Description
Here are a few important facts: 1) Our soil is alive; 2) Healthy soil contains between 4% and 6% organic matter, but many agricultural soils have be reduced to less than 1%; and 3) If we were to increase the organic matter in our soil carbon stock (agricultural soils, notably grasslands and pastures, and forest soils)by just .05% over the next ten years, this would offset growth in human carbon emissions in our atmosphere. It has to do with ‘carbon sequestration’. This would, essentially, solve a big factor that is driving climate change. But what exactly does all this mean? How is the soil ‘alive’? How do we measure the organic matter in the soil around where we live to determine how healthy it is? How might we make our soil ‘healthier’? And why would increasing the amount of organic matter offset carbon emissions? What does one have to do with the other? And finally, what is ‘carbon sequestration’? These are the mysteries that lie at the heart of this Challenge. Tell us the story of soil and how it can help stem the tide of climate change. This story needs to take the form of sixty-to-ninety second Public Service Announcement (PSA). We want you to send out the message, to an audience of your peers and family friends, that the SOIL IS ALIVE! and explain what you mean by that. We want you to help make the invisible – the fact that simple steps involving the soil can affect climate changes – visible. And the story needs to involve testing local soils so that you are modeling being pro-active as part of your story.
