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Every meal you eat now costs the planet 10 kilos in lost topsoil.
That's the warning of "Surviving the 21st Century" author Julian Cribb to an international soil science conference in Queenstown, New Zealand on Dec 15, 2016.
"10 kilos of topsoil, 800 litres of water, 1.3 litres of diesel, 0.3g of pesticide and 3.5 kilos of carbon dioxide – that's what it takes to deliver one meal, for just one person," Cribb says.
"When you multiply it by 7 to 10 billion people each eating around a thousand meals a year, you can see why food is fast becoming the challenge of our age."
"The human jawbone is now by far the most destructive implement on the planet. It's wrecking soil and water, clearing forests, emptying oceans of fish and destroying wildlife as never before – but few people realise it because of long industrial food-chains that hide the damage from them," he says.
Do the 10 kg of lost topsoil result in 10 kg of night soil?
(Score: 5, Informative) by canopic jug on Friday December 16 2016, @07:57AM
According to UN figures, there are only 60 years of farming left if soil degradation continues [scientificamerican.com]. It takes hundreds if not thousands of years to build up topsoil. Far north, even a millimeter takes many centuries. Further south, it's still not fast, especially in comparison to the rate at which it erodes and washes out to sea.
The silting happens quickly, though maybe still slow enough that people that don't think on a generational scale will get bitten. I have several anecdotes there. One was an extensive cave which had been a walk-in system in the late 1700's and early 1800's. However, decades of farm run-off had filled the passage so that it was a low crawl that you had to turn your head sideways to fit through. Boston Harbor is another, as it needs dredging. A confounding factor there is that the sludge on the bottom of Boston Harbor is so contaminated that it has to be packed off as toxic waste. And speaking of harbors, Ephesus used to be a major port city around 2000 years ago. However, it has silted up from run-off and is now about 6 miles inland.
So 60 years is a short time, especially given how big a group has to turn. We're rapidly approaching the end of the game.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 16 2016, @08:30AM
See? This is why I don't pick up my dog's poop. I'm trying to restore the environment and ensure a better future for my grandkids. We should all be shitting in the streets.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 16 2016, @12:00PM
run-off is problem because we dont "get" rivers.
there must be something wrong if not always the same amount of water flows, thinks the human.
it must run straight and as quickly as posdible to the ocean. no bends and detours
and OVERFLOWS allowed.
no wonder evrrything gets deposited in the ocean.
in our mind, a river starts where theres water and ends on the opposite side where the dry part
starts.
a river "breathes". sometimes its smaller and sometimes bigger. theres much more to a river
then just water.
imagine a human: sometihing wrong because your chest is heaving and contracting (normal breathing).
no one in their right mind is going to dam up your breathing so theres a constant flow ...
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Friday December 16 2016, @06:49PM
That's a good point. It seems like in Britain, every year there is news about droughts in summer and floods in winter. You'd think they'd adapt by now.
The Dutch "get" rivers and water management. Trust me on this. [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 17 2016, @01:55AM
60 years? Well, I'll probably be dead by then, so it's not my problem.