Abstract

From the past to the future, the development of human civilization has been closely related to the Earth's soil. However, we are now on the planet with the productive forces of soil resources that are gradually exhausting. In many agricultural areas, crop yields have been devastated by heavy soil erosion. Nitrogen fertilizers and fossil fuels in geological reservoirs tend to be scarce, resulting in both the increase of agricultural production costs and the increase of geopolitical conflict. Global warming, on the other hand, accelerates microbial greenhouse gases (GHG) released in soils and has a key role in recent climate change. In this paper, we show the challenges faced by human beings in the 21st century because of the direct and indirect responses of the soil expansion made by human past and future activities. We also stress that soil and forest are the future survival and development key factors for human beings. This global trend of development should be the recommendations for Taiwanese future development policy of land and forest.

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