Stop the Pollution!
This invisible affliction appears when the concentration of pollutants on the surface becomes so high that it harms land biodiversity and endangers health, particularly through food. Activities such as stock breeding and intensive farming use chemicals, pesticides and fertilisers that pollute the land, just as happens with heavy metals and other natural and man-made chemical substances. Soil pollution is a global threat that is particularly serious in regions like Europe, Eurasia, Asia and North Africa, as indicated by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The FAO also affirms that both intense and even moderate degradation is already affecting one third of the world's soil. Moreover, recovery is so slow that it would take 1,000 years to create a 1 centimetre layer of arable soil. Phenomena such as erosion, loss of organic carbon, increased salt content, compacting, acidification and chemical pollution are the major causes of current soil degradation. Among the most common causes of soil contamination caused by human activity, the FAO highlights industry, mining, military activities, waste — which includes technological waste — and wastewater management, farming, stock breeding the building of urban and transport infrastructures.
The toxic substances that are deposited on the earth's surface harm our health and well-being and affect food, water and air quality. The most important effects of soil pollution according to IPBES and the FAO are the following. Contaminated soil can damage health because soil pollutants enter our body through the food chain, causing illnesses to appear. Moreover, the spread of antibiotics in the environment increases the pathogens' resistance to these drugs. Another consequence is population displacement. Soil degradation and climate change will have driven between 50 and 700 million people to emigrate by 2050. Species extinction is also a serious problem that soil pollution can bring about. Soil contamination is one of the main causes that could trigger the sixth mass extinction event in history — the population of land vertebrates fell by 38 % between 1970 and 2012. In addition, there is desertification. The number of inhabitants in the most arid areas of the earth could account for 45 % of the world's population in 2050, while world wetland areas have decreased in size by 87 % over the last three centuries.