Malaria, which our ancestors called Ague, was once endemic in Britain and Northern Europe. Our ancestors defeated Malaria over 100 years ago by draining dangerous marshes and swamps. But a new generation of climate warriors want to undo this historic effort to keep people safe from a deadly scourge.
Peat bogs: restoring them could slow climate change – and revive a forgotten world
January 12, 2021 2.43am AEDT
Ian D. Rotherham
Professor of Environmental Geography and Reader in Tourism and Environmental Change, Sheffield Hallam UniversityBogs, mires, fens and marshes – just their names seem to conjure myth and mystery. Though today, our interest in these waterlogged landscapes tends to be more prosaic. Because of a lack of oxygen, they can build up vast quantities of organic matter that doesn’t decompose properly. This is known as peat. Peatlands could contain as much as 644 gigatons of carbon – one-fifth of all the carbon stored in soil on Earth. Not bad for a habitat that stakes a claim to just 3% of the planet’s land surface.
Peatlands were once widespread throughout the UK, but many have been dug up, drained, burned, built on and converted to cropland, so their place in history has been forgotten. But while most of the debate around using natural habitats to draw down carbon from the atmosphere concerns planting trees and reforestation, some ecologists argue that a far better solution lies in restoring the peatlands that people have spent centuries draining and destroying.
With the government now proposing to do this across the UK, it’s worth unearthing the hidden heritage of these landscapes, and how they once fuelled daily life.
…
These medieval wetlands were rife with malaria – a disease introduced to England by the Romans – and known as the marsh ague. Those raised in the Cambridgeshire Fens obtained a degree of immunity to the disease, but suffered yellow jaundice due to the effects it wrought on their livers, and tended to be rather stunted in stature.
…
Read more: https://theconversation.com/peat-bogs-restoring-them-could-slow-climate-change-and-revive-a-forgotten-world-139182
The British government proposal to restore marshlands is part of The Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, a document released last November. The document covers the following proposals:
- Point 1 Advancing Offshore Wind
- Point 2 Driving the Growth of Low Carbon Hydrogen
- Point 3 Delivering New and Advanced Nuclear Power
- Point 4 Accelerating the Shift to Zero Emission Vehicles
- Point 5 Green Public Transport, Cycling and Walking
- Point 6 Jet Zero and Green Ships
- Point 7 Greener Buildings
- Point 8 Investing in Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage
- Point 9 Protecting Our Natural Environment
- Point 10 Green Finance and Innovation
The peatland / marshland restoration proposal is described in Point 9.
What is the risk of endemic Malaria returning to Britain? I doubt anyone could provide a good answer to that question, but restoring marshy habitats which were once seething with Malaria mosquitoes is like laying out the welcome mat.
Everyone knew about Malaria, or Ague as they called it in William Shakespeare’s time, during the depths of the Little Ice Age. Ague was mentioned at least 14 times in Shakespeare’s plays.
There is no guarantee a new age of deadly Malaria outbreaks in Britain could be controlled using medication. British medical authorities are deeply concerned about the rise of drug resistant malaria strains in Africa and Asia.
A vigorous spraying programme could probably bring a deadly British Malaria outbreak under control, but surely it would be much simpler to avoid a future need to poison the environment with toxic pesticides, by ditching the ill considered British government plan to restore mosquito habitat marshlands and peat bogs.
Update (EW): Added Professor Rotherham’s comment on Malaria.
Malaria carrying mosquitoes in Britian? Growing grapes, in the “old days” is one thing but malaria? I thought that was a tropic thing.
No, it isn’t. It is now mostly confined there, but it hasn’t always been.
Malaria lives anywhere where there are mosquitoes. Upstate NY used to be malaria heaven. It killed hundreds of Irishmen building the Erie Canal.
From Climate Audit
Transmission was high in many parts of Siberia, and there were 30,000 cases and 10,000 deaths due to falciparum infection (the most deadly malaria parasite) in Archangel, close to the Arctic circle. Malaria persisted in many parts of Europe until the advent of DDT. One of the last malarious countries in Europe was Holland: the WHO finally declared it malaria-free in 1970.
I hope I have convinced you that malaria is not an exclusively tropical disease, and is not limited by cold winters!
Malaria was still in England until 1950 and in Europe until the 1970’s. It was even present during the little ice age. From “The Rules of Contagion
Why Things Spread — and Why They Stop”
“the disease remained in England until the 1950s, and was only eliminated from continental Europe in 1975.”
