Embrace net zero rather than bash it

PETER Auty (Mail Box, March 4) advocates peat mining in the UK. I wish to be kind and mindful of Peter’s sincere views, however, it is important to correct misunderstandings.

1. Whether UK extraction is large or small as a percentage relative to global peat deposits is completely beside the point. The only issue here is the hundreds of thousands of tonnes of CO2 released annually by UK peat-mining, and the loss of a beneficial carbon sink.

2. Peat is a good medium for growing. However, this is also beside the point. Its use is a problem because it is unsustainable. CO2 emissions from peat remain active for centuries, while cultivated plants grown on peat do not permanently sequester carbon.

3. “Restored” peat bogs do not as has been claimed by Peter make several centimetres of peat annually. They just don’t.

4. Coir peat-alternatives have pluses and negatives. There are negatives with any production process, but critically, coir does not involve converting a long-term carbon sink into CO2. The issues and risks are very different. If as is planned peat is banned in the UK, there will be a market incentive to improve growing mediums. Gardeners will adapt accordingly.

5. Peter says that the UK is responsible for “only” 1 per cent of emissions, and thus UK actions are irrelevant. The problem is that globally, doing nothing is a highway to climate hell. Meanwhile, a) the UK is a science and financial sector “superpower”, we are aware of the hellscape ahead, and hence our government has a duty to use its influence globally, plus b) other countries are not doing nothing. Many countries are doing quite a lot. Other national leaders know that disaster beckons. Some care. Some we can work with. We simply have to win the battles of ideas, habits, and economics, and to overcome our craven weakness against vested fossil fuel interests that would derail net zero.

6. Peter has taken to castigating the English “30 x 30” strategy. This is not as he says taking 30 per cent of land out of production to grow flowers. It’s about managing the most biodiverse 1/3 of land surface to halt biodiversity decline by 2030, in most cases by improved farm management including crops and livestock. Grazing in particular is essential to the biodiversity we hope to conserve. 30 x 30 is available to check online.

7. There is no dastardly “conservation” plan to drain Saddleworth Moor. If there were it should be stopped. Restoring seminatural woodland on eroded and depleted blankets peatland (such as Carrifran in Scotland, which is commended) creates long term carbon storage and aids biodiversity. This is quite different from the destructive commercial peatland afforestation schemes of the last century, rightly abandoned.

It is essential that we realise just how serious the climate and ecological crisis is. It is not an “option” that will go away if ignored. It will only get worse.

I urge Peter to embrace net zero rather than bashing it.

There is no viable alternative. Dr Andrew Blewett.