Restoring swamps and peat bogs within the UK will gradual local weather change – what is the level?
Malaria, which our ancestors called Ague, was once endemic to the UK and Northern Europe. Our ancestors defeated malaria over 100 years ago by draining dangerous swamps and swamps. But a new generation of climate warriors wants to undo these historic efforts to protect people from a deadly scourge.
Peat bogs: Restoring them could slow climate change – and revive a forgotten world
January 12, 2021, 2.43 a.m. AEDT
Ian D. Rotherham
Professor of Environmental Geography and Reader in Tourism and Environmental Change at Sheffield Hallam University
Moors, moors, moors and swamps – only their names seem to conjure up myths and secrets. Although our interest in these humid landscapes is rather prosaic today. Due to a lack of oxygen, they can build up large amounts of organic matter that does not decompose properly. This is known as peat. Peatlands could contain up to 644 gigatons of carbon – one fifth of the total carbon stored in the earth’s soil. Not bad for a habitat that only takes up 3% of the planet’s land surface.
Moors were once common across Britain, but many have been excavated, drained, burned, built and turned into farmland, so that their place in history has been forgotten. While most of the debate about using natural habitats to extract carbon from the atmosphere involves tree planting and reforestation, some ecologists argue that a far better solution is to restore the bogs that have drained and drained humans for centuries to destroy.
Now that the government is proposing to do so across the UK, it is worth uncovering the hidden legacy of these landscapes and how they once fueled daily life.
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Read more: https://theconversation.com/peat-bogs-restoring-them-could-slow-climate-change-and-revive-a-forgotten-world-139182
The UK government’s proposal to restore marshland is part of the Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, a document released last November. The document includes the following suggestions:
- Point 1 Driving offshore wind
- Point 2 Driving the growth of low carbon hydrogen
- point 3 Providing new and advanced nuclear power
- Point 4 Accelerating the transition to zero-emission vehicles
- point 5 Green public transport, cycling and walking
- Point 6 Jet Zero and Green Ships
- Point 7 Greener buildings
- Point 8 Investing in carbon capture, use and storage
- Point 9 Protection of our natural environment
- Point 10 Green finance and innovation
The proposal for the rehabilitation of moors / marshland is described in point 9.
What is the risk of endemic malaria returning to the UK? I doubt anyone can give a good answer to this question, but restoring swampy habitats that once boiled malaria mosquitoes is like laying down the welcome mat.
Everyone knew about malaria, or ague, as they called it in William Shakespeare’s time in the depths of the Little Ice Age. Ague was mentioned at least 14 times in Shakespeare’s plays.
There is no guarantee that a new age of deadly malaria outbreaks in the UK can be controlled with medication. The UK medical authorities are deeply concerned about the rise in drug-resistant malaria strains in Africa and Asia.
A vigorous spraying program could likely bring a deadly UK malaria outbreak under control, but it would certainly be much easier to avoid a future need to poison the environment with toxic pesticides by the UK government’s ill-considered plan to restore wetlands and peat to the area Mosquito habitats are discarded from moors.
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