People need natural resources in order to live. A lot of our natural resources are limited, like oil and coal. We must use them wisely because once they are gone, we will have no more of them. A few resources are renewable. This means that they can grow again in time, after being used. Trees and soil are renewable resources, but we are using them faster than they are able to grow. It takes longer to renew soil than to grow trees.

      When a plant or animal dies, it is eaten by decomposers. Decomposers are small animals, like worms, that turn dead plants and animals into nutrient-rich soil. This nutrient-rich soil will then help other plants to grow, so they can be eaten by other animals. Later, these new plants and animals will die and be part of the soil again. This is the soil cycle. You may not have noticed it, but almost everything we eat and use come from the land. Our lands, however, arenow faced with destruction. We waste the paper, food, metals and other resources the land provides, by producing far more than we need.

      A lot of these resources end up as wastes. We produce wastes very fast, so that the land cannot dispose of them naturally anymore. Normally, nature recycles all of its wastes through decomposition. But fast waste build-up stops this. The wastes we produce pollute the soil. After a long time, accumulated wastes produce leachate, a black slime of chemical liquid that stops the soil from helping plants to grow. Aside from the loads of garbage we dump on the soil, the chemicals we use to spray plants also pollute the soil. Poor agricultural practices contribute to soil erosion. Strip mining peels off the topsoil of the land, making it unproductive. Population explosion presents another threat, as farms and forests are gobbled up, to make room for new houses, offices and factories.

      Fortunately, everything is not yet lost. We can do something to save our soil. We can help in solving the garbage problem, by reusing some of the things that we consider junk. We can cut down on packaging. We can buy drinks in returnable bottles. We can sort out our trash, and make money in the process. We can make compost heaps at home. Farmers can plan the use of their lands. We can avoid overusing them, by not planting the same crop every year. We can minimize the use of chemical fertilizers, and help the soil go through its natural cycle. If we combine our efforts in saving our soil, there is no reason why we should not succeed.