World Soil Day 2020 Theme: Keep Soil Alive, Protect Soil Biodiversity

Today (December 5) is World Soil Day (WSD). World Soil Day 2020's campaign is ‘Keep soil alive, Protect soil biodiversity.’ The theme aim is to raise awareness and encourage people around the world to engage in proactively improving soil health, the campaign also aims to fight soil biodiversity loss.

The World Soil Day (Dec 5th) was started in 2012 by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), under the leadership of the Kingdom of Thailand and within the framework of the Global Soil Partnership, as a global awareness-raising platform. World Soil Day allows us to celebrate the importance of soil as a critical component of the natural system and as a vital contributor to human wellbeing. In 2019, world soli day was celebrated by more than 100 countries through 560 events.

Key messages
1. Soil is a living resource, home to more than one quarter (25%) of our planet’s biodiversity.
2. Up to 90% of living organisms live or spent part of their lifecycle in soils, yet we know only 1% of this hidden universe.
3. Soil organisms work 365/24/7 in a coordinated effort to sustain life on Earth.
4. Soil biodiversity is an essential component of soil health. Healthy soils produce more nutritious and safer food. 95% of our food comes from soils.
5. Soil organisms help soils store carbon and reduce GHG emissions.
6. Soil biodiversity contributes to the remediation of soil pollution by breaking down contaminants.
7. Soils are vast, vital pharmacies. Did you know that almost all of the antibiotics that we take to help us fight infections were made using soil micro-organisms?

Fun facts
1. In just 3 inches of soil, there are 13 quadrillion living organisms, weighing 100 million tonnes.
2. One hectare of soil contains the weight equivalent of two cows of bacteria.
3. There are more organisms in one gram of healthy soils than there are people on Earth.
4. An earthworm can digest its own weight in the soil every 24 hours. 50% of the planet's soil passes through the gut of earthworms each year.
5. Soil organisms process 25,000 kg of organic matter in a surface area equivalent to a soccer field, which is the weight of 25 cars.  

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

If we have any love for our children, we have to leave our soil and water in a better condition than they are now. #SadhguruQuotes #WorldSoilDay pic.twitter.com/6B0Fizlj52

— Sadhguru (@SadhguruJV) December 5, 2020