Alternatives to peat in compost are needed to save the planet - Yorkshire Post Letters

Mr Peter Auty (Letters, December 14) says that Government plans to eliminate peat are calculated by “idiots” and promoted by “eco-warriors”.

His repeated strategy of using slurs and slogans to denigrate people he doesn’t agree with has a long unhappy history and it would be a good thing if he could restrain himself just a bit.

I don’t think that I am an idiot, neither am I a warrior, or even a zealot.

I just think that this country should play its part in addressing the global climate and natural catastrophe that we are all increasingly aware of.

Peat used in growing in this country has been responsible for tens of millions of tonnes of emissions within our lifetimes. This is a significant part of the current climate threat.

Mr Auty rightly says that the UK imports 60 per cent of its peat from EU countries which Mr Auty says are “sensible”, presumably compared to UK peat policy.

In fact the EU, including the Irish Republic, which has been a big contributor, is moving in much the same trajectory as the UK, because they face exactly the same problems that we do.

Europe generally (including us) has destroyed 50 per cent of its peatlands as a result of conversion to alternative purposes including mining. Contrary to Mr Auty’s suggestion, this is not replaced.

Healthy peat of the kind still sold in the UK grows at around 1mm per year, not 3cm as he says, and mining is entirely unsustainable anywhere in Europe, including the UK.

Greenhouse gas emissions from peat include the mining process itself, transport of a heavy product and conversion of almost all the organic carbon in peat used by growers over relatively few years.

Mr Auty will certainly not be replicating the carbon storage potential of a peat bog in his vegetable patch.

Additionally, destroyed peat bog no longer stores atmospheric carbon either so this potential carbon sink is lost more or less permanently.

Left in healthy wet bogs, peat does indeed grow as sphagnum moss decomposes. This kind of ecosystem is rich in threatened species. Mining peat in Britain contributes to loss of our biodiversity, and science is unanimous that European peat bogs are in need of urgent conservation.

Finally Mr Auty goes on to say that the real climate culprit is the destruction of forests. For some reason he singles out Pakistan in his list.

As the UK is the least forested country within our former EU membership group I don’t think he can lecture Pakistan.

He also forgets that burning fossil fuels is currently generating most global emissions and I’m afraid that per capita we are still amongst the worst offenders. My advice to Mr Auty: keep calm and explore peat alternatives. They work very well in my garden.