It is estimated that we lose about 10 million hectares of cropland each year (opens in new window). Research by University of Sheffield’s Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures (opens in new window) estimates that the world has lost a third of its arable land just in the last 40 years alone. But while the organic matter in the land typically holds about three times more carbon than the atmosphere, our topsoils have been rapidly depleting and eroding away.
Normally, CO 2 in our atmosphere is cycled back into the land and oceans via natural processes like photosynthesis. We need to reverse the damage we’ve been doing to our soil. Now some of the latest research is starting to show that nurturing the living biology of the earth-the biology of the very soil beneath our feet-is exactly what we might want to do to address climate change and the cataclysmic co-catastrophes coming with it: food insecurity and shortages of clean drinking water. Indigenous people the world over have always described the earth as a living organism that must be honored and protected. We now need effective ways to to pull excess carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere as well.Īnd that’s where one of the oldest religious concepts-honoring and respecting Mother Earth-meets the most up-to-date modern science and holds hands. But we’ve passed the point where that strategy alone will solve the problem.
It’s about lowering emissions that contribute to global warming-and that’s essential. When a person starts to embrace the importance of climate change, the first thing that comes to mind certainly isn’t the earth beneath our feet.
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