Modern Farming Methods Have Slowed Global Warming, Study Says

High-yield farming methods that use fertilizers, hybrid seeds, and pesticides have “massively slowed” global warming by enabling farmers to grow more food per hectare and thus avoid far worse deforestation than has already occurred, according to a new study. Researchers from the Carnegie Institution calculated that the green revolution has saved 1.5 billion acres of forests — an area one-and-a-half times the size of the U.S. — from being chopped down in recent decades. Preserving that forest has kept the equivalent of 600 billion tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere — roughly a third of all human greenhouse gas emissions from 1850 to 2005, the study said. Lead researcher Steven Davis said the use of petroleum-based fertilizers and other emissions from the green revolution “are outweighed by the indirect emissions avoided by leaving unmanaged lands as they are.” Critics of the study contend, however, that it did not take into account the environmental harm caused by intensive use of pesticides, fertilizers, and industrial farming techniques.