World Soil Day!

This Sunday, 5th December, celebrates World Soil Day. An international day to celebrate soil was suggested by the International Union of Soil Sciences in 2002. Soil is essential for human nutrition, plant survival, water filtration and fundamental to human survival. Due to this, on December 5th, 2014 – the UN General Assembly designated this as the first official World Soil. 

Soil is the basis for our ecosystems, human health, and climate change. It is essential that we know how soil affects all these things and how we can protect and preserve soil in the future. 

Environmental sciences have shown that soil is the foundation of basic ecosystem function. Soil filters water, provides nutrients to forests and crops, helps to regulate Earth’s temperature as well as helping to cycle greenhouse gases. As our awareness of the value of natural and managed ecosystems services grows, new biodiversity, carbon, and water markets are emerging, so are the number of organizations that are creating healthier soil to save the planet. One of these organizations is Sustainable Soils Alliances aims to engage media and stakeholders, educate the public and lobby government for a policy framework that brings about the transformational change needed to support the development of healthy soil for generations to come. 

Over the past several decades, soil scientists have identified new practices which limit the strength and ability of contaminants and to rehabilitate polluted land. This has led to land managers now are able to access new, innovative soil management strategies that can mitigate soil, water, and air pollution. Sustainable Soils Alliances have done a lot of research on plastic pollution within the soil – this is an issue that has been raised quite recently. A 2017 review shows that the volume of plastics and microplastics in soil is likely to be of like plastic pollution in water. 

Plastics have a detrimental effect on the health of soil, fertility, and plant growth. Through this, plastics can enter our food chain and cause a disruption to animal grazing and human diet. These plastics come through ways of farming, spreading compost and littering. The Sustainable Soil Alliance has developed a briefing note to propose solutions to plastic contamination with systems that pre-exist. The note calls for the government to investigate the practicality of mandating the installation of microplastic filters on all washing machines in the UK as well as requesting that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs include the need for food and garden waste to be in compostable bin liners. 

Almost 35% of all greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere due to human activities since 1850 are linked changes in the use of land. Crop, grazing, and forest lands, as well as wetlands, have the potential to contribute to ease the amount of greenhouse gas emissions through soil carbon sequestration (to be separated), while also enhancing ecosystem services. Soil stores carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in soil organic matter. Soil organic matter offers several added benefits: it filters and cleans water, enhances water storage, mitigates the impacts of extreme weather, improves soil structure, and serves as a source of long-term, slow-release nutrients. 

The Sustainable Soil Alliance has goals for the release of greenhouse gases into soil. They ask for an understanding of the role of soil carbon and the function it must ensure an alignment of interests that may share a goal of soil improvement, such as farmers and investors. The Sustainable Soil Alliance has also asked for the creation of a scientifically endorsed monitoring and verification of greenhouse gas removals or soil carbon sequestration based on accurate and affordable measurements of carbon. 

After doing my research for this week’s blog, I am more aware of the need to protect and preserve soil – I now hope you are too. Sustainable soil alliance is one of the few organizations helping to save our environment by saving soil. They as well as many others are worth checking out, and even donating to – so you can make a bigger change in the world you live in. If not, reducing food waste, eating a diverse diet and composting are just a few simple things you can do to protect the planet’s soil. 

 

https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/projects/soil-structure-and-its-benefits/ 

https://www.falmouthme.org/environmental-initiatives/pages/the-importance-of-soil 

https://www.treehugger.com/things-everyone-protect-soil-4855245 

https://sustainablesoils.org/ 

 

Aliya Hussain,

Community Development Assistant

aliya.hussain@groundworknottingham.org.uk