Earth Day 2021

We’re back at it again and we’re asking you to consider something that is so commonplace we think about it every day. It’s really what we think about all the time – it’s growing plants!  When we look at it from a slightly different angle, we believe it can add enormous significance to our work!  In the past we have discussed soil organic matter and carbon sequestration but now I’d like to take it a step further. The Earth’s ability to distribute water over time is the limiting factor for maintaining longevity of green growth. A key aspect to what is happening as we build soil organic matter is the increased capacity of the Earth’s Carbon Sponge to hold and release water. It’s this ability to ration water during periods of drought that allows for the longevity of green growth that cools the environment.

It’s almost easy to think of how that concept effects one’s immediate environment:

Think about the difference in these two scenarios.

Picture yourself standing in full sun, summer day, and you’re in a dry sand desert, no breeze to cool you, just baking away. Or even worse, you’re in the middle of a five-acre blacktop parking lot, roasting.

Okay, change of scene. It’s the same summer day, you’re again in the full sun, no breeze, but now you are in a lush pasture. It’s a dense field of actively growing grasses waist high, and here it is much cooler.

The difference is the Earth’s Carbon Sponge. Carbon sequestration through photosynthesis is the means to build that Carbon Sponge. It’s the hydrological dynamics of the earth that govern the global temperature.

I like to always check myself when I think that something man-made, like irrigation, is the only option for taking care of the Earth. We that contemplate these realities know that if you can walk in the path of nature, as we do with Biological Soil Management, Mother Earth knows the way to take care of everything else in the most efficient and successful manner.