We generally think of climate change as a story of sky – of emitted gases, of atmospheric carbon levels, of storms. Author Kristin Ohlson would like to direct our gaze earthward, to take a long, hard look at the dirt beneath our feet. We may have overlooked a solution there.

In her sometimes breathless but important new book, “The Soil Will Save Us,” Ohlson lays out a thesis that farmers and climate researchers have been talking about for decades: that a change in farming and forestry techniques could sequester enough carbon in the ground to not only mitigate but reverse global warming.

Yes, it’s a long shot. But this is one of those accessible and well-written science books that walks the lay reader through the development of an idea as it begins to take on relevancy and impact, in scenes describing breakthroughs as they happen on farms and soil labs all over the world.

Ohlson is not a soil scientist, but she is no stranger to journalistic explorations of deep, dark mystery: Her book “Stalking the Divine” hushed us into the world of cloistered nuns in Cleveland and, as co-author of “Kabul Beauty School,” she went “behind the veil” in a unique cosmetology […]