Office of Science and Technology Policy Blog

Why Soil Rocks

Editor's note: 2015 is the UN-designated International Year of Soils. In celebration of soil, OSTP’s Associate Director for Science Jo Handelsman – microbiologist and soil enthusiast – will be taking to the OSTP blog throughout this year to share stories of the science behind this critical resource and how it continues to shape our economy and society in ways big and small.

2015 is the UN-designated International Year of Soils – one of the world's most important resources that will help determine the collective future for inhabitants of the Earth. Here we join the celebration of the services provided by this critical resource and set out to prove once and for all that soil does, indeed, rock.

Soil is the living, breathing skin of the Earth¹. It takes millennia to create and just a few short years to deplete. In every sense, it is essential to human existence – it provides nutrients essential to crop and animal production; it nourishes plant-life that provides shelter and habitat; it yields potent drugs that promote human health; and so much more.

Many earlier societies recognized this quite directly, often to the point of revering or worshipping the soil. In more recent history, Americans and their Presidents have also paid great tributes to soil. Franklin Delano Roosevelt one said:  “A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself.” And Thomas Jefferson remarked:  “While the farmer holds the title to the land, it belongs to all the people because civilization itself rests upon the soil.”

But, amidst the industrial age and urbanization, the rich tradition of honoring soil has eroded. There is perhaps no greater illustration of this trend than the popular reference to soil as “dirt.”

This alias obscures the complex, life-giving properties of soil – from which the forests and all other plants on Earth take nourishment and upon which so much of our existence depends.

Soil is a complex system of minerals derived from bedrock and organic components from animal, plant, and microbial activity. The organic and geologic aspects of soil are in dynamic interaction – with minerals shaping microbial life, and microbial activity changing minerals. The physical and biological features of most soils have been shaped by millennia of natural events and decades or centuries of human intervention.

Engaging Internationally on Climate Science

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) just concluded its 41^st session in Nairobi – continuing the tradition of rigorous international scientific collaboration to better understand climate change, its impacts, and society’s options to address this global challenge. The IPCC is a unique partnership between nearly 200 governments and the scientific community, bringing together many of the world’s top scientists and experts to produce comprehensive assessments of the state of knowledge on climate change. 

The fifth and most recent IPCC assessment report was completed this past October, including three volumes of findings drawn from the vast amount of research that has been done over the last seven years on climate science, impacts, and responses. Among its key conclusions: “human influence on the climate system is clear,” and human-caused emissions of heat-trapping gases are the “highest in history.”  The Assessment also reported “it is very likely that heat waves will occur more often and last longer, that extreme precipitation events will become more intense and frequent in many regions. The oceans will continue to warm and acidify, and global mean sea level will continue to rise.” 

These sobering conclusions, resulting from the collaborative work of hundreds of climate specialists from around the world, including dozens from the United States, reinforce those of the Third U.S. National Climate Assessment and underscore the need to fully implement President Obama’s Climate Action Plan.

This week’s convening of IPCC representatives in Nairobi was a transitional meeting for the IPCC, with discussions focusing on ways to organize the next cycle of assessment to ensure that our knowledge base about climate science continues to expand in ways that are informative for decision makers and citizens around the world.

Discussion outcomes included that the IPCC will retain continuity in its basic approach of producing assessment volumes addressing physical science; impacts, adaptation and vulnerability; and mitigation, and that a synthesis would be developed to integrate the findings of these three reports. Delegates decided that the next comprehensive assessment cycle will last between five and seven years, as has been the practice and that, as in the past, the IPCC is likely to produce one or more “special reports” to assess specific cross-cutting topics.