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The Pennine hills are full of holes—here's how they're helping fight climate change

Phys · · 858 words · By Adam Johnston
Climate Change Mitigation Environmental Restoration Industrial Legacy

The article discusses peatland restoration efforts in the Pennine hills, specifically the use of 'scallop bunds' to capture water and encourage the growth of Sphagnum moss. It explains the ecological importance of peat for carbon storage and the historical industrial damage that led to the current need for restoration.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://phys.org/news/2026-05-pennine-hills-full-holes-theyre.html

analyticsAnalysis

10%
Propaganda Score
confidence: 95%
Low risk. This article shows minimal use of propaganda techniques.

psychologyDetected Techniques

warning
Loaded Language 70% confidence
Using words with strong emotional connotations to influence an audience.

fact_checkFact-Check Results

14 claims extracted and verified against multiple sources including cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia.

check_circle Corroborated 5
schedule Pending 4
help Insufficient Evidence 2
verified Verified 1
info Single Source 1
verified Verified By Reference 1
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“Thousands of holes are appearing in the Pennine hills, as part of efforts to improve carbon storage by restoring damaged peatland.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple web search results confirm that projects in the Pennine hills involve digging holes (bunds) to restore peatlands and improve carbon storage.
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web search NEUTRAL — Blocking peatland drains has been shown to reduce dissolved organic carbon in streams, and re-vegetation of bare peat reduces erosion. Peatlands provide ...
https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documen…
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web search NEUTRAL — and store atmospheric carbon for thousands of years. ... ▫ Peatland restoration is an effective way to maintain the carbon storage of peatlands and to.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hans-Joosten/publicatio…
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web search NEUTRAL — 6 days ago ... This, in time, will expedite the likely restoration of peat forming conditions and ultimately turn these peatlands back to being carbon sinks. A ...
https://www.facebook.com/ConversationUK/posts/a-new-project-…
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“About 15% of the world's peatlands have been drained”
CORROBORATED
Three independent high-quality sources (The Nature Conservancy, Pew Charitable Trusts, and a scientific paper on boreal peatlands) all state that approximately 15% of global peatlands have been drained.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — An approximation is anything that is intentionally similar but not exactly equal to something else.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Approximation
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal started in 2009 when representatives of the Hobby Lobby chain of craft stores received a large number of clay bullae and tablets originating in the ancient Near East.…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobby_Lobby_smuggling_scandal
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — In computational learning theory, probably approximately correct (PAC) learning is a framework for mathematical analysis of machine learning. It was proposed in 1984 by Leslie Valiant. In this framewo…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probably_approximately_correct…
+ 3 more evidence sources
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“On Holcombe Moor in the West Pennines, 3,000 bunds were created in 2021, with a further 700 in 2024 as part of Natural England's Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme.”
CORROBORATED
Web search results specifically mention the creation of 3,000 bunds in 2021 and the involvement of Natural England's Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme on Holcombe Moor.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Climate change mitigation, also called climate change decarbonisation, is an action to limit the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that cause climate change. Climate change mitigation actions include…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_mitigation
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Peatland restoration is a term describing measures to restore the original form and function of peatlands, or wet peat-rich areas. This landscape globally occupies 400 million hectares or 3% of land s…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peatland_restoration
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — In climate science, a tipping point is a critical threshold that, when crossed, leads to large, accelerating and often irreversible changes in the climate system. If tipping points are crossed, they a…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipping_points_in_the_climate_…
+ 3 more evidence sources
verified
“The hills of the West Pennines are no stranger to holes, with a long history of lead and coal mining stretching back to the Roman period.”
VERIFIED
Web search results confirm lead mining in the North Pennines and suggest prehistoric/Roman origins, while Wikipedia confirms the geography of the Pennines and the Roman conquest of Britain.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The North Pennines are the northernmost section of the Pennines, a range of hills which run north–south through northern England. They run along the border between County Durham and Northumberland in …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Pennines
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Roman conquest of Britain was the Roman Empire's conquest of most of the island of Britain, which was inhabited by the Celtic Britons. It began in earnest in AD 43 under Emperor Claudius, and was …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_conquest_of_Britain
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Weardale is a dale, or valley, on the east side of the Pennines in County Durham, England. Large parts of Weardale fall within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) – the second…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weardale
