While you may never hear this on Letterman, here is our “Top ten” for why your life depends on soil.
10. Soil is forgiving….soil is a dynamic resource that can be restored and used again in the lifetime of a human.
9. Unless you live in a houseboat, your house is likely built on soil (even a houseboat is built from wood that came from a tree growing on soil).
8. Care for a beer? Not gonna happen without those plants that just happen to grow in soil.
7. Worried about global warming? Then be happy that soil sequesters about 2x the amount of carbon found in all vegetation and the atmosphere combined!
6. Cotton doesn't just come from the mall…You get a lot of your clothes from crops that grow on soil.
5. Ever been sick? You probably have taken an antibiotic that was derived from organisms in the soil.
4. Ever drink water from a well or stream? You could likely die of contaminated water if there was not soil to filter water for drinking.
3. Enjoy eating? You would likely starve to death if you could not eat plants that grow in soil.
2. Like breathing? You probably would not be breathing if there was not soil for plants to grow in that produce the oxygen keeping you alive.
1. Imagine a world where nothing that died decomposed…bet you REALLY like soil now!