Doing an annual stocktake on the weather
Plus there’s so much solar news coming through just now thinking this newsletter could be renamed The Sun!
Good morning! I’m Sarah Hartley and this is The Northern Eco weekly update. As you’ve received this newsletter then either you subscribed, or someone forwarded it to you. If the latter, then you can click on this handy little button below.
The big news this week comes from the latest assessment of the UK’s climate which shows how baselines are shifting, records are becoming more frequent, and that temperature and rainfall extremes are becoming the norm. The latest State of the UK Climate report, published in the Royal Meteorological Society’s ‘International Journal of Climatology’, provides insight into the UK’s changing climate.
And with the recent heatwaves and hosepipe bans - are you feeling a 1976 vibe yet? My memories of that hot summer are those of a primary school age child so simply all about long days spent outdoors blissfully unaware of the danger. In fact experts calculate that summer heatwave resulted in 700 deaths, so do we take enough notice of them?
Leeds University’s Associate Professor in Risk Communication, Andrea Taylor asks if we’d take the threat of a heatwave more seriously if we named them in the way we do with storms?
How hot would you think a Lucifero (or Lucifer, another name for the devil) heatwave would be? How about a Cerbero (Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards the underworld in Greek myth)? Other suggestions welcome!
Elsewhere we catch up with all the environmental news around the region including:
🦀 The final report on that mass shellfish die-off
⚠️ Incinerator campaigners look for support
☀️ The latest solar farm plans
All of that to come….. but first, if you’re planning a day out over the summer break what about visiting a heat pump?
Forget the beach - heat pump tourism is where it’s at!
Why would anyone want to visit a heat pump? Well, if you’re thinking ahead to winter and considering installing a heat pump at home, the VisitAHeatPump.com scheme means you can hear directly from a local homeowner and ask them questions.
I was intrigued by the idea so tested it out. The journey starts via an online platform - add your postcode and the results show all the people around you who are happy to tell you more about their heat pumps.
I was offered the choice of many locations across North Yorkshire and County Durham and selected the nearest to me - Ronald in West Witton. Some owners offer set dates and times to visit while others can be arranged directly using the platform’s secure messaging.
The scheme’s creators, innovation charity Nesta, say that transitioning from gas boilers to low-carbon heating systems like heat pumps will be essential for the UK to reach its net zero goals. But despite this, most people in the UK have never seen a heat pump – there are currently 250,000 heat pumps in UK homes, according to Nesta’s analysis of MCS data.
About 200 heat pump owners have already signed up across the UK to offer help. So why had Ronald decided to join in?
“I sometimes see things on social media where people are just wrong so I wanted just to give people a straight view.”
Turns out Ronald is repeat heat pump owner having also had one in a previous property and wouldn’t dream of converting to a different heat source. His home is kept at a constant temperature, there’s plenty of hot water and the cost is affordable.
Insulation matters
His one note of caution if you’re thinking of this solution - ensure the property where it’s installed has plenty of insulation. Because the system runs constantly - rather than experiencing a big peak on a timer like gas does - the warmth remains within a properly insulated property. Drafty, under-insulated properties would not be suitable for heat pumps.
Before my visit, I was under the impression that a heat pump would take up a lot of room and could be noisy. I was wrong on both fronts! As you can see in the picture, the system for this four bedroom house is not that large and is not noisy.
On cost, although it’s not possible to extract the heat pump from the overall cost for electricity, Ronald’s total annual bill was about £1,800 last year. That’s for heat, light, cooking, hot water - everything in the property.
Promoting the VisitAHeatPump.com scheme, Nesta’s press release said homeowners all over the country are making visits to see a heat pump in real life.
“Building trust through personal testimonials and positive real-life experiences with installers helps to address a key barrier to heat pump adoption. By seeing their work in action, new customers have a boost in confidence and installers are more able to grow their business.”
Here comes the sun
☀️ “There will be significant improvements in the wildlife. There will be a lot more butterflies than there would be on a monocultured crop sprayed to death.” Joe Willis reports on the discussion which took place when the council agreed a huge solar farm straddling the A1 in North Yorkshire.
☀️ Plans to build a solar farm across 55 hectares of open countryside near to Yorkshire Sculpture Park and two rural villages look set to be approved. Tony Gardner at The Yorkshire Post reports that Wakefield Council officers have recommended the scheme, which includes installing solar panels at two sites near to Woolley and Haigh, be given the go-ahead.
☀️ The site of a proposed solar farm in North Yorkshire sits within an “extremely significant” historic landscape with evidence of prehistoric, Roman and medieval activity, critics of the scheme claim. Joe Willis has more for us here.
Thank you for reading edition number 143 of The Northern Eco. The main newsletter is sent out at 7am every Tuesday. It remains independent, ad-free and free to read for hundreds of subscribers, sending thousands of visits to other local news sources. It takes more work than it looks so please consider supporting it so we can keep going!
Other news
Concern over pollution in Yorkshire Dales stream
Residents in Hawes have reported discoloured, oily water in Gayle Beck, a tributary of the River Ure.
🌼 Regular readers might remember this snap I took on a trip to York when the wildflower display caught my eye and which featured on the messy versus neat debate……Well, it turns out the response to wildflower displays by York’s bar walls has been overwhelmingly positive but this summer’s drought has brought unexpected challenges as Simon Walton at the York Press reports.
🐝 An all party group has formed for Bees, Pollinators and Invertebrates "exploring practical solutions to support insect conservation and better integrate scientific insight into national strategy." Thinking this group might be good to know for our In The Weeds campaign to ban glyphosate spraying in public spaces in the UK so will be in touch after the summer recess.
The three most clicked links from last week were:
The People’s Commission on the Water Sector
⚡️ The Humber Estuary could get a floating power station and possibly a small nuclear reactor to generate energy, Stuart Harratt at the BBC reports. Chiltern Vital Group and Freepan Holdings Corp have signed an agreement to look at mooring a "power barge" on the water near Saltend that would use liquefied natural gas (LNG) to produce electricity.
🌏 County Durham’s new Reform UK administration is appealing the authority’s climate emergency and pitting the work on net zero against the needs of disabled children. Bill Edgar has more.
🚜 A farmer in Yorkshire has said she will struggle to feed her animals after the dry weather and heat slashed her hay yields, adding: “It’s all a bit of a disaster.” Ellie Ng at The Yorkshire Post has more.
Shellfish die-offs were ‘catastrophic’ says final report
By Anttoni James Numminen, Local democracy reporter
🦞 If you were under the impression that fishing for invasive non-native crayfish was allowed - beware. A man has been sentenced for illegally fishing for crayfish in Northumberland, in a case brought by the Environment Agency (EA). [Press release]
🪶 “I am absolutely ecstatic to win and a bit over-awed” says the farmer at a curlew-friendly dales farm which has won a prestigious conservation award, reports Janet Gleeson at the D&S.
That’s it for this week but don’t forget there are updates on the website and via social media through the week too.
If you’re looking for some eco action in the next week or so - do check out what’s on in July, and beyond.
Have a great week!
Thanks Sarah
Why isn't main stream media like The Today programme report on the need for ending our reliance on fossil fuels rather than just ways we need to mitigate climate breakdown?
“Records are becoming more frequent,” you say, “and … temperature and rainfall extremes are becoming the norm.” I don’t think I’ve read much about wind, though. I get the impression that the wind has been blowing almost constantly this year. Is that borne out by the stats? If true, it would bode well for onshore wind generation.