Warm glow of Irish peat takes edge off oil woes
By Paul Hoskins Fri Nov 25, 8:23 AM ET
KNOCKVICAR (Reuters) - As an autumn gale assails his hilltop cottage, Pepijn Martius sits beside a peat-fired stove, savoring the earthy smell and glowing warmth that has cost him little more than a sore back.
"For my pocket it's much better," said the 27-year-old Dutchman. "If I would heat with oil or gas I would spend probably quadruple the amount of money that I spend on peat."
"And it keeps me warm twice," he adds, referring to the physical labor involved in harvesting the dark, carbon-rich earth which is the first stage in the formation of coal.
The clumps of peat, or turf, are dug from Ireland's bogs -- waterlogged land formed after the last Ice Age. They must be turned regularly and stacked to dry before hauling them home.
It's a time-consuming task but soaring oil prices mean a new generation is rediscovering the tradition.
But the end of the article says, apparently, that peat contains more greenhouse gases than other fuels (I think that is what the woman means) and that the bogs are important environments for birds. So if there is an alternative fuel like oil or gas, it sounds as if those are better for the environment.
Diligentia maximum etiam mediocris ingeni subsidium. ~ Diligence is a very great help even to a mediocre intelligence.----Seneca
Hiya Blackbeer, where have you been hiding? I thought you had abandoned us for the flute or the horses or something.
Turf is indeed effectively a non-renewable resource, and it's ironic that a Dutchman should be featured burning it, as it was a Dutch environmental NGO that really drew our attention to this in Ireland by buying up areas of bog to preserve them because their own bogs had been almost entirely destroyed by being cut for fuel.
So we should use it sparingly. Single malt seems an acceptable use. Given the kind of cold weather that we're enduring, we might also contemplate exceptionally lighting a small festive turf fire in the 1,000-posters' lounge so that it's nice and warm when Blackbeer arrives there shortly.
I didn`t notice. Jeez Dec 02 and I still don`t know anything.