Earth

Soil is a Cinderella environmental issue. It doesn’t receive as much attention as air pollution, water quality or climate change. But, whether we realise it or not, society relies on healthy soil for the food we eat, for flood prevention, and for storing carbon. The Government says it wants our soil to be managed sustainably by 2030, but there is no evidence that it is putting in place the policies to make this happen.

Around 300,000 hectares of UK soil are thought to be contaminated with toxic elements – such as cadmium, arsenic and lead - as a result of the UK's industrial past, but the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has withdrawn capital grant funding for local authorities to clean up this contamination.

1.0614/647 Domestic rubbish being compacted on landfill site, Calvert, Bucks.

Parc National del Flamenco Mexicano de Celestun. This nature reserve, famous for its flamingos and the main source of tourist income in the area is being continually eroded by the overuse of existing lagoons for aquaculture & the devastation of existing forestry by flooding to create new lagoons.

Bare Fields Suffolk

1.0614/520 Drums of industrial waste stored awaiting incineration at the Rechem plant, Fawley, Southampton. 1993.

A very short sewage outfall runs across the tourist beach at Seaton Carew, UK depositing a rich mix of tampons, condoms, panty pads, raw sewage & other detritus.

1.0614/352 Used tyre dump in old quarry near Doncaster, Yorkshire.

1.0614/648 Domestic rubbish being compacted on landfill site, Calvert, Bucks.

New housing being built on brownfield Thames side site heavily contaminated with lead, other metals and organics. Isle of Dogs, London 1998.

Land heavily contaminated by lead workings undergoing remediation. Only a few specialised plants can survive on the polluted soil. Lead and other heavy metals remaining leach into the ground water poisoning plants, animals & people..

Drought in Ban Huay Ko, Thailand following floods that destroyed most of the buildings in the village. Intensive illegal logging has stripped the hillsides bare so rain runs off as floods & the soil retains no water for agriculture.

Cromer, North Norfolk Coast 1989. Take an unspoilt stretch of coastline and cover it with cheap caravans. High density tourim causes pollution and associated activities totally alter the nature of local habitats.

Farm waste and rubbish dumped on Dartmoor.

Stolen car dumped by joy riders on Cooling Marshes near Cliffe on the Kent coast. Thames Estuary, UK.

Dumped computers and domestic waste, Holly Hill, Kent.

Semi derelict industrial land behind Tower Hamlets cemetery, London.

1.0614/262 Domestic rubbish being compacted on landfill site, Calvert, Bucks.

1.0614/792 Rubbish dumped near landfill site including a used hypodermic syringe with needle, 1993.

Rubbish dumped on 'playground area' of housing estate, East London.

Private company employed by local council in Tower Hamlets to test residential land for soil contamination.