Slow Growth Rate

• Peat bogs technically renew, but at a growth rate of 1 to 2 mm a year, one week's harvest can remove a thousand years of growth. This slow accumulation creates layers of peat that protect organic material, even preserving precious human artifacts and remains for scientific study. Peat growth can never keep up with commercial demands, so the bogs are disappearing in Europe at an alarming pace. This has led the British government to create ways to alleviate the use of peat moss.
  
  

Ecological Imbalance

• Wildlife depends on the wetlands sustained by peat bogs.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
  
  Sphagnum moss sustains wetlands through the same water absorbency that makes it popular for gardening and as a compost addition. The bog ecosystem and the environmental network around it are destroyed when peat is harvested on the current mass scale. Wetlands that are irreplaceable for many human lifetimes are threatened with extinction through the practice of overharvesting peat. The delicate balance of wildlife in the region is equally vulnerable as the bogs that support fauna decline.
  
  

Import Expenses

• Transportation costs for peat moss make compost expensive.Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images
  
  Almost all peat moss consumed in North America is from Canada. Although Canadian peat exporters maintain they use less than 1 percent of their bogs for peat harvesting, there is the addition expense of transporting the product to market. Trucking, labor and the high cost of fossil-based fuel make using peat in compost an unreasonable outlay of cash. Compost is no longer a cheap, renewable or easily assessable soil amendment when peat moss is added.
  
  

Increased Global Warming

• Harvesting peat for compost contributes to an already debated alarm to climatic changes. Sphagnum bogs naturally hold large amounts of carbon underground. These wetlands cover only 3 percent of the globe but store 30 percent of all carbon in the soil. When peat is mined, this carbon is freed into the atmosphere and the threat of global greenhouse gas emissions rises. Continued peat removal for compost products can only add to world distress rather than alleviate the problems.