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.
Mark - As you'll know the Forestry Commission has recognised that trees aren't the best - and in England a major project is restoring the Border Mires, a European SAC, taking the trees off and blocking drains over a series of large bogs. I'd always thought it took forever for a bog to recover - what amazed me was the speed the sphagnum moss comes back once the bog is wet again. That, of course, isn't the same as restoring the total hydrology but in this nutrient impoversihed environment the growth of the bright green moss is impressive.
Hear, hear to the levy, it is just rediculous the we should be trashing the natural world, as well as making climate change worse and hence harming ourselves, when there are plenty of alternative peat free composts available produced from mostly recycled green waste. I have written to my MP asking him to impress upon the Treasury the need to take action in the coming budget to bring this business of peat extraction and import to a halt as quickly as possible. Such action would also give the recycling industry a boost and indirectly save the Country money.