I enjoyed reading this editorial that I received in my email… And watching this short film about the incredible Irish peat, by the winners of Waterbear’s prize this year.
The young winner duo Swantje Furtak and Frankie Turk are committed educating people about the importance of wetlands through their activist work at RE-PEAT, a youth-led collective that pushes for a future where peatlands are protected. Kudos.
Hereunder is an introduction to the beautiful work by S. Furtak and F. Turk :
Peatlands are some of our oldest living ecosystems, forming and surviving for tens of thousands of years. Many have existed back when our human ancestors were only toying with early agriculture, when we first started forming towns and cities, and – more recently – when we started radically altering our global climate and ecology. Composed of semi-decomposed plant matter (peat) preserved in water, peatlands are like capsules of deep time.
“In Death Is Life” is a short documentary about a community in rural Ireland with a long history tied to their peatland ecosystems. For generations draining and cutting the peatland was part of their local culture. Traditionally, the peat (or “turf”) was cut in the early summer, dried outside and burned as fuel in the cold winter months. This cheap and accessible material also powered their struggle for Independence during Ireland’s colonial rule. However, starting in the 1700s, through a rapid industrialisation process turf cutting became mechanised and happened at a much larger scale.
In a healthy state, peatlands are the planet’s largest terrestrial carbon store (holding twice as much carbon as all the world’s forests), they are hotspots of biodiversity, and have the capability to slow us down.
These unique traits drove us, Swantje Furtak (24) and Frankie Turk (27) to tell the story of the peatlands in Ireland. Coming from different paths, we have both sunken deeply into the topic of peatlands. In a long call in 2021, we started dreaming of the idea to create a documentary series. We started to collect stories of peatland communities across the world – Ireland, the Congo, Latvia, Germany and Indonesia.
Nearly every country on the globe has peatlands, in different shapes, colours and histories. You probably have a peatland near you! And it is like Tommy said: If you allow the peatland to slow you down, it can change your time.
Note: You will have to log in first to Waterbear. It’s free. Find hundreds of shorts and series by organisations life sustaining missions. Gratitude.
Gaia Speaking 