Soil Pollution
The earth is covered in soil but most people hardly ever see it. Our ancestors walked barefooted on soil every day, some people still do. Unfortunately, cities all over the world have covered their soil with asphalt and concrete. There are cities such as Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and New York, where healthy soil is almost inaccessible.
When we lose connection with the soil, we literally lose connection with the earth. By disconnecting ourselves from the ground, we lose many of our natural instincts and inclinations.
Adding insult to injury, our precious soil is not only being covered, but is also being polluted in every possible way. This happens through mining and manufacturing activities, chemicals used for agricultural purposes, household and factory waste disposal, and oil spills. Oil spills are by far the most devastating.
In 2016 alone, there were at least eight major oil spills, four of them happened in the United States. The total estimated number of tonnes leaked is over 3,000. This translates to 924,000 gallons, or 3,495,000 liters. (1) If we count from 2006, in the United States alone, there have been 3,032 significant leaks reported, The costs of these leaks since 2006 has amounted to $4.7 billion. (2) Perhaps these wouldn’t be a controversy if fossil fuels were our only options, but our modern technology and resources suffice to get us completely off fossil fuels, once and for all.
Cleaning up polluted soils is possible, but very expensive. Some pollutants are nearly impossible to remove from the ground, and they take many years to process and safely decompose. In the meantime, we are losing invaluable layers of topsoil that could be used to cultivate fruits and vegetables.
We need to take a serious look at how we are using our soil. We must stop wasting our soil by covering it with asphalt, concrete, sprayed grass, mono-crops, and cattle. We have to stop turning forests into deserts. It is time to clean our soil, care for it, use it for sustainable fruit production, and other healthy farming practices.
Healthy top soil is a precious resource, an essential requirement for sustainable food production. Without sufficient soil on earth, we would be unable to feed humanity. Food shortages would cause unprecedented amounts of migration, chaos would rule the earth.
Some of us have a false sense of security because we live in clean cities, with healthy soil and plenty of trees around. We get our produce from the closest supermarket, and expect it to always be full with everything we need. This might not always be the case.
In today’s inter-connected world, no one is completely safe from environmental disasters and chronic pollution. When a hurricane strikes, it affects us all, sooner or later, in one way or another. Humanity and earth are already enduring major natural, social, political, and environmental disasters. These are likely to get worse unless we make radical changes in our behavior.
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Acknowledgments
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Sources:
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oil_spills
(2) http://www.ecowatch.com/emanuel-climate-change-epa-website-2396776853.html