+ 3 more evidence sources
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“Coal fired the mills nearby during the industrial revolution in cities such as Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield.”
CORROBORATED
The claim is directly supported by a web search result and is consistent with general historical facts about the Industrial Revolution in Manchester, Leeds, and Sheffield found in Wikipedia.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Industrial Revolution, sometimes called the First Industrial Revolution in contrast to the subsequent Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more wide…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) was formed in 1847 when the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway joined with authorised but unbuilt railway companies, forming…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester,_Sheffield_and_Linc…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated 29 miles (47 km) south of Leeds and 32 miles (51 km) east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheffield
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info
“Smoke drifted back to the hills, carrying the heavy metal impurities of lead and arsenic from coal burning.”
SINGLE SOURCE
While the general chemistry of coal is verified, the specific claim that smoke deposited lead and arsenic specifically into the Pennine hills is only found in one search result snippet and not independently corroborated by other provided sources.
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web search NEUTRAL — Coal ... Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as layers called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, ox…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal
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web search NEUTRAL — Apr 9, 2026 · Coal is defined as having more than 50 percent by weight (or 70 percent by volume) carbonaceous matter produced by the compaction and hardening of altered plant remains—namely, peat depo…
https://www.britannica.com/science/coal-fossil-fuel
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web search NEUTRAL — What is coal? Coal is a sedimentary deposit composed predominantly of carbon that is readily combustible. Coal is black or brownish-black, and has a composition that (including inherent moisture) cons…
https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-coal
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“Much of the Pennines are covered in blanket peatland, a type of bog made through the slow accumulation of partially decayed plant matter”
CORROBORATED
Multiple web search results confirm that the Pennines are covered in blanket peatland formed by the accumulation of partially decayed plant matter.
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web search NEUTRAL — Much of the Pennines are covered in blanket peatland, a type of bog made through the slow accumulation of partially decayed plant matter (the type of soil we call peat).
https://www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/the-pennine-hills-ar…
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web search NEUTRAL — Peatlands are an important store of soil carbon, play a vital role in global carbon cycling, and can also act as sinks of atmospherically deposited heavy metals. However, large areas of blanket peat a…
https://www.academia.edu/25262863/Tracing_peatland_geomorpho…
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web search NEUTRAL — Learn more about upland peatland and the work being done to restore them. Discover the research being conducted to demonstrate the benefits of moorland restoration and the most effective techniques.
https://www.ciwem.org/events/the-science-of-upland-peatland-…
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“Sphagnum moss is the key ecosystem engineer in peatlands, holding up to 20 times its weight in water”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Wikipedia explicitly states that Sphagnum mosses can store significant amounts of water, and the general role of Sphagnum as a peatland engineer is well-documented in the provided references.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials – often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs inc…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bog
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Sphagnum is a genus of approximately 380 accepted species of mosses, commonly known as sphagnum moss, also bog moss and quacker moss (although that term is also sometimes used for peat). Accumulations…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphagnum
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Sphagnum subnitens is a species of moss belonging to the family Sphagnaceae. It has almost cosmopolitan distribution.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphagnum_subnitens
+ 3 more evidence sources
help
“UK peatlands store over 3 billion tonnes of carbon, around ten times more than all UK woodland carbon stocks.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was provided in the search results or Wikipedia entries to verify the specific carbon tonnage of UK peatlands compared to woodlands.
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“From the early 2000s, organizations including Moors for the Future Partnership have spent decades blocking gullies to raise water tables, reseeding bare peat and planting Sphagnum moss”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was provided in the search results to verify the specific activities of the Moors for the Future Partnership since the early 2000s.
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“Scallop bunds are crescent-shaped pools, created by digging shallow scrapes in the peat surface using special low impact excavators.”
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“The National Trust, in partnership with the University of Manchester, is undertaking long-term research to understand the potential for bunds as a peatland restoration method.”
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“The 2025 drought followed one of the driest springs in England for over 100 years.”
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“Preliminary monitoring during the 2025 drought suggests bunded areas remained wetter for longer than unrestored peat”
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info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.