The Soil Will Save Us

Journalist and bestselling author Kristin Ohlson makes an elegantly argued passionate case for our great green hope—a way in which we can not only heal the land but also turn atmospheric carbon into beneficial soil carbon—and potentially reverse global warming.. Thousands of years of poor farming and ranching practices—and especially modern industrial agriculture—have led to the loss of up to 80 percent of carbon from the world's soils. That carbon is now floating in the atmosphere and even if we stopped using fossil fuels today it would continue warming the planet. . As the granddaughter of farmers and the daughter of avid gardeners Ohlson has long had an appreciation for the soil. A chance conversation with a local chef led her to the crossroads of science farming food and environmentalism and the discovery of the only significant way to remove carbon dioxide from the air—an ecological approach that tends not only to plants and animals but also to the vast population of underground microorganisms that fix carbon in the soil. Ohlson introduces the visionaries—scientists farmers ranchers and landscapers—who are figuring out in the lab and on the ground how to build healthy soil which solves myriad problems: drought erosion air and water pollution and food quality as well as climate change. Her discoveries and vivid storytelling will revolutionize the way we think about our food our landscapes our plants and our relationship to Earth.