Hello People, Goodbye Soil - Erosion Increased 100 Fold by Humans

A new study shows that removing native forest and starting intensive agriculture can accelerate erosion so dramatically that in a few decades as much soil is lost as would naturally occur over thousands of years.

LISSIE, TX - MARCH 12: Ronald Gertson, a fourth generation rice farmer, touches the soil in his rice field that may not be planted this year due to severe drought on March 12, 2014 in Lissie, Texas. Due to a severe drought afflicting the region, the facility closed as farmers like Gertson do not have enough water to grow a sufficient rice crop. Recently the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality agreed to cut off water deliveries to most rice farmers in the Lower Colorado River Basin for the third straight year as the lakes in central Texas are only 38 percent full. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

A new study shows that removing native forest and starting intensive agriculture can accelerate erosion so dramatically that in a few decades as much soil is lost as would naturally occur over thousands of years.

Had you stood on the banks of the Roanoke, Savannah, or Chattahoochee Rivers 100 years ago, you'd have seen a lot more clay soil washing down to the sea than before European settlers began clearing trees and farming there in the 1700s. Around the world, it is well known that deforestation and agriculture increases erosion above its natural rate.

"The Earth doesn't create that precious soil for crops fast enough to replenish what the humans took off" -Dylan Rood