Tea-Tales

Soil is responsible for a large share of the greenhouse gas emissions, both naturally and due to land use changes. To better understand what drives the processes responsible for these emissions, a global decomposition map was created.

We propose to extend the map with a user-friendly web-interface to empower stakeholders in Sweden and across the world to make research informed decisions on the implementation and follow-up of climate change mitigation efforts and inspire citizens to adapt sustainable lifestyles regarding their use of soils.

The map is based on mass loss measurements of tea bags buried in the soil for three months.

This simple method can be conducted by anyone and comparing own (local) data with map based (regional) data will increase understanding of soils and helps to draw informed conclusions.

Since the map was a democratic effort, the assessment tool will be developed by co-creation of teachers, farmers and gardeners.

It will be accompanied by an inspiring lesson plan and short video messages of people telling their stories (tales) about tea bag decomposition and soil health.

The tea tales project provides understanding of what your own experimental results tell you about your soil and highlights and synthesizes the (tea bag research) tales of previous users.

Together, this will inform and inspire users to tell their own tea tales, inspire others and make a knowledge-based change towards sustainable use of soils.