We tend to look skywards when talking about pollution, but this problem is not confined to our skies. The soil in which our fruit and vegetables grow is also suffering its consequences, the effects of which getting to us directly, for instance, through the aforementioned foodstuffs. The time has come to look after what lies under our feet!
The soil is the skin of the earth, a mantle full of scars, thousand-year-old wrinkles and more recent injuries caused both by man and nature itself. Some of these ulcers are incurable — such as the extinction of species —, whereas others jeopardise health and food security, all of which threaten the well-being of half the world's humanity, as warned by the Global Land Outlook (GLO2), Land Restoration for Recovery and Resilience, published in 2022 by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. The report highlights that pollution is the biggest environmental cause of disease and death in the world today, mainly soil pollution, along with exposure to chemicals and poor waste management.
Soil polution
Soil pollution, its effects on our future and what we can do to reduce it
Society Nature
We tend to look skywards when talking about pollution, but this problem is not confined to our skies. The soil in which our fruit and vegetables grow is also suffering its consequences, the effects of which getting to us directly, for instance, through the aforementioned foodstuffs. The time has come to look after what lies under our feet!
Soil pollution.
Soil pollution is mostly caused by chemical substances produced by human activity.
Causes and consequences of acid rain
The soil is the skin of the earth, a mantle full of scars, thousand-year-old wrinkles and more recent injuries caused both by man and nature itself. Some of these ulcers are incurable — such as the extinction of species —, whereas others jeopardise health and food security, all of which threaten the well-being of half the world's humanity, as warned by the Global Land Outlook (GLO2), Land Restoration for Recovery and Resilience, published in 2022 by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. The report highlights that pollution is the biggest environmental cause of disease and death in the world today, mainly soil pollution, along with exposure to chemicals and poor waste management.
What is soil pollution
This invisible affliction appears when the concentration of pollutants on the surface becomes so high that it harms land biodiversity and endangers health, particularly through food. Activities such as stock breeding and intensive farming use chemicals, pesticides and fertilisers that pollute the land, just as happens with heavy metals and other natural and man-made chemical substances.
Soil pollution is a global threat that is particularly serious in regions like Europe, Eurasia, Asia and North Africa, as indicated by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The FAO also affirms that both intense and even moderate degradation is already affecting one third of the world's soil. Moreover, recovery is so slow that it would take 1,000 years to create a few centimetres layer of arable soil.
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