Soil

 It takes nature about 500years to build 1inch of top soil where plants derive their nutrients from and sequester carbon  . Unique capabilities of our soil are being  destroyed by products such as pesticides .

 

Pesticides have negative soil carbon sequestration . Soil carbon sequestration is absolutely essential to protecting against air pollution , to maintain fertile soil and to fight against climate emergency

Pesticides completely destroy the life of the soil, killing microbiota which enables the soils natural ability to convert nitrogen into carbon .

 

Soil with no life  has no water-holding capacity  and no fertility to support animal , biodiversity or plant life. Soil with a lack of water holding capacity and lack of carbon, is being linked with mass floods and droughts becoming more common 

 

 

Those trying to protect continued use of Glyphosate say it is only dangerous for a short amount of time after applications and areas should just be closed off to the public during  spraying 

However, even if this was the case (which it isn’t!) how do you propose we alert biodiversity to ‘stay away ‘ not to access this area for the next ….(whatever amount of time is deemed ‘safe’…)

 

Councils have been discussing taking action over Glyphosate since 2015 and that it does indeed persist in the soil for months and months after its application… 

Edinburgh Council said in 2016 Glyphosate  persists in the soil  for 6 months 

 

Whatever science you choose to follow-industry funded or independent public  available studies

One thing for certain is that Glyphosate (originally used to clean out boilers and patented as an antibiotic!!)is not conducive to health.

 

One by one people are wakening up and realising the urgency we face in our natural world. We recognise now, that we must focus on improving our soil and need to stop the continued poisioning of it .By healing the earth we can arrest and even mitigate further damage by helping it maintain it’s unique abilities to sequester carbon. We have individual and collective responsibly as well as the power to stop the use of pesticides for weed control. 

Ultimately the environment and its natural resources will determine the quality of our natural world.