Using drones for energy consultation?
If the energy power shift is the story of our age, are we utilising the best technologies to bring that story to life? We take a look at amazing drone displays along with all your local eco news
Good morning! I’m Sarah Hartley and this is your usual Tuesday edition of The Northern Eco. 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.
We’re starting today with a flight of fancy - but is it? Incredible drone displays are becoming commonplace as a more environmentally-friendly option than fireworks so why not harness the excitement they bring to shine some light on a serious issue?
Aside from that we’re making preparations for next week’s Indie News Week and you’re all invited to our drop-in next Wednesday in Bishop Auckland to help us mark that. Plus we’ve all the local eco news including:
🩺 VIDEO: Launch of the Natural Health Service
🔥 Is Drax’s use of language misleading?
⚽️ How climate change is impacting England’s World Cup football team
From our website
Ads complaint filed against Drax
North Yorkshire Council’s Green councillors have submitted a formal complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) concerning environmental and climate-related claims made by Drax Group in public-facing advertising and promotional communications.
Scarborough Mayor supports fracking ‘if it doesn’t affect community’
By Anttoni James Numminen, Local Democracy Reporter
Thanks for reading issue 184. The Northern Eco is free for everyone, but it takes a LOT of time to research, write and edit. If you can, please upgrade to a paid subscription – it’s only £4.99 a month. The cost of a posh cup of coffee! And maybe you can encourage a friend to join as a free subscriber?
In other news
🩺 The UK’s first Protected Landscape-led Natural Health Service is being piloted by North York Moors Trust. It is part of David Skaith, Mayor of York and North Yorkshire’s, Moving Forward campaign to help improve wellbeing, reduce loneliness and support people to get and stay active. I was lucky enough to bump into him at last week’s Future Countryside event and grabbed a few words with him about it for this video.
💦 Congratulations to Save Our Swale (SOS)! The river campaigners were presented with an Official Richmond Business and Tourism Awards (ORBTA) Community Campaigner Award in recognition of the work undertaken by all the volunteers in SOS.
⛏️ Plans by mining firm Anglo American to remove restrictions on its annual polyhalite production at Woodsmith in Whitby have received unanimous support from local councillors, reports Anttoni James Numminen at the Teesside Gazette. And if like me, polyhalite digging happening 1,600 metres beneath the North York Moors is a new concept, let me recommend this excellent explainer from Ray Casey at North East Bylines.
🔥 The Appeal Court has thrown out the Moorland Association’s legal challenge against the new burning regulations, which restrict burning on deep peat, reports RaptorPersecutionUK.
The three most clicked links from across last week’s two newsletters were:
Leave this precious site alone says Peer
🌳 The Tree Council, in partnership with Network Rail, is offering grants of £2,500 - £10,000 for local authorities, charities, community groups, educational institutions, and landowners to deliver tree-planting projects that directly benefit people and communities. Deadline: 19 July 2026.
🌏 We’re starting to see screenings of the National Climate Emergency Briefing popping up more frequently in our inbox such as this on Wednesday the 8th July in Northallerton (booking link here), Make It Wild’s at 2:30pm to 4:00pm on Saturday 27 June at Bank Woods Barn, Nidderdale (booking link here) and Settle Quakers on Friday 26th June (booking link here). Wherever you live you can find your nearest screening at this map.
🌏 More than a million jobs, higher wages, nearly half a trillion pounds in investment in the pipeline – the UK’s green economy is powering ahead, according to research by the country’s leading business organisation, reports Fiona Harvey at The Guardian.
☀️ Green Streets Club started with a group of neighbours getting together to talk about solar power for their houses. Two years later they’ve made savings and the idea is spreading to other parts of the city. Sam Walby at NowThen writes about, Taking the power back, one Sheffield street at a time.
⚽️ We don’t often turn our attention to sport here but there’s some very clever work from Climate Central which explores how heat could slow down player performance across all of the 2026 World Cup matches - and how climate change is increasing the odds of heat.
That’s it for now but, don’t forget, there’s plenty of stories you can browse on our website and via social media.
We’re going to be at The Artists’ Hub in Bishop Auckland from 10am until 3pm tomorrow (and every Wednesday). If you’re in the area, please do drop in. We want to hear your stories, understand more about the environmental issues that interest you and help amplify your projects.