Emissions from European drained peatlands mapped in a 1x1km grid.
If this land is used for ruminant feed, the soil's CO2 emissions are worsened by adding burp-methane CH4.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-65841-6
Worse still: drained lowland often can't return to peat growth. But ending drainage halts CO2.
The study also revealed "underreporting in National UNFCCC inventories, amounting to 59–113 Mt CO2e annually".
By the Godess Of Peat 😁 among others, Franziska Tanneberger.
Scotland's and Norway's peat is wet. 💞 So they not only do not emit forever-CO2, they actively remove carbon from the Earth system, and for far longer than trees do, near-forever for out intents and purposes.
Germany, UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia are the countries with systematic, close to 100% drained peatland. North-West Germany is the worst emitter from drained peatland AND all for grazing = CO2 plus burp-CH4.
Sweden and Finland grow trees on drained wetland so emissions balance temporarily.
While I haven't heard anything of Sweden's sink, Finland's forests turned from sink to source since around 2016, due to a combination of #climateChange with neoliberal politics where the guidance on sustainable forestry from a government body got privatised. The new forest management firms that now help private forest owners to make a profit, they just fell and forget to replant or something. I think, I posted about Finland's lost carbon sink a month ago?
#MoorMussNass #ClimateChange #Peatlands #UNFCCC #methane #ruminants #Wetlands