Written on the Land

摘要

Soil is the dynamic interface between geology and biology, the bridge between the dead world of rock and the bustling world of life. Unfortunately, society today faces soil degradation at a global scale. Erosion control and soil-building are among themost exigent issues to address.Societies inscribe stories on the land, but this is a two-way street. The land's character - and the soil covering it - shape and influence human activity. This intergenerational interaction yields the narrative of landscape.Some 6,000 years ago, once post-glacial sea levels stopped rising, early agricultural civilizations in Mesopotamia and Egypt arose in lowland river estuaries as deltas built new fertile land out into the sea. For millennia, towns and cities developedat river mouths to take advantage of the confluence of fresh water, fertile land, and sheltered ports. While farming methods may have changed over the course of history, society still depends on soil's fertility.