Whilst listening to “On your farm” on BBC Radio 4 (a staple for many generations) I learned an interesting and quite surprising fact. The UK is the proud possessor of 13% of the World’s blanket bogs. Without knowing what that is, it’s still impressive to know that we have 13% of anything on the global stage. I was trying to visualise a marsh covered in rugs, but that didn’t seem very likely. Perhaps it is an outside loo where a warming cover is required? Improbable. Having ventured across Rannoch Moor in Scotland years ago I had an inkling what it might be. Rannoch Moor is the only official area of wilderness in Britain and it was beautiful, but boggy. I was with my first wife Patti, a Canadian who loved the great outdoors, and our beautiful chocolate lab Balu who was in doggy heaven until he stumbled in the bog and injured a leg. There was nothing to do but carry him out. With three miles or so left of our nine mile trek, my shoulders were quite sore by the time we reached civilisation. He wasn’t a light dog.
Wikipedia has come to the rescue, as it so often does. (It wasn’t available for the dog rescue sadly). “Blanket bog or blanket mire, also known as featherbed bog, is an area of peatland, forming where there is climate of high rainfall and a low level of evapotranspiration”. I can’t be sure if the Wiki contributor made that up but it is, I confess, a word with which I am unfamiliar. Upon further investigation it seems Northern Ireland is responsible for about 8% of the total with the rest enhancing the majestic Scottish Highlands. I can attest from personal experience that both places are wet; very wet. Still, it’s no less wet on England’s south coast just now as we negotiate the drabbest few months of the year. The Scots have a great word for weather like this; dreek. It’s more effective said with a Scottish accent.
So our little land has roughly one eighth of all the peat on Earth. How amazing is that? If only the French and Germans had a greater need for peat, we would have a handy weapon in our bid to avoid Splendid Isolation after Brexit. Unfortunately the green brigade have ruled that we can’t dig up anymore anyway as it’s a vital store of CO2 and further excavation would merely hasten our Global Warming demise. I wonder where the other 87% of peat bogs are? Further reference to Wikipedia suggests there are a lot in Scandinavia with Finland, Scotland and Ireland being the only countries that dig peat for fuel. There is one interesting bog at Windover in Florida, where archaeologists have unearthed hundreds of bodies that were buried there around 6,000 B.C. That was awhile before the American War of Independence. No wonder Native Americans want to scalp the white man!
Isn’t it amazing how we spent our youth playing Cowboys and Indians. Talk about such things now and people think you’re talking about rogue builders and curry restaurants.
ADayInTheStrifeOf 