- Billions of years ago, the first soils served as a cradle for terrestrial life. Today, the land beneath our feet underpins a multitrillion-dollar, global agricultural industry and provides food for nearly 8 billion humans, along with countless wild and domestic species. But soils are in global crisis.
- We are now living in the “danger zone” for four of the nine planetary boundaries: climate change, biodiversity, land-use change, and biogeochemical flows. All four are intimately linked to soil health. Soils hold 80% of all the carbon stored on land.
- Deteriorating soil health is already gravely impacting lives and livelihoods. Land degradation due to human activities costs around 10% of global gross product. When combined with climate change effects, soil degradation could reduce crop yields by 10% globally by 2050.
- There is an inevitable delay between recognizing global problems and enacting solutions, and seeing the resulting boost to ecosystem services. That’s why we must act now if we are to leverage soil ecosystems in the fight against disastrous global environmental change.
Billions of years ago, the first soils paved the way for life on land. Now, this unassuming terrain beneath our feet underpins a multitrillion-dollar, global agricultural industry and provides food for billions of humans, as well as countless wild and domestic species.
Soil is central to our relationship with the land and plays a vital role in nearly every key Earth system process responsible for keeping conditions on our planet stable. Civilization, humanity, and other terrestrial life are all dependent on good, ongoing soil health for their survival.
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