So I’m happy to reduce my carbon footprint. I haven’t been on a plane for 19 months. Because of my respect for Greta Thundberg. Oh, ok, there’s a covid factor in there but my adherence to every syllable the horrible Swedish schoolgirl mumbles remains absolute. I only drive a petrol car any time I want to. I rarely burn forests down and don’t graze any cattle. I’m thinking of replacing my gas boiler with one which burns air and water or hydrogen and fairy dust, because I’m always conscious of my emissions. I’ve even reduced my intake of baked beans in the interest of reduced methane. There’s only so much I can do. There are limits.

And now they’ve crossed a line. They’re talking about peat. The fairly useless stuff which is used to flavour my favourite whiskies. They take a really dull, lifeless whisky, open the lid, put the bottle on a bunch of peat, set fire to it and what comes out of that bottle later is the stuff of dreams. Sometimes nightmares. Often hangovers. But all worth it for that taste.

Apparently peat holds and stores carbon. Which is Greta-good. Peat bogs are seen as import in Greta-land to keep carbon down. But when you burn it, it all gets released. Shit-loads of the stuff, which is Greta-bad. Very bad. But, I’m guessing, she’s not a whisky drinker. Probably drinks mountain water from local ponds out of re-usable bottles made of recycled wood by women’s sanctuaries. Sanctimonious little…

I found this photo from our pilgrimage to the island of Isla. Where all my faves come from. These particular casks were at (I think; it all got a bit blurry; wonderfully, beautifully, peati-fully blurry, at that point) Ardbeg. Could have been Laphroaig, which lives next door.

So now they’re applying pressure on the Scottish whisky bosses to stop burning peat for their product. I can’t understand why. Scotland’s full of trees and all the released carbon will be their problem, not ours, especially when they ‘leave’.

But get things in proportion: its a bottle of Scotch. How much fucking peat does it use? The entire whisky industry uses less than 1% of all the peat… mined?, dug??, removed?, whatever. Most of the rest is used by gardeners. So I reckon we need less roses, more whisky. There’s no competition.

LEAVE MY WHISKY ALONE!!! Motherfucking, interfering, tree-hugging…

Climate change protest has crossed a line!

Happy Saturday

A xxxx