In a healthy bog, the moss sucks in carbon from the air as it grows. When it dies it doesn't rot because the ground is so wet. It becomes peat, with the carbon locked away for thousands of years.
But on Holcombe moor, overgrazing by sheep and 150 years of air pollution has destroyed the fragile moss blanket, exposing the peat.
Maddi Naish, rural surveyor at the National Trust, said peatlands are"superheroes" when it comes to storing carbon. "We're just a stone's throw from a major city so it's incredible to think we live alongside a habitat that is rarer than rainforest globally, but which contributes so significantly to tackling climate change."It stores three billion tonnes of carbon, more than all the forests of the UK, Germany and France put together.
But much of it has been damaged by human activity so it's pumping the equivalent of 20 million tonnes of carbon back into the atmosphere every year - 4% of the UK's annual emissions.
United Kingdom Latest News, United Kingdom Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Met Office issues 9-hour warning for rain to lash UK today - see list of areasThe warning covers much of the north of England and north Wales with flooding already struck the Isle of Wight as 120mm of rain had been recorded near the town of Ventnor
Read more »
Seven men are found guilty of the murder of law student Aya HachemThe 19-year-old was shot in the chest by a gunman in a passing car as she shopped near her home in Blackburn, Lancashire, on May 17 last year.
Read more »
The Guardian view on Boris Johnson in Scotland: an undeclared campaignEditorial: The impasse over a second referendum has not stopped the question infiltrating every other issue
Read more »
The NHS COVID-19 app has changed how it pings peopleThis new plan will hopefully put a stop to the 'pingdemic'
Read more »
The NHS COVID-19 app has changed how it pings peopleThis new plan will hopefully put a stop to the 'pingdemic'
Read more »
The NHS COVID-19 app has changed how it pings peopleThis new plan will hopefully put a stop to the 'pingdemic'
Read more »