--- title: How Dirt Can Help Solve Climate Change description: How soil can solve climate change, why the fight against NC's 'bathroom bill' matters, and more. canonical: https://time.com/4338546/dirt-solve-climate-change/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-17T16:01:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:59:59.927Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How Dirt Can Help Solve Climate Change og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4338546/dirt-solve-climate-change/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Dirt Can Help Solve Climate Change twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # How Dirt Can Help Solve Climate Change by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute May 17, 2016 4:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute May 17, 2016 4:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**To fight climate change, protect the soil — and its microbes.**](http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/how-soil-microbes-fight-climate-change/) By Esther Ngumbi in Scientific American **2\.** [**Here’s why the Justice Department’s stand on North Carolina’s so-called ‘Bathroom Bill’ is so important.**](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/henry-wilde/we-should-all-be-more-lik%5Fb%5F9953660.html) By Henry Wilde in Huffington Post **3\.** [**Where a résumé falls short, can ‘microcredentials’ fill the gap?**](http://www.urban.org/urban-wire/how-cities-are-expanding-access-college-and-careers-digital-age) By Don Baylor at the Urban Institute **4\.** [**Apple is the new IBM.**](http://qz.com/685284/apple-is-the-new-ibm/) By Matt Phillips in Quartz **5\.** [**Find out how solar power brought Muslims and Jews together in one West Bank village.**](http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2016/0515/How-solar-brought-Muslims-and-Jews-together-in-one-West-Bank-village) By Lonnie Shekhtman in the Christian Science Monitor  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4338546/dirt-solve-climate-change/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4338546/dirt-solve-climate-change/"},"headline":"How Dirt Can Help Solve Climate Change","datePublished":"2016-05-17T16:01:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:59:59.927Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4338546/dirt-solve-climate-change/","keywords":["Innovation","Apple","climate","Israel","North Carolina"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4338546/dirt-solve-climate-change/","name":"How Dirt Can Help Solve Climate Change"}}]}] ```