Lal on World Soil Carbon

To soil scientists such as Lal, humanity's recent history with dirt constitutes a triple whammy. All the carbon that's been removed from soils has helped to push up carbon concentrations elsewhere in the biosphere, whether in water, where it contributes to the acidification of the oceans, or in the air, where it contributes to the baleful effects of climate change. As soils have lost carbon, they also have lost a good deal of their productivity. They store less water, harbor fewer microorganisms, are less able to transfer nutrients to plant roots, require more fertilizer. In their impoverished form, they're also less able to store carbon than they once were. They've gone from sink, in many cases, to source.
That's a big problem, Lal says, but he is one to see soil's cup as half full, rather than as half empty: Saving the planet's soils, he says, may also mitigate at least some of the impacts of climate change. And it's vital, too, for the most visceral of reasons.
"We have 6.7 billion people now," he says. "We'll have 10 billion in a few more decades. How are we going to feed them if we don't take care of our soils?"