Soil carbon can help combat climate change.
We are tracking soil carbon change and have predicted the potential amount of carbon our soils could hold. Using that, you can see the areas where action can make the biggest impact.

Did you know? Globally, soils hold at least two trillion tonnes of organic carbon; around three times as much as the atmosphere.
But due to agriculture, the world’s soils have lost 116 billion tons of organic carbon or roughly a fourth of all carbon emitted by humans since the Industrial Revolution.
That means more carbon in the atmosphere, less productive soil for crops to grow in, and reduced ability for soil to retain water.
A relatively small increase in the soil organic carbon stocks in the topsoil would significantly reduce the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. When realised, such an increase would help to stabilise the climate and ensure food security.
Soil use and management have a direct effect on climate change by altering emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Judicious land management can reduce these emissions and remove CO2 from the atmosphere by storing it in the soil. Check out our maps with soil organic carbon predictions and trends for the past and for future scenarios.

Soils Revealed is a platform for visualizing how past and future management changes soil organic carbon stocks globally. It is based on the best, and sometimes only, available soil data, information about the environment and computer simulations over time. Projections for the coming decades are based on scenarios issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The platform provides a novel and dynamic way of displaying, and comparing areas with greatest potential to increase soil organic carbon and advance food security, soil health and climate action. Potential partners are encouraged to join this international effort to help gradually improve the platform.

In this map, you can:

see past estimates, current numbers, and future projections of the soil organic carbon in any place in the world;
explore future projections based on IPCC scenarios;
add layers;
explore different areas by drawing them out on the map.

The project involves collaboration with the following partners:

The Nature Conservancy
Cornell University
ISRIC World Soil Information
Woodwell Climate

and it is designed and developed by Vizzuality.