Planet earth, home to a growing number of Homo sapiens and a whole lot of other creatures, is a great place to live. But when it comes to the future of our small planet we are overwhelmed with bad news. Indeed, a most massive tsunami, the perfect storm, is bearing upon us; climate change; and the fear that we’re headed for a cliff, a dead end, puts most of us into a state of paralysis. Since 1750, when the industrial revolution began, we have pumped about 1,000 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, it is called our legacy load of carbon. Even if we stopped all gas emissions today, that load of carbon will still be there: if electric cars and social panels aren’t enough, then what is the solution?

The answer we are searching for is right under our feet, and it’s as old as dirt. We call it soil, earth, or ground. Using the most powerful carbon capture technology: the photosynthesis of plants, our soil has a vast capacity to sequester immense quantities of greenhouse gases. It could just be the one thing that can balance our climate, replenish our freshwater supplies, and feed the world. In fact, healthy soils absorb water and carbon dioxide and can hold more carbon than the atmosphere and plants living on the surface of the soil combined. However, destroying this soil releases this carbon, drying out the soil and turning it to dust.

On another hand, taking care of the microbes in the soil is critical for human health. Practicing agriculture in a way that sequesters carbon requires a radical reduction in toxic pesticides and synthetic chemicals: spraying the soil with toxic chemicals kills the very microbes that we need to give us health and pull carbon. Besides, soil that is not tilled stores more water, thus increasing microbial growth, leading to more plant growth, and even to more local rainfall. Also, when used smartly, herbivores can pull down carbon and reverse desertification: grazing is part of the carbon cycle. 

In other words, to reduce the effects of this catastrophe, the people may have to lead the way, and the odds are, there are some things that you can do to save our soils today: 

The key to health is eating dirt. What I mean by this peculiar statement is that we need to eat what’s in the dirt, that is transferred to the plants, to maintain our health. The more we choose regenerative food the more that farmers will grow them. The way we are articulating it, is a regenerative diet: A plant based one, and if we eat meat, we need to eat meat that comes from a pasture-raised, grass-fed, humanely killed animals. One of the other solutions for that challenge is to collect food scraps from cities, put them in the green bin, turn them into compost via ecology compost facilities, and get it onto local farms. Compost is the natural decomposition of organic matter in nature: it helps us protect water resources due to its ability to retain water because compost is a natural sponge. Finally, you are going to look outside one day and go “what is something we buy every day at the grocery store, that instead of waiting for it to be shipped around the world to me, I can put in my own backyard and I can do myself?” Plant a tree. You do not need a big land; a few meters can be enough.

From the smallest microbes to the largest creatures, our blue planet pulses with life. For millions of years, it has self-healed and self-balanced. But today, our species faces its biggest test. Our mission is simple: we must harness the regenerative power of earth itself. This is a way forward to see a stream return and flow, to bring back fertile soils, to see biodiversity return to a place that was completely devastated. So what decision are you going to make that will create a positive impact on this beautiful planet?