The entrepreneur Elon Musk with a prize highlighting the importance of carbon capturing.

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Lewis explained yesterday what is happening in this photo.

The Earth’s atmosphere is heating up because carbon molecules are trapping in heat.

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This extra heat is being absorbed by oceans, this is affecting our climate. Corals Reefs are dying, ice caps are melting, there is more flooding and storms and there are more droughts around the world.

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We discussed in class earlier this year what can be done to reduce carbon. We discussed the Amazon Rainforest (Lungs of the Earth) and how trees take carbon out of the atmosphere.

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But Ireland and many other countries have something that is more powerful at taking carbon out of the atmosphere. They are called Bogs or Peatlands.

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How is a bog formed? After the last Ice Age lakes formed, plants grew around the lake, the plants dies and in time the lake filled with dead plants. Moss and trees grew on this, when they died, they didn’t fully decay and this accumulated over time making a bog.

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These bogs are so important, first of all they are an amazing habitat for birds, animals and insects.

Bogs are naturally wet they contain a moss call spagnum moss which holds a huge amount of water. Bogs prevent flooding.

The plants in the bog take in carbon, when the plants die they turn to peat and they take the carbon into the ground. Peatlands prevent Climate Change.

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Look at how much Irelands Peatlands have reduced in the last 200 years.

One reason the peatlands have reduced is because people use turf to heat their homes, they used a sléan to cut the turf?

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Ireland had a number of power stations that run on peat. But the government closed the last of them down last week just when the country needs more electricity than ever.

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A news report about saving a bog in Scotland. This bog can hold three times more carbon than all the trees in the UK.