Peat is the world's oldest fossil fuel. It has been used for
heating and cooking food since prehistoric times. It is also the world's only renewable
fossil fuel (I think oil is not really a fossil fuel, but that's a big subject).
Unlike coal which takes millions of years to form, peat can form within a few millennia.
It is caused by the breakdown of biological matter in stagnant water or soil
where there is not enough oxygen for normal decomposition. The use of peat is
controversial though because it has the highest carbon dioxide emissions of all
the fossil fuels, therefore Scotland China Estonia Finland Ireland Russia Rwanda British Isles
peat fuel is more used by independent families and communities in rural areas. It
is usually dug up by hand and dried out on farms. The photograph above is of
peat gatherers at Westhay, Somerset Scotland
See here for background: http://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2021/11/climate-change-portal.html.
See here for background: http://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2021/11/climate-change-portal.html.
8 comments:
I totally understand your point regarding it appearing that burning peat is such a 'small fish' regarding combatting fossil fuel use and C02 emissions and would be interested to see how widespread it's use as a fuel actually is in Scotland. I expect as has been the case historically when other fuels become more expensive it's often turned to as a substitute.
I remember it often being used as a cheaper alternative to coal in open fires to heat rooms in my family home in Ireland with widespread use until the recent ban which this article gives a nice overview of the 'turf wars'.
https://www.eurosite.org/the-turf-wars-heat-up-as-ireland-transitions-away-from-peat/#:~:text=The%20ban%2C%20which%20will%20come,rural%20Ireland%20for%20heating%20homes.
The problem and underlying argument is not so much the emissions (as the use as a fuel might be small these days) it's the fact that peat bogs are incredibly effective carbon sinks for storing that C02 and their destruction is accelerating the C02 in the atmosphere. Couple this with the environmental impact for plants and animals that require that habitat it becomes a no brainer that the practice really needs to be consigned to the history books.
Hi Firechild. Thanks for commenting. I definitely agree that peat bogs are such a rich habitat for life; but apart from that I see no harm, so long as the practice is small scale and only used where electricity and gas etc are not available, and that not many places in the British Isles these days.
I wrote an Essay on China and its supposed environmental reforms. The CCP promises to cut the use of coal over time over the next 50 years or so brining its domestic use down to something like 25%. Can we trust the word of an authoritarian regime, apparently western governments do. In the end of the essay, I talked about energy supply and the fact the renewables contributed to 25% of the UK's energy production. I also noted that any complications with the supply fossil fuels could result in our government turning other alternatives IE wood burning biofuel and mining domestic coal. This was before the event of the Ukraine war. It seems that in this cost-of-living crisis people started burning wood maybe small-scale Peat burning may be the only way of heating in some rural areas as heating oil prices went up about 100% last winter.
I just hope it doesnt get that bad in future that people start to feel the need to burn the peat due to this cost of living crap.. Yes it would be a last resort thing for sure if you were like living on the isle of dura or the orkneys perhaps. Human disturbance is at all time high with all this house building. I see first hand how it effects the biodivesity in my area in the the south east of the uk.
Vrill, that would be a disaster. Peat is an acceptable fuel right now ONLY because of its unpopularity and small scale gathering. As Firechild said too. All the more reason to declassify Free Energy. China's promise may well engineer that very situation. They will do their usual and enforce the promise of the population very harshly and so people will fell forest and dig up peat bogs as their only alternative.
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