Significant emissions reductions can be achieved by planting trees and ending the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, and we should do everything we can to protect and grow our forests. An even bigger carbon sink, however, lies beneath our feet in the soil.
Across the planet, soils store an amount of carbon that is three times as large as the amount of carbon stored in all the plants on Earth. This carbon sink is also three times larger than the amount of carbon currently in the atmosphere.
Scientists say that with better management, agricultural soils could absorb much more carbon in the future. We can make tremendous progress against the climate crisis by supporting farmers to adopt farming practices that both decrease the emissions of food production and sequester carbon in the soil.