Planet in Peril (PinP) where science gets respect!

The UN News Centre With hundreds of millions of people around the globe directly affected by desertification – the degradation of land ecosystems due to unsustainable farming or mining practices, or climate change – United Nations agencies have called for better management of land so that it can provide a place where individuals and communities “can build a future.” Story here.

UN News Centre Rising temperatures could release massive amounts of carbon trapped in the Earth's soil, the United Nations agricultural agency today reported. Details here.

WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE A new study in the journal Nature  explores a vicious cycle: as a changing climate driven by greenhouse gas emissions warms the planet, soils heat up and the micro-organisms that live in the soil start to expel heat-trapping carbon dioxide, reinforcing the problem of climate change. Story here.

CLIMATEPROGRESS Organic squash in Manitoba.   PinP  photo. With all that’s going on in the world — from record-breaking warm spells to rapidly melting ice sheets — it’s easy to ignore something so seemingly mundane as dirt. But scientists at the University of Sheffield’s Grantham Center for Sustainable Futures suggest that we ignore dirt at our own peril. Details here.

Laura Rance - Manitoba Co-Operator Topsoil on the wind. Video credit - the Co-Operator. Soil erosion still alive and (not) well in Manitoba. Details here.

Common Dreams New report spotlights how healthy soil takes CO2 out of the atmosphere to where it helps build climate resiliency. Story here.

By: Laura Rance Some African farmers are turning the tables on starvation by no longer turning the soil. Story here.

Manitoba Co-Operator - Laura Rance A unique project is improving nutrition and incomes through better farming practices. Story here.