Wetlands really suck.
It’s absolutely true.
Plants in wetlands suck carbon
from the Earth’s atmosphere.
The soil in wetlands stores a third
of the world’s carbon dioxide.
It is stored in the decomposed
organic layer of soil known as peat.
Harvesting and burning peat from wetlands
to warm homes contributes to global warming.
Peat is an even more damaging fuel than coal.
My heart goes out to my poor Irish ancestors.
They thought they were providing for their families
in the winter, by burning peat in their hearths.
The irony is that these parents were introducing
invisible assassins of toxic gases and carcinogens
into the sanctuary that was their home.
The small particles from burning peat
enters lungs, bloodstreams,
then hearts and brains.
It can lead to asthma, diabetes,
dementia, miscarriage, and cancer.
In 2018 Irish children’s lungs and
Mother Nature’s wetlands got a break.
The government sought to protect wetlands.
Saying, “Wetlands are much more valuable
to us as bogs rather than as fuel.”
By 2023 protection for Irish bogs went up in smoke
as households burned peat to save on energy bills.
The soaring cost of oil and gas brought back
the ancient practice of cutting and burning peat.
In the U.S. we lose 60,000 acres of wetlands a year.
We have politicians who deny climate change.
Their corporate benefactors look at all
environmental regulations as an inconvenience
to their quest for profit maximization.
The health of the Earth and its people
is not even considered in the equation.
The U.S. Supreme Court sides with capital
over Mother Nature, and the good of the people.
In the war of profit over planet,
leaving the wetlands be wetlands
is a battle we need to win.
“The goal of life is living in agreement with nature,” ~ Zeno
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