TOM Attwood’s article quite rightly drew attention to the long-standing issue of peat use in garden compost (Gazette, February 13, 'Use alternatives, for peat's sake').

We have known for years about the environmental degradation of wildlife habitat caused by peat extraction, and it is ironical that there are many local schemes in progress to try and restore degraded peat bogs: Haybridge and Foulshaw, to name two, while we continue to destroy bogs elsewhere. Millions of tons a year have been taken from Irish bogs and, as with most resources, extraction only occurs in response to public demand, so the public must be encouraged to stop creating the demand by being made aware of the consequences of their decisions, and what alternatives are available. To stop gardening is not an alternative.

Perhaps missing from Tom’s article, and almost certainly of much greater importance, was highlighting the role of the breakdown of peat and soil organic matter in general in the release of carbon dioxide and, consequently, its major contribution to climate change.

Ploughing up old pastures as part of the war effort, the intensification of arable agriculture by cultivation and fertilisation, land drainage, deforestation - all the techniques regarded as modern and essential to feeding the expanding population - have caused massive loss of soil organic matter and release of greenhouse gases as it breaks down.

Coal is formed as a consequence of pressure over aeons on ancient peat deposits and, like coal, peat bogs are a huge reservoir of sequestered carbon. Peat is primarily formed under water, and preserved by lack of oxygen. When we extract it and expose it to air, it breaks down rapidly to carbon dioxide and water. This is just a slow version of coal burning, with exactly the same consequences to climate change.

Tom offered some alternatives, and home composting and soil improvers based on material from our own green bin collection also come to mind.

We must demand alternatives so we can make better choices. We are the source of the problem, and so must also be the solution.

David Jackson

Grange-over-Sands