THE VIRTUE OF SOIL
Climate change is a complex issue, involving and impacting all of our systems, man-made and natural. To solve the challenge of our greenhouse gas emissions (GHG’s), we tend to concentrate mostly on CO2 and methane emissions from transportation (oil and gas), the built environment (natural gas and coal), and electricity (natural gas and coal). By switching to non-GHG emitting sources for electricity, heating, and fuel such as solar, wind, geothermal, hydro and possibly biomass and nuclear, we can bend the emissions curve down from its current trajectory while maintaining a viable economy and high quality of life.
But attention must also be paid to sources of “draw down” – natural and perhaps even technological approaches to pulling our GHG’s out of the atmosphere (sequestration). Both land and water function as “carbon sinks” with their organic or photosynthetic materials (plant life) using atmospheric carbon and light from the sun to grow. It is a brilliant chemistry. The oceans, however, are reaching the limits of their ability to sink carbon (http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/527/oceans-climate-change.html). So, too, is atmospheric CO2 reaching dangerous levels, currently over 400 PPM (parts per million) – far higher than at any point during the past 400,000 years (http://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resources/24/). But there IS a potential resource that currently lacks enough carbon and, with the right practices, has the potential to sequester more: soil.
The concept of soil as a pathway to mitigate atmospheric CO2 and, hence, climate change is not entirely new, but it is garnering renewed attention. Practitioners such as Allan Savory (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpTHi7O66pI) tout the virtues of holistic grassland management and grazing as a strategy to reintroduce carbon into the soil. Soil scientists in conjunction with non-profits such as the Marin Carbon Project (http://www.marincarbonproject.org) are seeing encouraging results from “carbon farming” practices, including the application of compost to grazing lands. And Michael Pollan, food guru, has made a short film (featured on this page) in conjunction with Diana Donlon (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HeZTSnbIro) extolling the potential of healthier, more organically rich soils to help our climate problem as well as yielding healthier, more nutritious foods and creating a more drought and flood resilient landscape.
In combination with healthy forestry practices, soil health sounds like a win/win/win: better food, ecosystem resilience, cooler climate. We look forward to more research on the subject and broader adoption of practices. The potential benefits are enormous, not the least of which is that it can buy us time.