Soil Quality Management to Reduction of CO2 Emission: A Global View.

Lal, Rattan

Advancing Climate, Food, Soil and Water Security by Enhancing U.S.-Sino Research Collaboration

U.S. and China are the world’s largest consumers of energy. Being the most populous country (1.3 billion), the per capita energy consumption in China is about 23% of that in the U.S. Furthermore, China supports 20% of the world population on merely 7% of the global arable land area and 5% of the renewable fresh water resources.  As the most rapidly growing economy, sustainable management of natural resources and food security in China would also affect those of the world. There exists a strong link between soil security on the one hand and food security, water security and climate security on the other. In the era of intense globalization and inter-dependence, adverse impacts of anthropogenic perturbations on natural resources in China and elsewhere would also jeopardize these in the world. Yet, soil and water resources of China are prone to degradation and pollution by over exploitation. Therefore, research and academic institutions in U.S. can play a pivotal role in advancing global security of soil, climate food and water by enhancing U.S.-Sino research cooperation. Building upon each other’s strength, minimizing redundancy, and enhancing synergies and complimentarily would reverse the downward spiral, promote green economy, and make agriculture integral to any solution to improving the environment while advancing food security and restoring degraded soils and ecosystems.