GREAT BRITAIN -- Despite several warnings about the use of endangered peat, gardeners from Britain still refuse to use another materials as bedding for their plants. Environmentalists have given them repeated warnings about the state of survival of the peat as they are already consider endangered and yet gardeners refuse to give up using them, believing they are the best for their plants.
Released a week earlier than the busy gardener's weekend of the year, environmental campaigns have urged plants growers to consider the peat-free alternative to help in conserving supplies. The environmentalists consider peat as a vital asset in growing their plants for it helps fight climate change. It absorbs carbon dioxide faster than that of trees.
The sad part is that it takes thousands of years to develop peat bogs, shrinking them as people continue to harvest them for farming and gardening. According to Plantlife, a campaign group that helps educate people about the importance of peat, the commercial extraction of the material can remove peat as much as 500 years worth of growing it in a year.
Environmentalists say that despite the availability of alternatives to peat for compost and bedding, British gardeners continue to purchase peat. In fact, the sales of the materials has gone up by as much as 3 billion liters a year in the United Kingdom alone and the numbers are still rising.
"In our fight against climate change, we should protect the peatlands in the UK. It can be considered as out best assets," says Ben McCarthy, head of the Peat Partnership. "We can never underestimate the important role in plays in the capture of carbon from the atmosphere."
"In the UK alone, they hold more carbon that the forest does. However, the extraction of the peat destroys the carbon-rich habitat. This could result to significant carbon emissions in the air and the potential lost of control over these harmful particles in the atmosphere" McCarthy added.
The governments across the UK should reconsider the use of peat for commercial purposes particularly in horticulture. The extraction of peat in the UK does not only release tons of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere but it could disturb rare wildlife that rely on it.
"The good news is that the top ten vegetable favorites remain to grow in peat-free farms. It may be competitively priced, but it could help save the environment while keeping the body healthy," says Trevor Dines, a famous gardening broadcaster.
The solution to the problem remains in the hands of the government. When they target to phase out the use of peat in gardening both by the experts and amateurs in horticulture remains to be a question.
