the.com/dirt
the cosmic recycling bin where dead things become next year's tomatoes
means Loose earth, soil, or any grime and filth that clings to surfaces — and, by extension, scandalous gossip about someone.
from From Middle English 'drit,' meaning mud, filth, or excrement, borrowed from Old Norse 'drit' (dung). At some point English speakers swapped the letters around — a process called metathesis — turning 'drit' into 'dirt,' the same way 'bird' came from older 'brid.' The sense of muck for digging dirt on someone is a much later figurative twist.
- living world
- a teaspoon holds more microbes than humans on Earth
- slow build
- one inch of topsoil takes centuries to form
- smell of rain
- that earthy scent is bacteria called actinomycetes
- carbon vault
- soil stores more carbon than atmosphere and plants combined
atacama desert — driest place on earth with some regions never recording rainfall in recorded history
chernobyl exclusion zone — ukrainian soil contaminated with radioactive material since 1986 nuclear disaster
mount isa mines — queensland australia copper and zinc mining operation that moves 130 million tons of ore annually