World wide peatlands are being destroyed everyday. This destruction creates several threats to the environment.

One threat to our global peatlands is by using them for agricultural purposes. Amateur gardeners account for approximately 70% of the peat used in horticulture. To extract peat from the bog the area is first drained. This damages the delicate ecosystem as an imbalance has been created from the removal of a natural habitat. This is done so the peat layers can be dried by the sun so peat extracting equipment can access the peatlands without fear of sinking. A typical peat extractor removes up to 22cm of peat a year, while a peat bog increases in depth of only 1mm per year. It will take 220 years for the peat bog to renew itself, and the ecosystem that once supported wildlife and plant life is likely to never return (Roe, 2006).

Another threat to the environment through peat extraction is the amount of carbon released. Current studies suggest carbon dioxide is the leading cause of global warming. Peat bogs act as a carbon sink, and absorb 10-20 percent of the seven gigatons of carbon produced by humans annually. This absorption is attributed to a peat bogs soggy makeup ( Chester , 2000). In total, it is believed that peatlands hold around one quarter to one third of the total carbon in the world. Naturally, peatlands release carbon very slowly due to the slow decomposition. When harvesting occurs, all the carbon held within is released into the atmosphere. As a result, thousands of years of carbon held in peatlands, is released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.