Soil: Intelligent Design Beneath Our Feet

Climate models and policies under-
estimate soils’ central role in temper-
ature balance and the carbon cycle.

Soils: The Intelligent Design Beneath Our Feet
and its Role in Climate Models

 by Sarah Buckland-Reynolds, PhD

The 30^th Conference of Parties (COP30) took place in Brazil from November 10-21, 2025, where global thought leaders in climate including scientists, government representatives and activists gathered to exchange ideas and outline pathways for meeting climate pledges. Amidst the policy discussions, an advocacy group called Conscious Planet raised concerns that a key component of the integrated climate ecosystem continues to be underemphasized in climate negotiations, particularly in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs): soils.

In an extensive global analysis of updated NDC’s from the United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Conscious Planet published targeted recommendations informing COP30’s Save Soil Policy Team. They assessed the shortfalls of each country’s NDC in not including soil as an “explicit standalone priority” in their targets. This extensive analysis caught the attention of popular outlets such as The Conversation, “How soil could help us reach climate targets,” November 13, 2025, which pointed out that key stewardship actions are still being neglected: actions that could reshape estimates of the earth’s carbon cycle and significantly influence global climate outlooks. Yet beyond its scientific role, soil reveals something deeper that deserves our attention: the intricate design of earth’s soils points to intelligence and purpose rather than random evolution. This reflection will explore the intelligent design evident in soil, briefly examine how climate policy treats soils, and conclude with a Scriptural perspective on stewardship.

The Intelligent Design of Earth’s Soil

Soil is often described as a “living ecosystem” of extraordinary complexity, sometimes described as the “living, breathing skin of the earth.” Earth’s soils consist of mineral particles, organic matter, water, air, and billions of microorganisms, all interacting in a finely tuned balance. What makes Earth’s soils unique is that they are living, carbon‑rich ecosystems, unlike the barren regolith found on other planets. While Mars and other planetary bodies may show surface patterns that resemble soil structures, they lack the biological activity, organic matter, and water cycles that make Earth’s soils dynamic and capable of sustaining life.

Earth’s soils play a pivotal role in planetary balance in several key ways, including its:

• Carbon storage capacity: Soils contain more carbon than the atmosphere and all vegetation combined, making them one of the most important components of Earth’s carbon cycle. The massive capacity of this carbon sink is a crucial stabilizing design feature that helps regulate Earth’s climate. The advocacy group Conscious Planet highlights this significance, noting:

“Recent research has dramatically highlighted the significance of soil, suggesting that Earth’s soil carbon stocks are 45% higher than previously thought (Crézé et al. 2025; also see Gonzalez, 2018). This makes soil health perhaps the most urgent and undervalued climate mitigation strategy available.”

• Microbial networks: Beyond storing carbon, Earth’s soils host vast microbial communities that decompose organic matter, fix nitrogen, and form symbiotic relationships with plant roots. These networks operate like miniature economies, exchanging resources with remarkable precision, and play an essential role in plant health and global food production.
• Layered horizons: Soils form distinct horizons (topsoil, subsoil, parent material), each performing specialized functions that regulate water flow, nutrient cycling, and root penetration. This stratification is not random; it is structured in a way that sustains and supports life.
• Hydrological regulation: The pore spaces within soil absorb water during rainfall and release it gradually. This buffering capacity reduces flooding, supports ecosystems, and sustains crops during periods of drought.

Such features are not found in the soils of other planets. The deep interdependence between soil and Earth’s biological and physical systems challenges the idea that soils emerged through slow, unguided processes. For instance, without microbial life, nutrient cycling would collapse. Without organic matter, water retention and fertility would fail. Soil functions only because of multiple components—microbes, minerals, organic material, water, and plant life—operate together from the start. This kind of irreducible complexity points to intentional design.  How could such a tightly integrated, interdependent system arise step-by-step through evolution?

Soil’s Potential in Climate Mitigation

Despite soil’s central role in the carbon cycle and overall ecological balance, climate models and national pledges often treat it as secondary. Soil briefly gained attention at COP21 with initiatives such as the “4 per 1000” program in Paris, which proposed that increasing global soil organic carbon stocks by just 0.4% annually could offset annual greenhouse gas emissions.

