One of Scotland’s most important contributions to global fight against ecological and climate breakdown lies beneath the ground – in layers of peat that have been trapping carbon for thousands of years.
The Flow Country in Caithness and Sutherland is the largest peatbog in Europe. It stores approximately 400 million tonnes of carbon-- that’s more than double the amount of all of Britain’s woodlands! It is a rare and precious wildlife haven, and a potential UNESCO World Heritage site.
The Space Hub Sutherland project submitted an application to the Highland Council for the development of a rocket launch facility over 800 acres of the Flow Country, on the A’Mhòine Peninsula. This would put the blanket bog’s fragile ecosystem at huge risk. When peat dries out, it stops trapping carbon and instead starts to emit it back out into the atmosphere. Degraded peat is highly flammable, as we saw in the Sutherland wildfire this summer, which raged for six days over 20,000 acres. Scientists estimated that the carbon released by the wildfire doubled Scotland’s emissions over those six days.
The Highland Council have declared a Climate and Ecological Emergency. Let’s send them the message that building a space port right on a uniquely precious ecosystem and massive carbon sink is not an emergency response!
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