Soil is the second biggest reservoir of carbon on the planet, next to the oceans. It holds four times more carbon than all the plants and trees in the world. But human activity like deforestation and industrial farming—with its intensive plowing, monoculture and heavy use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides—is ruining our soils. As soil degrades, it loses the ability to hold carbon, releasing enormous amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere. However, soil generation through ecological farming methods can capture the greenhouse gas. Studies show that such “sequestration” can capture up to 40 percent of global carbon emissions.
This article was originally published on September 12, 2016
