Ground breaking : soil security and climate change / Phillip Mulvey & Freya Mulvey

Zero carbon emissions alone won't stop global warming. Agricultural land use is turning the world's breadbaskets into deserts. But the depleted soil that feeds us all today might yet save our civilisation. In Western Australia, the rabbit-proof fence presents the world's largest study of contrasting land management within the same vast region. The 'Bunny Fence Experiment' is strong evidence that clearing and cropping is a major reason rainfall dropped by 20% in the Wheat Belt between 1976 and 2002, and continues to drop. Ground Breaking explains how modern farming methods deplete the soil and influence our climate: exporting heat waves, dust, and fire south-eastward in Eastern Australia and north-westward in Western America. It presents solutions too: managing land use to reduce bare ground, restore the small water cycle and sequester carbon in the soil.