From steel making to milling flour....
...and not forgetting this month's reading recommendations for eco bookworms
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.
Apologies for missing last week’s newsletter - sadly a death in the family meant I was otherwise engaged. However, you haven’t missed out on March’s book recommendations from Claire and Alan at The Wonky Tree bookshop which are below, along with plenty of news including:
How greening steel production could provide a lifeline for the industry
Launch of a flour being produced by regenerative farmers
Eco events coming up in April
Water news
💦 An exclusive story from Jonah Fisher at the BBC used United Utilities operational data to establish when the company was discharging sewage into Windermere when it should by law have been treating some of it. The analysis shows that sewage spilled illegally into England's largest lake on a record number of days last year.
💦 Yorkshire Water has been ordered to pay £40m to address its "serious failures" over wastewater and sewage, reports Victoria Scheer of The BBC.
Wensleydale Creamery source of beck pollution
Wensleydale Creamery bosses have blamed a failure in the plant’s drainage system for pollution getting into a local watercourse.
The three most clicked links from the last newsletter were:
Dear Melody, eco-agony aunt: to EV or not to EV
In other news
Green steel revolution? ‘Now’s the time for action’
With tariffs, tariffs everywhere this week, we’re taking a look at the challenge for the steel industry and the potential future of green steel. In this special report for The Northern Eco, Paul Drury-Bradey from the Local Storytelling Exchange considers the current situation.
Launch of flour produced by regenerative farmers
A farmer from York and three others who farm uses regenerative principles have launch a new flour called RISE RE:GEN.
🌏 A topic we’ve looked at before but now the Government is looking at measures to ban deep-peat burning aim to safeguard habitats, tackle carbon emissions, and protect wildlife. So why are hunters up in arms? Asks Helena Horton of The Guardian.
🌿 Three floating islands have been installed in the River Tees Estuary to boost wildlife habitats, writes Gavin Engelbrecht at the D&S.
🌳 The eco agony aunt Melody is back and this time answers a North East Bylines’ reader who is worried about food security and asks if it is possible to live a self-sufficient lifestyle in the NE of England? Read her response here.
We’ve made a start on the events listings for the next weeks and months but there’s plenty of room for more so, if you’re organising an event of interest to our readers, please do drop me an email.
That’s it for this week but don’t forget there are updates on the website and via social media through the week too!