Search for:
‘From Shakespeare to Defoe: Malaria in England in the Little Ice Age’,
In 1809 the British army invaded the Dutch island of Walcheren to attack Napoleon. Of the 40000 soldiers 13000 caught the “Zeeland fever”, a local malaria variant. The invasion was abandoned in the same year.
Malaria was also rampant in the United States in the 1800’s. There was a river port for cotton just west of Huntsville, Alabama that was closed mid-century due entirely to rampart malaria. Malaria was common over much of the country at that time, not just in the deep south.
If malaria did return, the climate change activists would blame it on climate change.
what else?
This is yet another silly idea put forward as a solution to a non-existent problem.
nicholas,
Climate alarmists, like politicians, feel a strong kinship for their fellow parasites! I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see some eco-loons coming out in favor of protecting plague bacillus from the evil, ecosystem destroying humans!
That’s getting mighty-close to the (criminal) definition of a “racket”.
“A scheme which promises to protect the target business or person from dangerous individuals (or climates?) in the neighborhood and then either collects the money or causes damage to the business until the owner (or everybody?) pays.”
Climate change policy will indeed be far deadlier and more destructive than climate change.
Liberalism is a mental disorder, a psychosis.
(that may sound like a non-sequiter, but I assure you it is not.)
I would point out that the upland peat bogs this mostly refers to are quite different and separate from the vast lowland, mostly coastal, fens and marshes of the UK past…
The huge areas of marsh in East Anglia, round the Humber, etc, the places where ‘ague’ (malaria) were present are not coming back.
Upland bogs may even help alleviate the flooding the UK now sees annually due to climate change
Really this is a very poor article with no scientific substance to it. I expect better…
Hi Griff, I added Professor Rotherham’s comment on Malaria to the quote from The Conversation. He seems to be suggesting the wetland areas he wants to restore were once Malaria hotspots.
Griff Quote“”upland peat bogs this mostly refers to are quite different and separate from the vast lowland, mostly coastal, fens and marshes of the UK past…””
Conversation Quote:“”Peatlands were once widespread throughout the UK, but many have been dug up, drained, burned, built on and converted to cropland,””
Also “”and how they once fuelled daily life.””
3 parts here, Lowland, Upland and La-La-land
We’ll try to ignore the third one there
Its only presently inhabited by Alarmists & Politicians but we cannot ignore it.
They want to preach, fine, legislate, control, tax, bludgeon, insult, harass, intimidate, lockdown, monitor and do surveillance so that everyone finishes up in that place
Uplands
People didn’t/don’t live on the uplands, because the weather is crap.
Especially, the relentless damp of the moors, bogs, mosses makes it even worse.
The uplands are cold
(No NO Nooooooo, water is a Green House Gas. This cannot be true. Say it isn’t true!)
Why were they drained, dug up and burned – just for the fun of it?
Somebody wanted wood for building and haha Net Zero Burning.
Most trees hate waterlogged ground
Forestry requires big heavy machinery which tends not to float when on/in water or boggy ground
That’s where the upland bogs went – into forestry. To save the planet. To make money. To create jobs. To make building materials.
The price of lumber is presently skyrocketing, thanks to haha Net Zero burning of stuff, yet Griff suggests killing our forests and making them back into bogs.
Fine yes actually. It will really actually alleviate flooding of towns villages homes planted on Flood Plains’
Lowlands
Also “built on and converted to cropland”
This being the ‘lowland’ bogs’ or what were are ‘Fens’
What are they proposing here then?
UK only grows 50% of the haha food it eats and lives in nearly 100% of its houses.
No room there for peat bogs
La-La-land
Fantastic, Fine. Lots of room there for peat bogs
What Are We Waiting For.
C’mon Princess Nutty, Don’t be shy, its most unlike you. Let’s have some more of your wise guidance, once you’ve got your hand out of Boris’ pants of course.
(Should that be while you’ve got blah bla….)
I’m sure the electric cars you want will be buoyant enough – they can do most things already.
“Upland bogs may even help alleviate the flooding the UK now sees annually due to climate change”
🤣🤣🤣 thanks for the best laugh of the day Griff!
Please see Paul Homewood’s numerous forensic examinations of British rainfall as published on his notalotofpeopleknowthat site. Basically, they continually prove that, at least for England and Wales, there is no evidence of an upward trend in rainfall – neither totals nor “extreme events”. Nor, for the record, are we experiencing above average droughts. Whatever effects – if any – we may be experiencing from (very minor and gradual) climate change, they do not include rainfall anomalies.
