There is a problem about which hardly anybody spoke in the public. A problem that causes world wide water scarcity in the next one or two decades, global food shortage, security crisis and civil wars across the globe, including Europe, in the near future.

This problem makes up "one third of global carbon stock" (ELD Initiative), which accounts for a huge amount of the climate change we face. 

It's about our soil. Soil is sand and micro organisms put together. The way we progress right now in the agricultural lands is that we lose more and more micro organisms in the top soil, which means we get less food in the future and also losing its quality.

There is a solution to this problem. The Save Soil movement. It has already reached billions of people and made 74 nations, including Germany become an active player. 

As a student of the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität I am trying to make our university become more active on this issue. For that I have written a letter (see below) to our rector, Prof. Dr. Kerstin Krieglstein, where I state the problem we face, introducing the Save Soil movement and suggesting ideas on what we can do to make more people become aware of that. The more people are aware of that, the better are our chances to make a change.

Before I hand this letter to her, I want to higher our chances by getting as many supporters as possible. You can support by taking part in this petition.

 

Letter:

Dear Prof. Dr. Kerstin Krieglstein,

 

As you have probably noticed, the recent demonstrations in our university have shown that the students care deeply for the environment and are looking for a way in which the University of Freiburg, which is known to be environmentally oriented, can become a more active player.

 

I’m therefore writing you this letter, to propose a way which will enable the university to do so, without excluding any students or other parties and which will prevent tense demonstrations from taking place in the future.

 

Please allow me to introduce you to the Save Soil movement: A worldwide organisation which is making an effort to address and inspire at least 3.5 billion people (60% of the world’s electorate), to support long-term government policies to revitalise our soil.

 

And here’s why the health of our soil is currently of the greatest importance:

Did you know that: “Soil is the second largest carbon storage next to the oceans, and soil carbon accounts for one third of global carbon stock. The on-going degradation of land reduces soil’s capacity as carbon stock” (https://www.eld-initiative.org/fileadmin/pdf/ELD-pm-report_08_web_72dpi.pdf But there is not enough attention being paid to this cause. Across the globe, soil is dying and the United Nations says the world only has about 60 years of harvests left before cultivable soil becomes sand (Scientific American, 2014). The UN also estimated that by 2050, 90% of the world’s soil may be degraded (UNCCD, 2020). Knowing that 95% of the world's food comes from soil (FAO, 2019), we are soon facing a global food shortage, security crisis, water scarcity and civil wars across the globe, which will also be heavily felt in Germany.

 

As a volunteer of the Save Soil movement, I am inviting universities, academic staff and

students across the nation to take part in our global initiative Conscious Planet - Save Soil.

As I mentioned before, Save Soil is aiming to reach at least 3,5 billion people (currently estimated over 3 billion people worldwide have already been reached), to support long-term government policies to revitalise soil. Because the only way the necessary changes will happen, is when our governments will implement such policies. 

 

To activate and demonstrate the support of all our citizens, a 65 year old man travelled 30,000 km (in 100 days) on a motorcycle through 26 nations, addressing world leaders and handing them tailored policies for their countries. This historic happening has so far already been a great success and 74 nations (including Germany), have pledged their support. (You can find more details here: www.consciousplanet.org

 

Save Soil is also supported by Ibrahim Thiaw of the United Nations Convention to Combat

Desertification (UNCCD), His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, world renowned conservationist

Dr. Jane Goodall, music producer WILL.I.AM, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and many more.

 

And now we are asking you and this university to join us in making this change happen.

With your help, Prof. Dr. Kerstin Krieglstein, we can take huge steps in order to create more awareness concerning this problem. Here are 3 suggestions for what we could do at our university: 

 

●       Publishing an article about the Save Soil movement on all faculties webpages (the Save Soil logo on all main pages), including web links: https://www.consciousplanet.org/de and https://kit.savesoil.eu/students-for-soil We suggest that these should be online for at least 100 days.

●       Send an e-mail to all members of the university including the above mentioned article (written by Arwin Marbini), or a similar one, who could possibly mention Save Soil in the contact with their students.

●       Organise events such as lectures or workshops for students to participate in and learn more about the subject.

 

I am representing the Save Soil Students Group in Freiburg. For further questions and ideas on how to take action feel free to reach out to me and I would be happy to give you more suggestions or brainstorm with you about an appropriate action. 

 

The University of Freiburg cannot neglect the current state of our soil when already billions of people and 74 nations, including Germany, have responded and its students are demanding action.

 

Let us make it happen!

 

Kind Regards,

Save Soil Volunteer Arwin Marbini (Physics Department of the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität)

 

 

 

Social Media Links:

https://www.consciousplanet.org/what-science-says (scientific articles)

www.instagram.com/consciousplanet

www.facebook.com/consciousplanetmovement

Visit Savesoil.eu to find out more.

 

 

Video Links:

The Soil Story by Kiss The Ground - YouTube

Soil 101 - YouTube

Mission: Keep soil alive! - YouTube

Andy Murray: Photographing soil animals - YouTube

Why soil is one of the most amazing things on Earth | BBC Ideas - YouTube

 

 

Our Successes:

•           Powered by millions of volunteers.

•           Mass Tree Planting Marathon listed in the Guinness World Records

•           Winner of the highest environmental award in India

•           Convinced 125,000 farms to adopt tree-based agriculture.

•           Rally for Rivers