Yet in most Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) soil appears only indirectly, embedded in agriculture or adaptation sectors. Very few pledges include explicit soil carbon targets, while climate models continue to emphasize fossil-fuel emissions and forestry. Conscious Planet warned that without clear metrics and commitments, soils are unlikely to receive the funding or priority they require. The national implications of these are substantial. For example, Conscious Planet estimated that the United Kingdom could lose as much as 7% of its potential emission reductions by 2050 if soil health is not fully integrated into its sustainability plans.

Soils are ecosystems of minerals, bacteria, fungi, and nutrients that promote growth.

Realizing the long-underestimated value of soil in climate projections, Conscious Planet sought to quantify how much soils could contribute to reducing atmospheric carbon. Drawing on their 2023 estimates —and using current climate-model assumptions about the relationships among key variables—they found that agricultural soils alone could potentially absorb roughly 27% of the emissions required to keep global temperatures from rising above 2°C. Yet the magnitude of underestimation of earth’s carbon sinks is enormous. For example, research cited in their analysis, such as Gonzales et al (2018) suggests that soils in the southeastern United States alone may contain over one billion tons of carbon that had not been included in earlier models. These findings underscore a persistent problem: despite its massive storage capacity and stabilizing role, soil remains disproportionately underemphasized in national adaptation and mitigation plans.

Advocating for ‘Regenerative Agriculture’: Back to Ancient Biblical Wisdom

Conscious Planet further highlighted an important pathway to maximize the ecological benefits of soils for climate stabilization: A practice called ‘Regenerative Agriculture’ (RA). This approach incorporates a suite of practices that preserve and restore soil health —such as minimizing soil disturbance, maintaining soil cover, and periodically resting the farmland by not planting during certain fallow periods, but allowing wild plant cover from previous harvests to remain on the land. Interestingly, this wisdom coincides well with Biblical guidelines of resting land every seven years, written about 1400 BC (Leviticus 25). Yet, modern agriculture and climate science continues to uncover benefits of this practice beyond the spiritual, not only for plant health, but also for improved efficiency of ecological balance mechanisms!

Reverting to our Foundations: The Dust of the Earth

Amid modern technological advances, climate adaptation dialogue has returned to the very same system that, according to Scripture, played a role in the formation of human life on earth: the soil of the ground. Although the scientific community increasingly recognizes soil’s multifunctional ecological importance, the language surrounding it remains framed in evolutionary terms—microbes “adapt,” plants “evolve” root exudates; ecosystems “develop” resilience. Yet such explanations overlook the remarkable precision embedded in soil systems.

Evolutionary narratives struggle to account for why soil systems are so finely tuned for resilience, productivity, and climate stability. Intelligent design offers a more coherent explanation: soil was created with a purpose—to sustain creation/life and regulate Earth’s climate. Its interdependence, complexity, and multifunctionality make it clear that soil is not an accident of natural processes but a purposeful provision, a medium through which God continues to uphold creation.

As the article urges policymakers to rediscover the foundational importance of soils for a sustainable future, we are reminded of the vast complexities of our world that make climate science a work in progress. And beyond the science, with each step we take on the soil beneath our feet, let us remember that even soils point us to an All-Wise Creator. Stewarding soil wisely is not only beneficial for our climate and ecosystems around us; it is also a Scriptural calling. By protecting and restoring soil, we honor God’s design and fulfill our role as faithful stewards of His creation.

Dr. Sarah Buckland-Reynolds is a Christian, Jamaican, Environmental Science researcher, and journal associate editor. She holds the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Geography from the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona with high commendation, and a postgraduate specialization in Geomatics at the Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia. The quality of her research activity in Environmental Science has been recognized by various awards including the 2024 Editor’s Award from the American Meteorological Society for her reviewing service in the Weather, Climate and Society Journal, the 2023 L’Oreal/UNESCO Women in Science Caribbean Award, the 2023 ICETEX International Experts Exchange Award for study in Colombia. and with her PhD research in drought management also being shortlisted in the top 10 globally for the 2023 Allianz Climate Risk Award by Munich Re Insurance, Germany. Motivated by her faith in God and zeal to positively influence society, Dr. Buckland-Reynolds is also the founder and Principal Director of Chosen to G.L.O.W. Ministries, a Jamaican charitable organization which seeks to amplify the Christian voice in the public sphere and equip more youths to know how to defend their faith.