Earth's dirty little secret: Slowly but surely we are skinning
our planet That process is being repeated today, but in a new
book a University of Washington geomorphologist argues the
results could be far more disastrous for humans because there
are very few places left with fertile soil to feed large
populations, and farming practices still trigger large losses of
rich dirt. "We're doing the same things today that past
societies have done, and at the same rate," said David
Montgomery, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences who
studies the evolution and structure of the various aspects of
the Earth's surface. In essence, he said, we are slowly removing
our planet's life-giving skin. Montgomery is the author of
"Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations," in which he examines how
soil is slowly created over time, the vital role it has played
in the rise and fall of civilizations from Mesopotamia to Rome,
and how it shaped where and how we live today. The 295-page
book, published by the University of California Pr