I would say that, for most of human history, soil has consistently ranked in the top five of the most important things found on Earth. I'm pretty confident in that one.Quietly and modestly, soil has done two really important things. One should be evident, the other maybe not.
I am, of course, speaking about allowing plants to grow and…. Storing carbon. To illustrate that second point, consider that cumultivalty all the world’s soils contain more carbon than the atmosphere and all of Earth’s vegetation combined. For millennia our forests, our plains, all of our natural ecosystems have pulled carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and, through time, growth and decay, incorporated it into rich, sustaining soils. This amounts to massive carbon banks, locking away carbon atoms and molecules through a network of roots, fungi, and decaying organic matter.
Unfortunately, over the last few centuries we've been making carbon withdrawals much too rapidly and frequently.
As populations have grown, so have agricultural industries and deforestation. This has led to the steady and perilous depletion of soil carbon, which doesn't just accelerate climate change, but also leaves soils less fertile, less drought resistant and less able to sustain plants and forests over the long term. This has turned the science of rebuilding soil carbon reserves into a crucial one.
And that, dear reader, brings us to today’s good thing.
