 THE British grouse shooting season, which begins this weekend, is contributing to global warming, an ecology specialist told the latest edition of New Scientist magazine today.
| So does fox hunting. And fishing. And belching. |
Adrian Yallop, from Cranfield University in southeast England, said the problem stemmed from increasing demand for the game birds, which is having a serious impact on the environment.
Gamekeepers burning vast swathes of moorland vegetation to encourage the growth of heather, a prime habitat for red grouse, threatens to release billions of tonnes of carbon locked in the peat bogs underneath, he said. "In terms of carbon storage, the moors can be thought of as Britain's rainforests. Where burning occurs, the hydrology changes and the peat is open to decomposition and erosion," Mr Yallop told the magazine. "This strips the moor of carbon as surely as setting fire to the Amazon forest." |