A clarion call to address the soil crisis

April was a cruel month for this region. Fine dust from the Sahara and Sahel enveloped us all, causing eyes to water, coughing, sneezing, and driving delicate souls indoors. Fine dust disappeared the Kyrenia and Troodos ranges in Cyprus, denied visibility to drivers navigating the broad highways in the UAE, forced devout Muslims to pray at home rather than in mosques in northern Saudi Arabia, closed schools in Jordan and trapped Iraqis in a thick orange cloud, grounding flights at airports. In Iraq hundreds were hospitalised with breathing difficulties while elsewhere people were advised to stay indoors. In some places dust was followed by brisk wind, grit and heavy rain.

Dust has increased over the past decade, with meteorologists recording both the highest density levels in the atmosphere ever reached before as well as the longest duration in many locations. While drought and climate change have been major contributors, the flight of farmers from parched fields in Syria, Jordan and Iraq and the abandonment of urban and suburban areas due to warfare have made a terrible situation worse.

While humans have been blamed for the desertification of the Sahara, which 11,000 years ago, supported vegetation and hosted oases and even lakes, scientists argue that the main causes of transformation seem to have been changes in the earth’s alignment, inconstant rainfall and climate change. Between 8,000-4,500 years ago the area grew dry and remained dry. Herders may have tipped the delicate balance by grazing their goats and cattle on the sparse vegetation, turning the land into desert. The process has not stopped: the Sahara is said to be 10 per cent larger today than a decade ago.

Environmentalists have been warning us for decades to abandon goats, in particular, and plant trees and vegetation cover to save the soil from wind and water erosion. Afflicted by phased drought for more than half a century, in the 1970s the Syrian government put goat meat on the army’s menu but this did not save the situation.

While environmentalists have striven vainly to awaken the global populace to dangers posed by soil loss leading to dust storms, there have been few high profile personalities who met the challenge. Over the last decade, one of India’s mystics Jaggi Vasudev, known as “Sadhguru,” has mounted campaigns in his own vast country and abroad with the aim of raising awareness to soil the natural resource, along with water and air, humankind cannot live without.

Altough in politics he is a controversial hardline Hindu, on the environmental plane, he is lauded by UN and other environmental agencies and world figures for taking up the neglected cause of preserving the earth’s soil. To this end, he has begun a 100-day, 30,000-kilometre motorcycle journey through 27 countries from London through Europe and this region to the Cauvery River Basin in South India.

During this tour he has been meeting environmentalists, celebrities and media folk. He is seeking to convince policymakers and the public to adopt soil regeneration as a urgent policy.

The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD) argues that more than “33 per cent of the Earth’s soils are already degraded and 90 per cent could become degraded by 2050. Currently one fifth of the global population lives and worked on degraded agricultural land.”

“I’m not a scientist, I’m not an environmentalist. I belong to the land, not to the lab, but I know there’s a soil crisis so I’m talking to as many heads of state, politicians, leaders, top scientists and influencers [as possible],” the former chicken farmer turned guru told the Guardian.

“We’re using both motorcycles and music to connect with people so that 3.5 billion citizens understand that we must address this problem right now in order to make a significant turnaround within the next 10 to 15 years. It’s about turning the science into a social movement because otherwise, nothing changes,” he stated, before leaving London on March 21st. At that point, 14 countries had signed a memorandum of understanding pledging to work together to promote global soil health.

On day 45 of his motorbike tour, he was in Jordan where he met Prince Hassan, chairman of the Royal Scientific Society. The Jordan Times reported that Sadhguru spoke of the “need to raise awareness of soil as a source of life, not just a resource [and noted] that land and soil restoration could resolve major environmental challenges, including climate change, biodiversity loss and ecosystem destruction.” Addressing a crowd he urged nations to make certain soil has three per cent organic content to keep it “alive.”

He warned that “by 2032 it is expected that 3.5 billion people on the planet could experience water stress, and coupled with degradation of soil, this will trigger mass migrations.”

He continued, ““Famines are not far away. Last year, the World Food Programme distributed food worth $9 billion. This year they want $15 billion… Do you think you can solve world’s problems [by] going on distributing food like this all over the world, do you think it’s a possibility? Unless food grows where people are, there is no real solution. If that has to happen, the soil has to be rich, there is no other way.”

Between May 18th and 20th, Sudhguru will be in the UAE where he will be hosted by the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment. While in the Emirates, he will visit Jubail mangrove park in Abu Dhabi, UNESCO World Heritage Site Al-Ain Oasis, and the Emirates Bio Farm. He will also address a crowd of 10,000 at Dubai’s World Trade Centre on the 20th. His ultimate, utopian aim is to convince half the world’s people to take soil seriously and do what is necessary to preserve this existential resource.