Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
A World Without Soil: The Past, Present, and Precarious Future of the Earth Beneath Our Feet

A World Without Soil: The Past, Present, and Precarious Future of the Earth Beneath Our Feet

Handelsman, Jo
Cohen, Kayla

Paperback

Environmental StudiesGeology

Publisher Price: $22.00

ISBN10: 0300271115
ISBN13: 9780300271119
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: Apr 25 2023
Pages: 280
Weight: 0.70
Height: 1.10 Width: 5.40 Depth: 7.90
Language: English
A celebrated biologist's manifesto addressing a soil loss crisis accelerated by poor conservation practices and climate change

Jo Handelsman is a national treasure, and her clarion call warning of a looming soil-loss catastrophe must be heard. Add her clearly written alarm to other future-shocks: climate change, pandemics, and mass extinctions.--Laurie Garrett, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World out of Balance

The ground beneath our feet is slipping away as we lose the precious soil that sustains us. Jo Handelsman's writing--as rich and life supporting as the soil itself--is a riveting warning.--Alan Alda, actor, writer, and host of the podcast Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda

This book by celebrated biologist Jo Handelsman lays bare the complex connections among climate change, soil erosion, food and water security, and drug discovery.

Humans depend on soil for 95 percent of global food production, yet let it erode at unsustainable rates. In the United States, China, and India, vast tracts of farmland will be barren of topsoil within this century. The combination of intensifying erosion caused by climate change and the increasing food needs of a growing world population is creating a desperate need for solutions to this crisis.

Writing for a nonspecialist audience, Jo Handelsman celebrates the capacities of soil and explores the soil-related challenges of the near future. She begins by telling soil's origin story, explains how it erodes and the subsequent repercussions worldwide, and offers solutions. She considers lessons learned from indigenous people who have sustainably farmed the same land for thousands of years, practices developed for large-scale agriculture, and proposals using technology and policy initiatives.

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