(UK) 'Preserve peat bogs' for climate - BBC

Source: BBC News

Last Updated: Wednesday, 28 March 2007, 10:44 GMT 11:44 UK

'Preserve peat bogs' for climate
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website

The government should conserve peat bogs as a way of curbing climate
change, the National Trust is urging.

British bogs store carbon equivalent to about 20 years' worth of national
industrial emissions, the Trust says.

But two centuries of damage in some regions mean bogs are drying out,
releasing carbon into the atmosphere.

-snip-

It is estimated that globally, peat stores twice as much carbon as forests,
and the UK contains about 15% of the world's peatlands.

Missing details

Healthy peat absorbs and stores carbon; but as it degrades, the carbon
is released, ending up in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6502239.stm