to peat or not to peat?

[sammason]

Most of the gardeners I know in the British Isles avoid using peat. We don't doubt that it's a useful material in the garden and it's still available in garden centres. But many of us believe it to be environmentally damaging. The thing is, it's a non-renewable resource and its mining has driven our peat bogs and their associated plants and insects to alarming scarcity. At least, that's the way I've always perceived it. But since I've been on gardening I've been struck by how many American gardeners use peat. I wonder why this is. Perhaps you have ample peat bogs over your side of the Atlantic, so there's no cause for concern over there?

[Edit] Since people started to make interesting comments on this (thanks everybody!) I found some websites about peat-free growing. There's advice from the Government and also from the well-respected Royal Horticultural Society.