky, toxic blue-green algae.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":15024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,21],"tags":[18,6128,6129,2441,844,888,104],"yoast_head":"\nToxic Algae Blooms & Family Planning<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The growth of toxic algae blooms on fresh water is one of the most obvious signs that the human population has exceeded the planet's carrying capacity.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/family-planning-can-help-keep-our-lakes-blue\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Toxic Algae Blooms & Family Planning\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The growth of toxic algae blooms on fresh water is one of the most obvious signs that the human population has exceeded the planet's carrying capacity.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/family-planning-can-help-keep-our-lakes-blue\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sustainablog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-10-19T12:50:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/algae-bloom.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"334\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guest Author\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Guest Author\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/family-planning-can-help-keep-our-lakes-blue\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/family-planning-can-help-keep-our-lakes-blue\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Guest Author\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/295040e3a0f0edbacb25f149ecdda102\"},\"headline\":\"Family Planning Can Help Keep Our Lakes Blue\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-10-19T12:50:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-10-19T12:50:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/family-planning-can-help-keep-our-lakes-blue\/\"},\"wordCount\":503,\"commentCount\":4,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"agriculture\",\"algae blooms\",\"blue-green algae\",\"family planning\",\"fertilizer\",\"population\",\"Water\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Culture\",\"Science\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/family-planning-can-help-keep-our-lakes-blue\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/family-planning-can-help-keep-our-lakes-blue\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/family-planning-can-help-keep-our-lakes-blue\/\",\"name\":\"Toxic Algae Blooms & Family Planning\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-10-19T12:50:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-10-19T12:50:04+00:00\",\"description\":\"The growth of toxic algae blooms on fresh water is one of the most obvious signs that the human population has exceeded the planet's carrying capacity.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/family-planning-can-help-keep-our-lakes-blue\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/family-planning-can-help-keep-our-lakes-blue\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/family-planning-can-help-keep-our-lakes-blue\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Family Planning Can Help Keep Our Lakes Blue\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/\",\"name\":\"Sustainablog\",\"description\":\"Since 2003, Sustainablog has been one of the pioneers of sustainability news online.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Sustainablog\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cropped-sblog-logo_3b.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cropped-sblog-logo_3b.jpg\",\"width\":200,\"height\":142,\"caption\":\"Sustainablog\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/295040e3a0f0edbacb25f149ecdda102\",\"name\":\"Guest Author\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cbf22ef60cba3080be1353f11cc00d9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cbf22ef60cba3080be1353f11cc00d9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Guest Author\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/author\/guestauthor\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Toxic Algae Blooms & Family Planning","description":"The growth of toxic algae blooms on fresh water is one of the most obvious signs that the human population has exceeded the planet's carrying capacity.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/family-planning-can-help-keep-our-lakes-blue\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Toxic Algae Blooms & Family Planning","og_description":"The growth of toxic algae blooms on fresh water is one of the most obvious signs that the human population has exceeded the planet's carrying capacity.","og_url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/family-planning-can-help-keep-our-lakes-blue\/","og_site_name":"Sustainablog","article_published_time":"2012-10-19T12:50:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":500,"height":334,"url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/algae-bloom.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Guest Author","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Guest Author","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/family-planning-can-help-keep-our-lakes-blue\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/family-planning-can-help-keep-our-lakes-blue\/"},"author":{"name":"Guest Author","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/295040e3a0f0edbacb25f149ecdda102"},"headline":"Family Planning Can Help Keep Our Lakes Blue","datePublished":"2012-10-19T12:50:04+00:00","dateModified":"2012-10-19T12:50:04+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/family-planning-can-help-keep-our-lakes-blue\/"},"wordCount":503,"commentCount":4,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization"},"keywords":["agriculture","algae blooms","blue-green algae","family planning","fertilizer","population","Water"],"articleSection":["Culture","Science"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/family-planning-can-help-keep-our-lakes-blue\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/family-planning-can-help-keep-our-lakes-blue\/","url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/family-planning-can-help-keep-our-lakes-blue\/","name":"Toxic Algae Blooms & Family Planning","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-10-19T12:50:04+00:00","dateModified":"2012-10-19T12:50:04+00:00","description":"The growth of toxic algae blooms on fresh water is one of the most obvious signs that the human population has exceeded the planet's carrying capacity.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/family-planning-can-help-keep-our-lakes-blue\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/family-planning-can-help-keep-our-lakes-blue\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/family-planning-can-help-keep-our-lakes-blue\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Family Planning Can Help Keep Our Lakes Blue"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/","name":"Sustainablog","description":"Since 2003, Sustainablog has been one of the pioneers of sustainability news online.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization","name":"Sustainablog","url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cropped-sblog-logo_3b.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cropped-sblog-logo_3b.jpg","width":200,"height":142,"caption":"Sustainablog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/295040e3a0f0edbacb25f149ecdda102","name":"Guest Author","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cbf22ef60cba3080be1353f11cc00d9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cbf22ef60cba3080be1353f11cc00d9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Guest Author"},"url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/author\/guestauthor\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15022"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}