says Jim Murphy. I agree. Murphy lives in Ireland. He burns turf to heat his home.

What’s turf? It’s a soil made up of dead plants. It is also called peat. In Ireland, peat comes from bogs. A bog is a wetland. It’s made from water and plants.

Walking on a bog is like walking on water. That’s because bogs hold a lot of water. The moss growing in a bog can hold up to 20 times its weight in water.

My name is Emily Toner. I study bogs. Bogs are very useful wetlands. They can store carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a gas in the air.

Carbon dioxide traps heat. Too much of this gas can cause Earth to heat up. Yet, when bog plants, like moss, draw in and trap the gas, Earth’s temperature doesn’t rise as much.

People in Ireland use bogs for many things. Bogs grow wild berries and other plants that people eat. Peat is cut into bricks to burn as fuel. That’s what people like Jim Murphy do.