This week's conversation is going to get dirty! Soil dirty! While in previous week's we have explored the different ways in which we can socially engage to create change - such as advocacy, persisting, and reframing - this week we'll explore the importance of understanding and including the natural systems we have been neglecting for centuries in our climate strategies. Although the climate crisis is a man-made problem, it stems from our disconnection to the land, so it is only natural that an important puzzle piece would be to heal the land - the soil, the water cycle, and vegetation- and our relationship to it.
It is difficult to talk about one of these without bringing up the others. There are a close interconnectedness and interdependency between the soil, the water cycle, and the vegetation.
Soil plays a key role in our planet's carbon cycle. Plants, through photosynthesis, extract carbon dioxide from the air, convert it into other compounds and deposit it in the soil. In her essay, Jane Zelikova (Solutions Underfoot) shares that "[o]ver the last twelve thousand years, we have lost about 133 billion metric tons of carbon from this soil, stripped away as humans converted native grasslands and forests into agricultural fields and rangelands, roads and cities." Returning carbon to the soil is not only important because of the effects it has on the atmosphere (global warming), but because we need this carbon for the crops that feed us daily. As the soil loses its carbon, it becomes less fertile, making it harder for us to harvest in them, which can be an issue considering the global population is expected to reach 10 billion people by 2050 (regardless of the current panic regarding falling birth rates among millennials).
Water, in its gaseous form (vapor), is considered one of the main Greenhouse Gases (GHG). As the planet heats up, more vapor is stored in the air. Vapour has an incredible capacity to hold on to heat, this is why a hot day feels hotter when it's also humid. This is also what leads to bigger rainfalls during hurricanes, such as Hurricane Katrina.
Vegetation helps mediate between water and soil. Not only are they able to bring carbon back into the soil, but they are also an important buffer between water and soil. Underground, they help the soil slow down and retain water, reducing droughts and floods. Vegetation also transpires water through their leaves, drawing water up from where it is inaccessible to other living beings. But not just any vegetation is good enough. Vegetation thrives on diversity and makes it more resilient. Nature understands the importance of communal living. Some plants provide shelter and shading to the smaller ones, who in turn protect the saplings of others.
This week we'll be reading essays and poems from Jane Zelikova, Louise Maher-Johnson, Emily Stengel, Camille T. Dungy, Leah Penniman, Sharon Olds, Judith D. Schwartz, and Janisse Ray. You can find more to read from them here.
"In healing our relationship with soil, we heal the climate, and we heal ourselves." Black Gold - Leah Penniman
"We generally think of water as a noun, as something bounded by place: a lake, river, or reservoir; that which comes out of a tap. Katherine helped me understand that water is also a verb: expanding in volume or retrenching; changing state in an ongoing dialogue with land and sun." Water Is a Verb - Judith D. Schwartz
Illustration: Madeleine Jubilee Saito