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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Article
Author(s)
Sezer Göncüoğlu
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DOI:10.17265/2162-5263/2015.01.007
Affiliation(s)
ABSTRACT
Soils are under threat around the world. Erosion, pollution,
salinization and acidification degrade soils irreversibly. Evidently, the rate of soil degradation greatly
exceeds the rate of soil formation. In some countries, soil lost is almost 100
times faster than the rate of its formation. Therefore, soil needs to be
considered as a
nonrenewable resource. Incessant construction activities along with
unsustainable mining operations and energy-related undertakings in recent years
have accelerated the degradation of soil in Turkey. Highway travellers can
witness the mindless plunder all over the land. As one travels smoothly on
newly constructed highways, looming along the roads are
piles of leftover destruction: heaps of broken
asphalt from previous roads; newly excavated topsoil dumped into adjacent
streams; eroded hillsides. In the age of global climate change, these so-called
development efforts sound incomprehensible since such anthropogenic activities exacerbate the change. Clearly, climate
change increases the erosion rates and reduces the soil quality. This fact
alone requires each country to adopt and implement sound conservation practices
to protect their soils, and hence, social stability and security. The most effective way to conserve soil is to establish
and maintain ground cover vegetation. Avoiding unnecessary soil sealing also
conserves soil.
KEYWORDS
Soil, degradation, erosion, global climate change.
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