[ad_1]
As a retired upland livestock farmer, I take concern with George Monbiot’s article (Solely a tiny minority of rural Britons are farmers – so why do they maintain such sway?, 20 June). The 115,000 individuals who work in agriculture deserve respect, not abuse.
Sure, UK woodland retains 25 tonnes extra carbon per hectare than pasture, however Monbiot evades the truth that, at a median 350 tonnes together with bushes, that is solely 7%-8% greater than the typical 325 tonnes per hectare of grazed pasture.
No woodland or grassland can “retailer” carbon past their pure ranges; bushes and timber die, rot or are burned to emit the CO2 that rising saplings soak up to develop. Within the grassland cycle, the digestive system of ruminants converts the carbon contained in pasture into CO2 and methane (which is turned again to CO2 within the ambiance); that is in flip absorbed by the pasture.
Monbiot fails to understand the distinction between this CO2 and methane, which is continually recycling within the residing biosphere, and the one-way journey of the 100m-year fossilised “zombie” accumulations in oil, coal and gasoline with which we’re overwhelming these pure processes. His assaults on British sheep farmers and our 9 million cattle ignore equally conventional pastoralists equivalent to Africa’s Masai and India’s 300 million cattle. Should we assume that the Nineteenth-century buffalo hunters did the world a favour by ridding it of an estimated 30 million to 60 million methane-belching North American bison?
Aidan Harrison
Snitter, Northumberland
[ad_2]
Source link