Healthy soil ecosystems can store “more carbon and for longer periods than above ground vegetation.” In fact, soils can “contain twice as much organic carbon as vegetation.” Some scientists estimate that in as little as 10 years, we could reduce atmospheric carbon levels down to 350 ppm simply by abandoning conventional agricultural practices that abuse the soil (The Carbon Underground brings down-to-earth solution to climate change).
“Studies suggest that regenerating soil by turning our backs on industrial farming holds the key to tackling climate change” (Our best shot at cooling the planet might be right under our feet). We need to understand how carbon farming could halt climate change. “New ways of digging the dirt could both deliver more food and slow climate change. And farmers in the developing world are making a difference” (Farms can grow more and slow climate change). “Better farming techniques across the world could lead to storage of 31 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide a year, data shows” (Improving soil could keep world within 1.5C heating target, research suggests).
Soil is the second biggest reservoir of carbon on the planet, next to the oceans. It holds four times more carbon than all the plants and trees in the world. But human activity like deforestation and industrial farming – with its intensive ploughing, monoculture and heavy use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides – is ruining our soils at breakneck speed, killing the organic materials that they contain. Now 40% of agricultural soil is classed as “degraded” or “seriously degraded”. In fact, industrial farming has so damaged our soils that a third of the world’s farmland has been destroyed in the past four decades.