On one hand, we have real world data.
On the other hand, we have models.
Which to choose, which to choose?
Griff,
I think that you’re incorrect, there is a move to re-wetland the Broads and already some sea walls have been removed to recreate salt marshes.
You are also incorrect if you think that there are no lowland marshes left in the UK, there are many areas such as the Flow Country (widely considered to be the largest area of blanket bog in the world.) in Caithness and Sutherland, which while not at sea level is barely more than 100-150m in altitude. This is a World Heritage Site.
I’m with the inhabitants of the Fens who were happy to drain marshes when the opportunity arose. One of the side effects of repeated infections of malaria, some immunity was gained, was liver damage and jaundice.
Much of the blanket bogs in Scotland and Ireland are on top of the remains of woodlands which flourished in warmer times up to a few thousand years ago when the climate changed. to a colder and wetter regime. Now we’re naturally returning to warmer times I’m in favour of more woodlands rather than more bogs.
Ben,
Very concise.
Near where I come from in County Galway in Ireland, an interesting event occurred some years ago.
The lunatic global Warmist Government gave an energy company planning permission to install a bunch of bird choppers on top of a bog which sat on the side of a small mountain. Lo and behold due to the traffic/concrete/steel etc during construction the bog moved down the mountain side. It was a bit like Humpty Dumpty when various “experts” offered help in putting the bog back to whence it came.
Look up Derrybrian Bog issue.The Government and the Company were sued by the European Union environmental gestapo and to my knowledge they now owe their masters in Brussels multi millions in fines, which are still accumulating as they refuse to pay.
A wonderful lesson which illustrates the sheer stupidity of this green religion.
Another advantage of restoring peat bogs which Griff failed to mention is that the mosquitos while flitting about create air currents (call them breezes) which help cool the environment and thus combat global warming. Also, fewer living people (dead from malaria) reduce the heat load on the environment (98.6F/person don’t you know) further combatting global warming. The benefits seem endless.
When griff gets hold of a good lie, he just doesn’t let go of it.
The flooding has nothing to do with climate change. Heck, there hasn’t even been any climate change.
The flooding is due to poor water management strategies of your progressive friends.
I came across this interesting paper in the British Medical Journal which is fully on board with the CAGW farce:
Malaria in the UK: past, present, and future
Surprisingly, when discussing the hockey stick the author got away with this:
The authors recognise global warming is happening but notes:
Interesting.
On the plus side, if malaria was to return we might be able to get HCQ prescribed for the ChiCom virus and other nasties! Oh, wait, Trump is gone so now it’s available again?
I know malaria used to be widespread in Scandinavia and Russia; has anyone ever heard of it being reported in Alaska? Hopefully the mosquito population there is too remote for them to be carriers! It would really suck to get a nasty disease when bitten by bugs the size of small Cessnas! My friend from those parts told me they often saw cases of several skeeters ganging up to carry off children or small adults to feed on later at their leisure. He was a climate scientist, so I know I can rely on everything he ever told me!
they’s jokes about the giant Alaskan skeeters, but when I was there the ones poking me through my levi 501’s were half size little buggers.
The giant ones are in Australia, but they don’t really suck people blood.
The really big ones are in Texas (like everything else in Texas) and up through South Dakota. My uncle Olaf in South Dakota had one as a pet, but it chewed through it’s chain and escaped.
+10!
Revive a forgotten world?
Ah, here comes T Rex right on cue
Alright, I can’t help myself, I am a weak person.
Is this a re-peat?
Another bon mot! +10!
The Conversation misleads its naive readers. Its title creates the impression that it wants to talk informally to the uninformed public and communicate substantial matters in a simple way. It appears to me that in reality it pushes articles that have not been accepted in the main scientific journals and has an intense dislike of dissenting comments. It is subtly telling people what they should believe rather than having a frank two-way conversation between differing views.
Not an issue, They are concreting over this little island building new houses, roads and fulfillment centers. Might as well put a roof over the entire country and call it Amazonia,
Return of Ague to the UK?
Not a problem. Eight letters. Starts with L. Ends with OCKDOWN.
I mean it is either that or stopping the new age cargo cult worship of the NHS and remember a health system is to protect the population, not the other way around.
I watched the CNN interview with Prince Charles, you Brits are doomed. Thank goodness my genetics escaped Britain before this downturn. Good luck to you all.
