1700 Ireland: draining the swamp before it was….cool?
Do the locals living in the wetlands even care?
Wholesale industrial farming and the loss of commonage, all brought in by British landlords to feed the growing industrial cities of England more responsible than turf cutting. Wholesale deforestation due to the same process. We have probably the most changed landscape in the world all done under occupation by a viscous imperial power
Should that not be British policy for the first two centuries?
Best in the world for dryland enhancement tho. Silver lining
Something seems off here, Ireland has a wetland cover of 15-20% to date (most are degraded) which is our 2nd most dominant land cover after grasslands.
The graph indicates we lost 90% of our peatland from a 1700 baseline – it hards to know how accurate this baseline is. Long-term data sets such as Rothamsted (one of the oldest arable sites) data only goes back as far as 1852 – ish. Thats a single site nevermind at a national scale.
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Edit: Also the person being interview in the paper had no involvement in the report being dicusssed.
300 years is a long time and it’s the stuff of original sin. Brits, Bord na Mona, famines, wars and landscape engineering has been and gone. Now with this report people will be pricking and moaning about yer granny with a few bags of turf in the shed she uses to make tea and keep warm because ripping gas out of Siberia is better and theoretical nuclear power is great so it is.
It’s the game the Irish Times always play – they have written articles about lads flying in actual helicopters over bogs to whinge about the destruction of a few high banks – never really thinking that maybe the helicopter ride is not helping the environment either.
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No fair, the Brits drained the whole lot.
Unfortunately I’m not a bit surprised.
So banning the sale of turf is a good thing?
1700 Ireland: draining the swamp before it was….cool?
Do the locals living in the wetlands even care?
Wholesale industrial farming and the loss of commonage, all brought in by British landlords to feed the growing industrial cities of England more responsible than turf cutting. Wholesale deforestation due to the same process. We have probably the most changed landscape in the world all done under occupation by a viscous imperial power
Should that not be British policy for the first two centuries?
Best in the world for dryland enhancement tho. Silver lining
Something seems off here, Ireland has a wetland cover of 15-20% to date (most are degraded) which is our 2nd most dominant land cover after grasslands.
The graph indicates we lost 90% of our peatland from a 1700 baseline – it hards to know how accurate this baseline is. Long-term data sets such as Rothamsted (one of the oldest arable sites) data only goes back as far as 1852 – ish. Thats a single site nevermind at a national scale.
​
Edit: Also the person being interview in the paper had no involvement in the report being dicusssed.
300 years is a long time and it’s the stuff of original sin. Brits, Bord na Mona, famines, wars and landscape engineering has been and gone. Now with this report people will be pricking and moaning about yer granny with a few bags of turf in the shed she uses to make tea and keep warm because ripping gas out of Siberia is better and theoretical nuclear power is great so it is.
It’s the game the Irish Times always play – they have written articles about lads flying in actual helicopters over bogs to whinge about the destruction of a few high banks – never really thinking that maybe the helicopter ride is not helping the environment either.