Soil and other Earth scientists who conduct research on C management found themselves, in the past decade within a swirl of efforts concerning climate mitigation, economic and business investments in carbon markets, and political aspirations. All these external pressures are issues with which soil science is largely unfamiliar. As a result, science has responded without deeply considering the landscape in which it finds itself, and some of the unanticipated challenges these issues present. Here, we suggest soil C scientists now consider and respond to these issues. The first order challenge is to transition from the concept of technical carbon sequestration potentials, made in the absence of social and policy contexts, to societally achievable sequestration estimates based on highly transdisciplinary teams of natural and social sciences and scientists. To achieve this will requires re-thinking national science funding programs, in which climate-relevant social science is under-funded. In addition, the science of soil C itself is in need of a priority shift. Presently, publications in soil C sequestration out-strip papers on soil feedbacks to climate change, and on how to adapt soil to climate change: two areas of research which may well be more societal important in the next few decades than sequestering C. Most seriously, given the urgent nature of our collective societal climate problem, our profession must not find itself a decade from now continuing the now 20-year-old narrative that soil C can potentially mitigate climate change and compensate for greenhouse gas emissions. We must consider the possibility that other options and expenditures of resources are more viable, and we must reframe our science’s objectives to expand into the many other urgent needs that confront humanity.

从事碳管理研究的土壤和其他地球科学家发现，在过去的十年中，他们正在努力应对气候变化、碳市场的经济和商业投资以及政治抱负。所有这些外部压力都是土壤科学在很大程度上不熟悉的问题。结果，科学在没有深入考虑它所处的环境以及这些问题所带来的一些意料之外的挑战的情况下做出了回应。在这里，我们建议土壤碳科学家现在考虑并应对这些问题。第一个挑战是从在缺乏社会和政策背景下提出的技术碳封存潜力概念转变为社会可实现的概念基于高度跨学科的自然和社会科学团队和科学家的封存估计。要实现这一目标，需要重新考虑国家科学资助计划，其中与气候相关的社会科学资金不足。此外，土壤碳科学本身也需要重点转移。目前，土壤固碳方面的出版物超过了关于土壤对气候变化的反馈以及如何使土壤适应气候变化的论文：这两个研究领域在未来几十年可能比固碳更具社会意义。最严重的是，鉴于我们集体社会气候问题的紧迫性，我们的职业不能在十年后发现自己继续现在已有 20 年历史的说法，即土壤 C 可以潜在地缓解气候变化并补偿温室气体排放。