While in India recently, CFAES scientist Rattan Lal sat for a fascinating interview with Rajya Sabha TV. Watch it above, and get a good idea of the deep, foundational importance of soil — to farming, climate change, biodiversity, water quality, human health and more — and a good idea, too, of the mind and passion of one of our college’s most esteemed thinkers.
‘It’s the action that’s needed’
“The scientific knowledge exists” to protect soils and make them better, Lal said in the interview. Doing this would make the planet and people’s lives better, too. The key, however, is “to translate the existing knowledge of science into action,” he said. “It’s the action that’s needed.”
Lal is Distinguished University Professor of Soil Science in CFAES’s School of Environment and Natural Resources; director of the college’s Carbon Management and Sequestration Center; and president of the International Union of Soil Sciences.
Rajya Sabha TV is owned and operated by the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India’s Parliament. The network broadcasts live coverage of the house’s proceedings, according to its Wikipedia entry, and “provides a platform for knowledge-based programmes for the discerning viewer.”