A Dense and Sickly Mist from Thousands of Bog Fires

An Attempt to Compare the Energy Consumption in Slash-and-Burn Cultivation and Burning Cultivation of Peatlands in Finland in 1820-1920

Bibliographic Data

ID12304259
AuthorsJan Kunnas (0000-0002-9433-0865, Research student, European University Institute Department of History and Civilization Via Boccaccio 121, I-50133 FIRENZE, Italy, corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume11
Issue4
Pages431-446
Publication date2005-11-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironment and History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0967-3407 • E-ISSN: 1752-7023
PublisherLiverpool University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3197/096734005774462745
OpenAlexW2082879814
LanguageEN
Citations received4

In historical research about fire-clearance husbandry in Finland the focus has been on burning of forests, while swamps and other peatlands have been neglected. I claim that this neglect is not acceptable. According to my calculations, the amount of biomass measured by energy value burned on peatlands surpassed the amount burned in slash-and-burn cultivation after the mid-nineteenth century. A comparison with other sources of carbon dioxide shows also, that burning cultivation of peatlands was by far the greatest source of carbon dioxide in Finland during the whole of nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth century. Burning cultivation of peatlands has been practised in peat-rich countries at one time or other throughout Western Europe. In these and other peat-rich countries, the inclusion of the emissions from burning cultivation could substantially alter historical carbon dioxide emission estimates

Agriculture · Agroforestry · Archaeology · Biomass (ecology · Bog · Carbon dioxide · Clearing · Deforestation (computer science · Geography · Greenhouse gas · Peat · Slash (logging · Slash-and-burn · Swamp · Environmental Science · Fire effects on ecosystems · Peatlands and Wetlands Ecology · Ecology · Forestry

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