(This is the final in a series of excerpts from former vice president Al Gore’s recent book, “The Future.” Every fact stated by Gore is referenced to its reputable source in the 155 pages of end notes. We consider “The Future” to be one of the most important books we have ever encountered.)
“For all of the needed attention paid to the sequestration of carbon in trees and vegetation, the amount of carbon sequestered in the first few feet of soil (mainly on the 1057 percent of the Earth’s land surface covered by arable land) is almost twice as much as all the carbon in the vegetation and the atmosphere combined.
”Modern industrial agricultural techniques – which rely on plowing monoculture planting, and heavy use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers – continue to release CO2 into the atmosphere by depleting the organic carbon contained in healthy soils. The plowing facilitates wind and water erosion of top soils; the reliance on monocultures, instead of mixed planting and crop rotation, prevents the natural restoration of soil health; and the use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers has an effect not dissimilar from steroids: they boost the growth of the plants at the expense of the health of the soil and interfere with the normal sequestration of organic carbon in soils.” …
“In order to understand why so many political leaders are failing to address this existential crisis, it is important to explore the way public perceptions of global warming have been manipulated by global warming deniers, and how the psychology of the issue has made that manipulation easier than it should be. Powerful corporations with an interest in delaying action have lavished money on a cynical and dishonest public campaign to manipulate public opinion by sowing false doubts about the reality of climate crisis. They are taking advantage of the natural desire that all of us have to seize upon any indication that global warming isn’t real after all and the scientists have somehow made a big mistake.”