I think it is a phenotype issue rather than genotype
Well, the US of A ain’t going to be much better now. The hateful democrats just impeached a man who did not commit a crime twice and just major committed election fraud twice. And since they succeeded with fraud twice, they will keep committing it. A politician only cares about getting elected. In the old days, they had to do something for the people to get elected. Now, they can always use fraud to do so. Why bother doing anything for people now? Just keep using fraud to empower and enrich themselves, while taking away more and more liberty.
“Will no one rid me of this turbulent Congressbitch?”
At least Becket had some redeeming characteristics.
Wade, you know what’s telling about the supposed “trial” in the Senate? Democrats are saying Trump is guilty and Republicans are (mostly) saying he is innocent, when they are judge and jury and the facts against him have not been presented, not to mention that no defense has been permitted. If a conventional judge/jury went off like this before the trial it would be unseemly, so what is this? Impeachment has been politicized and weaponized. wait for it.
The Demonrats have sown the wind, at some point they will reap the whirlwind.
Hard to say.
The Democrats importing millions of new voters via their open door policies.
Combined with their successes at manufacturing votes, honed over the last 5 or 6 decades and brought to fruition this year.
They may not need to worry about these weapons ever being used against them.
It’s just a continuation of the communist cancel culture.
They honestly believe that they are entitled to a world where nobody who disagrees with them is permitted.
On the other hand, punishing enemies of the people seems to be a primary goal of all progressives.
You must remember that these people are far too important for things like law and due process. It was necessary to have the
burning, impeachment expedited very quickly. He’s already been tried by the media, so it’s OK.Our government should know better. It’s not the first time they have been told about this.
https://climateaudit.org/2005/08/30/mosquitos-malaria-and-the-ipcc-consensus/
Johnson and his idiot minions need to be got rid of.
These people are completely insane – they have some romanticized view of medieval times and want to send us all there. There are Luddites then there are these wacko’s.
I see the latest wheeze is to release Bison in the UK, I suppose the wolves need something to eat.
I.m not sure that dog walkers and semi-wild bison mix that well
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9141939/Rangers-sought-bison-herd-UK-conservation-first.html
I’m not sure that four constitutes a herd, or why two rangers are required
Presumably two rangers are needed to escort a bison back to its habitat when it decides that ancient woodlands are a bit boring and where are my open grasslands?
We have a growing number of Bison here in Canada. They like very large areas. We have that. Britain, not so much. I can assure you they don’t play well with others
From a Canadian perspective, the introduction of beavers seems even more daft. My brother-in-law lost most of a new 10 year old orchard when a beaver took up residence in the stream. It took him days to get in in his sights – if you are on land classed agricultural, you are allowed to shoot pest species. Bet the UK will prohibit this.
And what about putting down the hundreds or so underground coal fires (think Centralia) that waste otherwise useful resources for nothing ? Some of them, like the German “Brennender Berg” tourist attraction, burn since centuries and no one really cares.
If you have a good idea as to how to “put down” these underground fires, please present it.
The mine in Centralia was abandoned because it was no longer economical.
in Aus the online paywalled papers have run an item re 2 mozzieborne diseases found ones going to be RossRiver Fever debilitating ongoing flareups of joint pain fatigue etc
other maybe dengue but I can access to read
sa “restored the swampy wetland” in Salisbury in high pop areas
Socially, politically and economically Britain is a bog.
All of Britain is a huge anoxic bog.
Only those with extraordinary strength are able to keep their heads above the surface.
I gave up and left the country years ago.
They’d better make sure there are no viable methanogen bacteria in the bogs-to-be, or they’ll be taking a giant-step backwards in reducing GHG emissions. They’ll have sequestered some carbon at the cost of releasing tonnes of methane. And they’d want to hope nobody sneaks into their brand-new bogs and plants a culture of methanogens, just to be a pr*ck.
Another terrific idea from the Green death cult.
Since many of these enviro radicals are latter-day Malthusians, Club of Rome types, etc., it is reasonable to assume that THIS WAS THEIR INTENTION?
Is this too radical a proposal? Well, NO it is not: In addition to what the radical enviros DO, let’s EXAMINE what they SAY:
http://green-agenda.com/
”My three goals would be to reduce human population to about 100 million worldwide, destroy the industrial infrastructure and see wilderness, with its full complement of species, returning throughout the world.”
David Foreman,
co-founder of Earth First!
”A total population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal.”
Ted Turner,
Founder of CNN and major UN donor
The prospect of cheap fusion energy is the worst thing that could happen to the planet.”
