11/15/2017 | Page 2 of 2

Improving soil health in farmlands could capture extra carbon equivalent to the planet-warming emissions generated by the transport sector, one of the world’s most polluting industries, experts said Tuesday.

Soil naturally absorbs carbon from the atmosphere through a process known as sequestration, which not only reduces harmful greenhouse gases but also creates more fertile soil.

Better soil management could boost carbon stored in the top layer of the soil by up to 1.85 gigatons each year, about the same as the carbon emissions of transport globally, according to a study published in the journal Nature.

“Healthier soils store more carbon and produce more food,” Louis Verchot of the Colombia-based International Center for Tropical Agriculture, and one of the study’s authors, said in a statement.

“Investing in better soil management will make our agricultural systems more productive and resilient to future shocks and stresses.”

Using compost, keeping soil disturbance to a minimum, and rotating crops to include plants such as legumes can help restore organic matter in the soil, Verchot told Reuters.

The extra carbon that could be stored from rejuvenated soil is equivalent to 3 to 7 billion tons of planet-warming carbon dioxide, he said.

“The U.S. emits around 5 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year. So [emissions] equivalent of a major economy could be sequestered in soils each year with changes in farming practices,” he added.

The study found the United States has the highest total annual potential to store carbon in the soil, followed by India, China, Russia and Australia, if soil management is improved.

Carbon sequestration could be increased intensively in parts of southern Africa, Ethiopia and Sudan too, Verchot said in a phone interview.

The Earth’s soils contain more carbon than the planet’s atmosphere and vegetation combined, but when land is overexploited or degraded, trapped carbon is released back into the atmosphere, resulting in planet-warming emissions.

About a third of the world’s soils are degraded because of soil erosion — the loss of the topsoil by wind, rain or use of machinery — and other practices, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Agriculture, forestry and changes in land use together produce 21 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, making them the second-largest emitter after the energy sector, FAO said.
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There were movie stars and supermodels, TV hosts and pop stars.

But perhaps the most rapturous ovation at Glamour magazine’s annual Women of the Year awards went to 79-year-old Democratic U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters of California, who delighted the crowd — including hundreds of cheering young girls — with a rousing speech that ended on a very political note.

“Impeach him,” she exhorted the audience. “Impeach 45! Impeach 45!”

Alongside Waters, honorees at Monday evening’s ceremony, held at a theater in Brooklyn, included actress Nicole Kidman, singer Solange Knowles, late-night host Samantha Bee, model Gigi Hadid, film director Patty Jenkins, and fashion designer Maria Grazia Chiuri of Christian Dior.

Also honored were record-setting astronaut Peggy Whitson, Syrian refugee and UNICEF ambassador Muzoon Almellehan and the many organizers of the January women’s marches.

Though this was the 27th year of the Glamour awards, there was a different sensation this time around, noted Cindi Leive, Glamour’s outgoing editor-in-chief.

“There’s a feeling in the air,” she told the crowd at the beginning. She didn’t have to explain that she was referring to the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal and the subsequent cascade of allegations in Hollywood and elsewhere, with both women and men coming forward to accuse powerful men of sexual harassment, assault or misconduct.

“This is a singular moment for women,” Leive said. “I am so glad that we get to seize it.”

One of the most powerful moments in the ceremony came when the two New York Times reporters who broke the Weinstein story — Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey — took the stage to introduce a quartet of women who had experienced sexual harassment or assault.

The first to speak: Anita Hill, who has been a symbol of the fight against sexual harassment ever since she testified in 1991 against then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. She hadn’t gotten the result she wanted back then, she explained — Thomas was confirmed anyway — but in just a few years, official complaints of sexual harassment skyrocketed.

“I saw that we had a chance to shift the narrative,” Hill said.

Also appearing was Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman, who came forward last week to allege she was sexually abused by a U.S. team doctor, Larry Nassar, who has been accused by more than 100 women and girls of sexual assault.

“We need answers,” Raisman said.

Kidman, accepting her award, noted it had been “an extraordinary year — we’re in uncharted territory right now.” But she said she preferred to celebrate “all of us, and what makes us, us.” She thanked her parents, and then noted that she had “an extraordinary husband,” singer Keith Urban.

“As much as I’m a strong woman, I need help and I need support,” she said.

Along with the honorees, there were plenty of high-wattage presenters: Serena Williams, for example, came to introduce her friend, Hadid, noting that the supermodel was one of only a very few people that could get her to leave her new baby, even for one night. Drew Barrymore introduced Bee, and original Wonder Woman Lynda Carter introduced “Wonder Woman” director Jenkins.

Singer-actress Zendaya, 21, introduced Waters, who clearly had fans among the young women from various girls’ organizations seated up in the balcony.

Waters told them that she didn’t just want them to vote — she wanted them to become politically active. “I want you to do everything you can to get ready to run for office,” she said.

Also exhorting the young women to action was astronaut Whitson, 57, who returned to Earth in September after 288 days in space. In all, she has spent 665 days in space — a record for a U.S. astronaut.

“I started as a farm girl in Iowa,” an emotional Whitson said. “I dreamed of being an astronaut and an explorer, and I made it.” She told the young women that it had taken 10 years of trying before she finally was accepted in the space program.

Leive, who announced in September that she was leaving Glamour after 16 years, said at a dinner following the ceremony that she had never seen women as energized as they are now, with the current, expanding conversation on sexual misconduct by powerful men.

“Something has shifted in the very molecules in the air,” she said.
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