Earth is losing dirt at an alarming rate

• Nutrient-rich topsoil is being eroded much faster than it can be replenished, experts say.

  Tom Paulson / Seattle Post-Intelligencer

  SEATTLE — The planet is getting skinned.

• “The estimate is that we are now losing about 1 percent of our topsoil every year to erosion, most of this caused by agriculture.”

• “Globally, it’s clear we are eroding soils at a rate much faster than they can form,” said John Reganold, a soils scientist at Washington State University. “It’s hard to get people to pay much attention to this because, frankly, most of us take soil for granted.”

• The National Academy of Sciences has determined that cropland in the U.S. is being eroded at least 10 times faster than the time it takes for lost soil to be replaced.

• Topsoil grows back at a rate of an inch or two over hundreds of years.

• “We don’t have the kind of dust storms here we used to have,” Myhrum said. “What’s more alarming to me than erosion is conversion of farmland to urban use.”