There is four times as much carbon stored in our peat bogs as in our woodlands. And yet the save our bogs campaign has hardly got off the ground - or should that be into it?
In fact, 60% of the peat we use is imported from Ireland so we are now trashing somebody else's bogs. But the carbon released from oxidised peat affects us all and every other living thing on Earth. We should let sleeping bogs lie rather than stir up their carbon stores. Our annual peat use is the equivalent of a staggering 300,000 cars on the road. And it does count in the UK carbon inventory so reducing these emissions would help towards the legally binding 80% reduction target by 2050.
I was on the Today programme on Radio 4 yesterday talking about this stuff. Having been in our little studio at the Lodge at 7am I finally got to have my chat with John Humphrys at around 0840.
A group of organisations is calling for a peat levy - a tax on peat sales. The government claims to be keen on green taxes so here is one that will raise a small amount of money but help habitat conservation and climate change all in one go. Previous governments have tried a voluntary approach which worked a bit but not nearly as much as hoped. A ban on peat use seems a little heavy handed but but would be simple and effective. If a voluntary approach can only go so far and regulation is not flavour of the decade then a peat levy may be the only effective alternative to sticking your head in the peat.
This is a repeat of something I posted on an earlier blog but maybe not many people saw it;
There is never any mention about the vast peatlands which are farmed in SE England. Some of these cultivated peat areas have shrunk in volume by a huge amount since the soil has been aerated by ploughing and fertilisers spread which increase the rate of peat breakdown. The total peat loss here must be much greater than that ever used in horticulture. But maybe we shouldn't upset the farmers by stopping this activity !
Our UK peat resources are a drop in the ocean compared to those of the more northern lands and here a decline in the permafrost areas of this peat has led to a vast increase in CO2 releases as this peat thaws and decays.Our emmissions of CO2 from peat are miniscule in comparison.
And what about the irish solid fuel electric generators which burn peat as a source of fuel. I am sure that no attempt will have been made to stop this.
And what of the solutions? : perhaps ship a finite quantity of coconut fibre half way around the world at even higher environmental costs.
Most of the horticultural industry has attempted to lower the amount of peat used. Growing compost can be composed of sterilised loam, composted bark, chippings and a much lower proportion of peat. It is possible to use 30% of previous peat usage without much problem. Composts with no peat cause massive problems with water retention and many horticultural firms have tried peat free composts and found that they were unsuitable.
There is a type of solution and this is to use blond peat from russia. This peat is only a year or two old and can be harvested on a sustainable basis, in that the sphagnum is growing and is being replenished as fast as it is being harvested. It still has the same water retention properties.