Don’t call it dirt: the science of soil (from “Short Wave”)

It's easy to overlook the soil beneath our feet, or to think of it as just dirt to be cleaned up. But soil wraps the world in an envelope of life: It grows our food, regulates our climate, and makes our planet habitable. Soil is precious, taking millennia to regenerate. And with about a third of the world's soil degraded, according to a UN estimate, it's also at risk. Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, a soil scientist at the University of California-Merced, who is also serving as Director of the U. S. Dept. of Energy's Office of Science, describes the hidden majesty of soil and why it's crucial to tackling the climate crisis.