Jeremy Rifkin,
Greenhouse Crisis Foundation
”Giving society cheap, abundant energy would be the equivalent of giving an idiot child a machine gun.”
Paul Ehrlich,
Professor of Population Studies,
Author: “Population Bomb”, “Ecoscience”
”The big threat to the planet is people: there are too many, doing too well economically and burning too much oil.”
Sir James Lovelock,
BBC Interview
”We need to get some broad based support, to capture the public’s imagination… So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements and make little mention of any doubts… Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest.”
Stephen Schneider,
Stanford Professor of Climatology,
Lead author of many IPCC reports
”Unless we announce disasters no one will listen.”
Sir John Houghton,
First chairman of the IPCC
”It doesn’t matter what is true, it only matters what people believe is true.”
Paul Watson,
Co-founder of Greenpeace
”Childbearing should be a punishable crime against society, unless the parents hold a government license. All potential parents should be required to use contraceptive chemicals, the government issuing antidotes to citizens chosen for childbearing.”
David Brower,
First Executive Director of the Sierra Club
”We’ve got to ride this global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing in terms of economic and environmental policy.”
Timothy Wirth,
President of the UN Foundation
”No matter if the science of global warming is all phony… climate change provides the greatest opportunity to bring about justice and equality in the world.”
Christine Stewart,
former Canadian Minister of the Environment
”The only way to get our society to truly change is to frighten people with the possibility of a catastrophe.”
Emeritus Professor Daniel Botkin
”Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about?”
Maurice Strong,
Founder of the UN Environmental Program
”A massive campaign must be launched to de-develop the United States. De-Development means bringing our economic system into line with the realities of ecology and the world resource situation.”
Paul Ehrlich,
Professor of Population Studies,
Author: “Population Bomb”, “Ecoscience”
”If I were reincarnated I would wish to return to earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels.”
Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh,
husband of Queen Elizabeth II,
Patron of the Patron of the World Wildlife Foundation
”The only hope for the world is to make sure there is not another United States. We can’t let other countries have the same number of cars, the amount of industrialization we have in the US. We have to stop these third World countries right where they are.”
Michael Oppenheimer
Environmental Defense Fund
”Global Sustainability requires the deliberate quest of poverty, reduced resource consumption and set levels of mortality control.”
Professor Maurice King
”Current lifestyles and consumption patterns of the affluent middle class – involving high meat intake, use of fossil fuels, appliances, air-conditioning, and suburban housing – are not sustainable.”
Maurice Strong,
Rio Earth Summit
”Complex technology of any sort is an assault on the human dignity. It would be little short of disastrous for us to discover a source of clean, cheap, abundant energy, because of what we might do with it.”
Amory Lovins,
Rocky Mountain Institute
”I suspect that eradicating small pox was wrong. it played an important part in balancing ecosystems.”
John Davis,
Editor of Earth First! Journal
**********************************
ALLAN,
Thank you that it’s a great list.
BTW I am surprised that no one has reminded Queen Elizabeth what her stupid husband wished for.
Its strange that his wish has partially come true
Is he still breathing?
And we thought the Swamp of western politics was about to be drained. Woe is us, they are now proposing to literally create more swamp.
“These medieval wetlands were rife with malaria – a disease introduced to England by the Romans”
That must be wrong. The diease would have to have been there from shortly after the early Holocene.
The Romans, actually, did not have a malaria problem, because they knew how to drain swamps. And they did so on a massive scale. This is discussed by Ferdinand Braudel in his magisterial history; “The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II“.
Land use for residential buildings is the more important driver in much of Southern England.
I don’t see much chance of space being made for new malarial swamps. They are too busy building on flood planes.
OMG how the Leftists want to control every little thing and will be quite blind to how their ways destroy all they control.
What about increased methane emissions from these restored wetlands? The USGS says that about 30% of global methane emissions are from natural wetlands.
And we have all been told what a potent greenhouse gas methane is!
Arrrggh! The stupid it hurts.
Low carbon Hydrogen? Are we differentiating Hydrogen from methane?
Forget the carbon storage. Mother Nature may have used CO2 in the past to prevent runaway temperatures as follows. Increasing CO2 increases plant growth, increases accumulation of detritus in forest floors and former deserts. This detritus, peat, and marshland retains water much longer than bare earth increasing evaporation. This evaporation produces more cloud cover which reflects solar irradiation, cooling the planet. May this be Mother Nature’s thermoregulation system preventing runaway temperatures. As it gets cold, plant life decreases inducing the reverse.