Cows Save the Planet: And Other Improbable Ways of Restoring Soil to Heal the Earth

Schwartz reveals that for many of these problems—climate change, desertification, biodiversity loss, droughts, floods, wildfires, rural poverty, malnutrition, and obesity—there are positive, alternative scenarios to the degradation and devastation we face. In each case, our ability to turn these crises into opportunities depends on how we treat the soil.

Drawing on the work of thinkers and doers, renegade scientists and institutional whistleblowers from around the world, Schwartz challenges much of the conventional thinking about global warming and other problems. For example, land can suffer from undergrazing as well as overgrazing, since certain landscapes, such as grasslands, require the disturbance from livestock to thrive. Regarding climate, when we focus on carbon dioxide, we neglect the central role of water in soil—”green water”—in temperature regulation. And much of the carbon dioxide that burdens the atmosphere is not the result of fuel emissions, but from agriculture; returning carbon to the soil not only reduces carbon dioxide levels but also enhances soil fertility.

Cows Save the Planet is at once a primer on soil’s pivotal role in our ecology and economy, a call to action, and an antidote to the despair that environmental news so often leaves us with.

About the Author

Judith D. Schwartz is an author who tells stories to explore and illuminate scientific concepts and cultural nuance. She takes a clear-eyed look at global environmental, economic, and social challenges, and finds insights and solutions in natural systems.

"Cows Save the Planet and Other Improbable Ways of Restoring Soil to Heal the Earth" is a soils-eye look at the world: at once a primer on soil’s pivotal role in our ecology and economy, a call to action, and an antidote to the despair environmental news so often leaves us with. Soil represents that fateful point where earth and sky meet, and our future turns on how we treat it.

In "Water In Plain Sight: Hope for a Thirsty World" we meet water innovators from Zimbabwe, Mexico, Australia and across the U.S.: these stories show how water intersects with climate, biodiversity, food security, and peace and conflict, and how understanding how water works—the way it moves across the landscape and through the atmosphere—will help us address our many global challenges.

Her latest book, “The Reindeer Chronicles and Other Inspiring Stories of Working With Nature to Heal the Earth”, is a global tour of earth repair, featuring stops in Norway, Spain, Hawai’i, New Mexico, and beyond. We know our natural world is under great stress. The book explores the question: How do we reckon with this, and where do we go from here?

Judy has a B.A. from Brown University, an M.S.J. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and an M.A. in Counseling Psychology from Northwestern. She writes for numerous publications, including The American Prospect, The Guardian, Discover, Scientific American, and YaleE360. She lives and works on the side of a mountain in Vermont with her husband, author Tony Eprile, and cherishes visits from their musician son, Brendan. When it snows, she cross-country skis, and when ski season is over, she’s in the garden. Three times a week she trains in Uechi-Ryu karate, and has reached the rank of shodan. Visit her website at www.judithdschwartz.com