Out of the Earth

Disciplines Sciences Ecology, Environment, Evolution Conservation

About the Book

As the crucible of life, the source and final resting place of everything that grows, soil inspires reverence not only in the peasant who derives his daily bread from it, but also in the scientist who contemplates its meaning as the place where life and death meet and exchange vital energies. Out of the Earth is the culmination of the author's long career in conservation. This history of man's use and misuse of soil and water combines a description of the complex inner processes that form soil with a lyrical assertion of its powers and significance.

Reviews

"Daniel Hillel is a master at presenting complex scientific concepts in a dynamic, lively style. He also demonstrates unusual mastery in articulating the historical framework of the present crisis, providing a perspective on the peaks and valleys of the long-standing relationship between the soil and man."—Shawki Barghouti, Chief of Agriculture Production and Services, The World Bank

Acknowledgments

I FOR SOIL THOU ART
1 Prologue
2 Man's Role on God's Earth

II THE NATURE OF SOIL AND WATER
3 The Fertile Substrate
4 The Vital Fluid
5 The Dynamic Cycle
6 The Primary Producers
7 The Tenuous Balance

III THE LESSONS OF THE PAST
8 Human Origins
9 The Agricultural Transformation
10 Early Farming in the Near East
11 Silt and Salt in Mesopotamia
12 The Gifts of the Nile
13 Husbandry of the Rain-fed Uplands
14 The Desert Rejoiced
15 Tapping the Underground Waters
16 Farming the Wetlands of Mesoamerica
17 The Advent of Chemical Fertilizers

IV THE PROBLEMS OF THE PRESENT
18 Saline Seeps in Australia and North America
19 The Promise and Peril of Irrigation
20 Accelerated Erosion
21 The "Sorrow of China"
22 Deforesting the Earth
23 Man-Made Deserts
24 The Plight of Africa
25 Endangered Wetlands
26 Sweet Water and Bitter
27 Water Management in Israel
28 Abusing the Living Filter

V UNTO SOIL SHALT THOU RETURN
29 A Global Accounting
30 A Case for Conditional Optimism

Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index