Soil is living and life-giving.
It's full of soil critters(some you can see and a lot you can't), air, water, and a lot of fabulous organicmaterial rich in minerals and nutrients. All these things work together to produce the food we eat.
When we remove forests and grasses and plow soil, we expose it to the power of:
Which keeps farmers, and people like Bill Nye, awake at night.
Erosion destroys the structure of soil life.
Edward Norton, aka Mr. Soil, is upset we let our rich top soil get carried off by the wind...
...and by the rain.
Listening to the soil means farming in ways that build healthy soil, like organic agriculture, which aims to build soil life, and keeping soil covered so it doesn't blow or flow away.
To learn more about the powerful forces that Bill Nye obsesses about, here's his full episode on erosion. So fun.