One annual celebration you might be forgiven for not participating in
(or even knowing about) is World Soil Day. Yes, soil—as in that sticky
brown stuff that gets walked all over your prized cream carpets. Sadly,
it is our ignorance about the importance of soil and the degree to which
we take advantage of all that it offers that have led to a drastic
reduction in its quality the world over. These are precisely the
problems World Soil Day aims to battle, as few things could be more
important to us, the inhabitants of Planet Earth, who could never hope
to survive without the land. Soil is one without a doubt of the most
significant parts of the ecosystem, contributing to our food, water and
energy and playing an important part in reducing the impact of climate
change. For all of these reasons, it’s high time World Soil Day became
known to more people than just scientists concerned about the welfare of
our planet.
The History of World Soil Day
In
2002, the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) made a resolution
proposing the 5th of December be World Soil Day in order to celebrate
the importance of soil as a critical component of the natural system and
as a vital contributor to human well-being. 2015 was also declared to
be the Internationals Year of Soils in hopes of raising as much
awareness as possible about the enormous role soil plays in food
security. Unsurprisingly, so far it’s mostly been the global community
of 60,000 or so soil scientists who have been the ones celebrating the
day the most. The chances of us ordinary folk exchanging ‘Happy Soil
Day’ cards in the near future remain minimal, but that doesn’t mean we
can’t learn to appreciate the important roles that soil plays in our
lives (even if it is darn hard to scrub off the carpet when your nearest
and dearest feline friends leave muddy footprints on their way to the
kitchen).
How to Celebrate World Soil Day
The
best way to celebrate this day is to do exactly what scientists the
world over so badly needs to: educate ourselves. An enormous amount of
damage is done to the planet every year due not to ill will, but to
ignorance—many of us simply do not know enough about the earth to know
when we are damaging it, sometimes irreparably. As it turns out, there
are a number of things we regular people can do that can greatly help
the soil we live off of remain in good condition. For example, we can
plant a rain garden. For those of you who may not know what a rain
garden is, it’s a shallow depression in the yard or garden rainwater can
easily flow into, which helps reduce soil erosion.
It is also a
good idea to reduce the amount of surfaces such as driveways and patios
to a minimum, as water flowing over them gains momentum and causes more
erosion than it normally would once it reaches the soil. If you
absolutely must have that patio, you could consider having it built with
paving stones so rainwater can flow directly downward into the soil
instead. Another simple way you could go about conserving soil (and in
this case, water as well) is to have a rain barrel placed somewhere
where it can collect rainwater flowing off your roof, which you can then
use to water your lawn. Whatever you decide to do, remember that even
the smallest gestures can make a big difference to Mother Nature!
