How the use of chemical fertilizers can be harmful?
All previous answers look good… A further point. Inorganic fertilisers generally take large amounts of energy to produce (and transport), and that comes in the main from fossil fuels. Those fossil fuels release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Although that CO2 is usually a long way from the farm or garden, it is still a harm being done to the environment by the use of chemical fertilisers. This really applies even if the chemicals are waste products of other processes — their sale as fertilisers subsidises the other processes. It is ironic that we use vast amounts of energy to make fertilisers and often pollute natural habitats with them by over-use — while at the same time throwing vast amounts of natural fertilisers from human waste down the sewer, and either destroying them, or polluting natural habitats with those too! And we call ourselves intelligent… Another effect not mentioned is where fertilisers are used on natural vegetation, such as natural grassland. In every na
