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Earth can rescue the Earth : the importance of soil quality in the climate crisis The UN Conference on climate change takes place in Copenhagen from December 7th to 18th. The decisions of the conference will be of vital importance for the future of our planet. However, we must ask ourselves “whose voice will be heard in Copenhagen?” The voice of the financial powers which control most of the media? The voice of the powers of capital for which the common good does not appear to be a manifest concern? Are we going to leave it to those with the loudest voice to determine our future alone? The farmers of Sahel, who have been exposed to climate excesses for years, have something to bring to the present debate. We shall come back to them further on. But in order to better comprehend their contribution, we suggest starting by taking a look at the soil.
“We know more about the movements of celestial bodies than about the ground on which we stand”. Leonardo da Vinci “Take care of your soil and everything will be all right” Farmers’ proverb   There are a few things which have hardly changed since the days of Leonardo da Vinci 500 years ago. To many, the soil is but a mixture of earth and dust, but in reality it is one of themost extraordinary ecosystems on earth. Its millions of plants, bacteria, fungi, insects and other living organisms take part in a constant evolutionary process of building up and breaking down living organic matter. The soil is also the necessary starting point for whoever wants to produce food. The soil contains enormous quantities of carbon, mainly present in it as organic matter. On a planetary scale it holds at least twice as much carbon as the earth’s vegetation. However, over the past century industrial agriculture and the chemical fertiliser on which it depends, have generally neglected the importance of soil fertility and have caused massive losses of organic matter. A large part of that organic matter has been released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (carbonic gas or C02). |
