Secrets Of The Soil Summary

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The positive feedback loop microbes contribute to makes the issue of global warming urgent. Plants and soil take up 25% of our emissions, but warming continues because humans tilling land releases the emissions (“Secrets of the Soil”). When the atmospheric temperature warms, the soil warms as well. Warm soil increases microbial activity, which accelerates decomposition (“Secrets of the Soil”). As a result, more CO2 is released into the atmosphere (“Secrets of the Soil”). This actually amplifies the effects of human actions. The danger in this is that warming of our Earth is an exponential process, not a linear one, and it is an issue both humans and microbes contribute to. In Secrets of the Soil, Janet Jansson discusses how permafrost relates to climate change. Permafrost has a reservoir that traps soil carbon, which is frozen in the permafrost (“Secrets of the Soil”). However, when the atmosphere warms, the permafrost thaws, so methane and CO2 are released into the atmosphere (“Secrets of the Soil”). This is a positive feedback loop because the heat from the released CO2 is then absorbed by the permafrost, and the cycle continues. Therefore, humans should acknowledge other natural processes that are changing Earth’s systems rather than quickly attributing it to their own actions. …show more content…
Microbes self-organize, as discussed earlier, happens within a short amount of time. While the process of making elbow room is a fast process, pedogenesis, however, happens over a long period of time—one inch of soil takes 500 to 1,000 years to form (Lindbo 42). Another example microbes working on a long time scale is the Great Oxygenation Event, which took around one to two billions years to unfold. When assessing the degree of anthropogenic action on Earth’s systems, we must also consider the temporal scale in terms of