Thank you for this wonderful post! I thought I was the only one who worried about this issue. Globally the loss and destruction of fertile topsoil is one of the biggest problems facing humanity and our continued survival. Unlike toxics, radiation or global warming it doesn’t get the sensational press but it’s quite serious. I have only seen this addressed in scholarly journals and UN Reports in regard to agricultural soils but as this article effectively demonstrates, it is a problem in nearly all human altered landscapes. The solution is not complex-but it will require a real shift in worldview for most colonized people.
This is the time of year when the leaves all drop in their delightfully whimsical fashion. And yet, it seems that fall is not an enjoyable time for many, especially if those leaves end up on the lawn. I’ve discussed problems with the practice of keeping a lawn before, and today, I’d like to look at our relationship to leaves and typical practices for dealing with leaves. People spend quite a bit of their own energy and fossil fuel energy removing leaves from their lawns (raking, blowing, mowing, and so on). These leaves seem to end up in three places for a typical American household in the sprawling urban and suburban areas:
- In bags on the side of the roads for “compost” (most common in my area by far)
- Blown onto the side of the road and left there and/or picked up by the city (more typical in urban settings)
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Spirit In Action 