As the Year of the Soil comes to a close today, 4 December 2015, world Leaders gather to deal with climate change. I wonder if they are speaking about soil over there? And if not, why not? Do they even know the connection?

The soil-climate change connection

The fact is, our precious soil may hold the key to all our problems, but no one wants to know. No one wants to know that suitably managed soils under ruminant-grazed grasslands can sequester tonnes of carbon per annum. No one wants to know the history of the natural grasslands of the world. To know that before we wiped out all the ruminants (bison), the North American prairies held deep black stores of carbon as SOM and humus. No one wants to know that using cattle to recreate the grass-ruminant-soil complex that made those rich soils may be the best way to take excess carbon out of the air and put it back in the soil.

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The knowledge gap

Because no one wants to know these things. Because no one wants to understand the soil biology that created those huge soil stores of carbon, there is little or no money going into soil research. Because no one wants to know, there is only a handful of universities in Europe offering a degree in soil biology and none in Ireland. No one wants to know that a spoonful of good soil contains more living organisms than there are humans on the planet. No one wants to know how they work, what they do or what they are capable of.

Making a start

Those few soil biologists that are around appear demoralised through lack of money and lack of public interest in their work. Yet these men and women may hold the key to survival. A look at the website of the Soil Science Society of Ireland shows no activity since 2013. I would like to appeal for a renewal and re-invigoration of that society. The Irish Grassland Society has shown how farmer practitioners and researchers can combine to create a vibrant progressive body that can make a real difference. The Soil Science Society should follow suit and open up their membership to invite in farmers, gardeners, environmentalists and everyone else with an interest in soil.

Soil science urgently needs to be fertilised with new minds and resources. It has been lying fallow for far too long. If the resources being put into warfare were instead put into soil research what a different world it would be.