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SUMMARY:Carbon Futures in the Mire? Knowledge Controversies in the Remakin
 g of European Peatlands for Climate Mitigation - James Palmer (Bristol)
DTSTART:20250311T130000Z
DTEND:20250311T140000Z
UID:TALK227386@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Tom Fry
DESCRIPTION:In Europe\, vast swathes of peatland have historically been dr
 ained for agriculture\, forestry or mining\, generating significant greenh
 ouse gas emissions. Scientific and policy interest in peat restoration as 
 a “natural climate solution” is therefore growing rapidly\, spawning d
 iverse projects that aim either to stabilise carbon already stored in peat
 lands\, or more ambitiously to reactivate peat-building for carbon sequest
 ration. Drawing from resource geography\, science and technology studies\,
  and environmental history\, this paper contends that peatlands should be 
 understood as “peatscapes”—landscapes characterised not merely by ec
 ological complexity and heterogeneity\, but also by longstanding conflicts
  between different ways of knowing\, living and working with peat itself. 
 To illustrate the value of a “peatscapes” approach\, the paper draws o
 n expert interviews and empirical fieldwork conducted in the Somerset Leve
 ls and the East Anglian Fens to illuminate knowledge controversies provoke
 d by peatland restoration on three levels: 1) ontological controversies li
 nked to divergent understandings of the nature and value of peat\; 2) metr
 ological controversies hindering emergent peatland restoration science\; a
 nd 3) resource-making controversies arising from efforts to dovetail resto
 ration with economic value generation. Overall\, the paper argues that car
 bon-based restoration agendas do not supersede\, but rather selectively re
 work foundational ideas about peatlands\, thereby intensifying long-lived 
 controversies about these ephemeral landscapes.
LOCATION:Department of Geography\, Small Lecture Theatre
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