1/ Extreme civilisation, late-stage capitalism, whatever you want to call it: this thread👇🏼 is about THE. LEAST. SUSTAINABLE. THING. EVER! And it’s Irish...
peatbed.com
@creedcnw @OriginGreen @Bordbia @GeorgeMonbiot @IUCNpeat @KOSullivanIT @tessakhan
2/ Yes, it’s Irish peat used as bedding for methane-belching cows & other farm animals!
Why? It’s cheaper than straw because straw prices are👆🏼because, well, climate-induced drought...
@KOSullivanIT @ellamcsweeney @RTENewsPaulC @GeorgeMonbiot @paulbmelia @GeorgeLeeRTE
3/ It costs the Earth 🌏 but Irish peat really is the “lap of luxury” for cows! 🐄
@creedcnw @OriginGreen @Bordbia
5/ And horses 🐎
6/ And pigs 🐷
7/ Harte Peat is exporting this “peat bedding” from Ireland to Belgium 🇧🇪
Literally digging up Ireland’s precious carbon sinks - unregulated - and exporting them abroad for private gain!
8/ And to Scotland 🏴
@FoEScot #SaveIrishBogs
9/ And all around the island of Ireland 🇮🇪
10/ Ireland’s annual peatland emissions are already roughly equivalent to its transport emissions from cars!
irishtimes.com/news/death-by-…
11/ But this “peat bedding” is something new. It’s not like standard peat milling (bad as that is).
No, this involves very rapid, deep mining of wet peat. The scale and speed of the destruction is shocking. Something like this.
No permission, no EIA. Regulators?! 👀
12/ Harte Peat is behind peatbed.com. They’re excavating sites to the north of Lough Derravaragh in Co. Westmeath, to the west of the road from Castlepollard to Finnea. @westmeathcoco @EPAIreland
13/ These rows you can see are drainage ditches to keep the bog dry enough for machines. But Google Maps is out of date. This site’s now a big hole in the ground, deep-mined ‘til there’s nothing left.
Worse, work is about to start on the intact area to the south here. New drain.
14/ And this is all happening without permission, EIA or other assessment! Regulators, do your job😡 @westmeathcoco @EPAIreland
It’s being done with the apparent blessing of @IFAmedia and @teagasc, which has in the past researched peat alternatives🙄
15/ The company in question - Harte Peat - was successfully sued by @EPAIreland in 2014 for its unregulated peat activities courts.ie/Judgments.nsf/…
Yet here they are just a few years later, acting as if nothing has changed.
16/ Supermarkets: if you claim to be in any way sustainable, please ask your suppliers if your beef, dairy, poultry, lamb, pork bedded down on Irish peat!
Emerald Isle, is it?☘️ @OriginGreen @Bordbia @creedcnw
This must stop - bogs are key carbon sinks and wildlife habitats!
17/ As the climate emergency deepens, companies are chasing quick €€€ and our regulators are sitting on their hands.
This is exactly why our climate lawsuit is so important - we need urgent action NOW!
Sign #InMyName today! climatecaseireland.ie
18/ Kudos to @FIEIRELAND for this exposé & for its bravery in taking this climate case!
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