In the UK we are fighting a battle to stop peat being harvested for agriculture/horticulture. Peat bogs are important ecosystems, and harvesting destroys them. Peat bogs also store carbon, so their destruction has implications for global warming. Here are a few facts about peatland destruction in the UK, but the same applies around the world:
• The peat fields of the UK have diminished by a staggering 94% since 1970.
• Peat bogs grow at a rate of 1mm a year, and take thousands of years to form, and are therefore considered a non-renewable resource.
• The equivalent of 20 years of industrial carbon is stored in British peat bogs alone. Millions of tons of greenhouse gasses have been released since the destruction of these habitats.
• When they are dried out before harvesting, they release around 400,000 tons of greenhouse gases every year – the equivalent of putting an extra 100,000 cars on the road.
• Its extraction causes massive devastation to Britain’s lowland habitats and puts already endangered wildlife at further risk.
• Peatlands also play a critical role in the global water cycle. Destruction of peatlands leads to increased risk of flooding.
Here's a link to some information about the importance of peat bogs:
www.ipcc.ie/pfbackground.html
I appreciate that digging up peat in game is not going to have an environmental impact, but we are trying to teach people that it is wrong to destroy these precious habitats to make their dahlias grow, and it bothers me to see it done in Glitch.