In non-allotment life, advice is not always welcomed and the very idea of even listening to a good plan from an opposing viewpoint is seen as betrayal. A very appealing aspect of the allotment community is the appreciation of good advice, the exchange of knowledge based on hard experience and the respect in which the older members are held. They literally ‘know their onions’!
Heatwaves are becoming the “new normal” in the UK. Meanwhile not only has the Government failed to act on reducing emissions, but the current Conservative leadership candidates have downgraded the urgency of tackling climate change.
Activists are letting down the tyres of Sports Utility Vehicles and they have a point, says Ross McNally. Should these dangerous monster polluters really have a place in our urban environment?
Local repair cafés are one of those developments that seem long overdue. The UK currently has over 200 of them, with willing volunteers repairing all kinds of stuff and baking for the café. They are an important step in the direction of community sustainability. Alison Rees visited the cafés in Lindfield and Chailey and was very impressed.
Instead of focusing investment in energy efficiency, the UK’s new energy security strategy favours slower, more expensive sources such as nuclear power and offshore wind, and neglects cheaper renewable alternatives such as onshore wind and solar power. The chance to address high consumer costs and the UK’s dependence on energy imports has been missed.
Other countries manage to keep their environments much cleaner and clearer of litter and general rubbish than we do in the UK. Why is this, how do they do it, and what could we learn from them? Ginny Smith investigates.
The new exhibition Seafaring, at Hastings Contemporary, features a wide variety of works by mainly British artists from 1820 to the present day. Rick Dillon describes the stunning range of paintings, from 19th-century shipwrecks by Romantic artists such as Géricault to contemporary canvases by Cecily Brown and Maggi Hambling.
James Cory-Wright takes a sideways look at the world, from graffiti in Berlin to loo breaks in Snowdonia. And just who are the real ‘gentle sex’?
Nearly half of Britain’s bees are designated as nationally or globally threatened. Leading factors include habitat destruction and the use of chemical pesticides. Ross McNally argues that the introduction of bee bricks into new buildings will not make much difference to bee survival; it’s more important to ban pesticides in gardens, streets and agricultural land.
Human dominance over nature is the lens through which we have been encouraged to see the rest of life on planet Earth. But the long-term consequences of this approach are becoming clearer daily: we are damaging the environment and ourselves. We have to reverse the trend, even if in small ways. We could do worse than start with our gardens, Manek Dubash explains.
Margaret Thatcher did much to hasten the decline of our hedgehog population, argues Ross McNally, who points to rampant road building, privatisation and individualism as contributing factors.
Globally a third of all food produced is never eaten, while many go hungry. As well as cost-ing us millions, wasting food is a major factor in the climate crisis. Here are some actions you can take to change the situation.
In 2020 the Government approved an eye-watering £27bn for major road construction despite the rising costs of dealing with Covid. Here in Sussex several schemes are planned over the next 10 years by a government that seems hell-bent on encouraging travel by road – at the expense of bus and rail.
From small beginnings 30 years ago, the Friends of Hollingbury and Burstead Woods have grown into a thriving organisation making a real difference to the local woodland landscape
We all need to change the way we run our lives, if we are going to reduce our carbon footprint and live more sustainably. There are a growing number of community initiatives that are taking this open, co-operative and bottom-up approach to tackling sustainability issues.
The familiar hawthorn tends to escape our attention except during a brief period in the spring when it is covered with brilliant white blossom and lightens a hedgerow with its flowers. But to ignore the hawthorn is to ignore the extraordinary weight of folklore, myth, history and literature linked to it.
The post-Brexit decision to allow sugar beet farmers to use a harmful insecticide is the latest deadly threat to our ecosystems and to vital pollinators such as bees, writes Ross McNally,
The government is talking tough but doing nothing to solve the crisis of polluted waterways – even after a damning report from MPs. But at least councils in Sussex are taking the problem seriously, as Rick Dillon and Ginny Smith report.
Our bees are once more facing an existential threat. The powers-that-be have given permission for neonicotinoids to be used to control aphids on sugar beet. The very existence of these pesticides is a sword of Damocles being held over our bees, other insects and our countryside.
Rewilding is all the rage yet there remain key fatal flaws in the model. First is the fragmented nature of rewilding in the UK. Second, it remains largely the domain of a handful of privileged people. Could greater democratic oversight help repair fragmentation?
Demonstrators from across East Sussex declared the county’s HQ a climate crime scene in a bid to persuade the County Council to divest its pension funds of fossil fuel investments.
Are disused railway bridges liabilities or assets? It’s a question highlighted by plans to infill a bridge in Barcombe with concrete, plans which provoked a vigorous and, so far, successful campaign to halt what local campaigners describe as vandalism.
There were many attempts to make progress at the COP26 climate change talks in Glasgow. But there was also considerable resistance by countries with vested interests in fossil fuels.
Anna Scott files her final report from the COP26 climate conference e in Glasgow. Activists were disappointed, she reports, but the experience has strengthened her determination never to give up fighting for climate justice.
Back in August Sussex Bylines began its Toxic Shock series reporting on the sewage discharges polluting our rivers and sea shores. Public outrage grew both locally and nationally and eventually No10 had to act. It’s a start, but far from enough say campaigners.
As the COP26 Conference on Climate Change comes towards the end of its second week in Glasgow, the media circus has moved on, global leaders have departed in their fuel-guzzling private planes, and much of the real work begins
A marcher’s eye view of the Youth March for Climate Justice, with pictures and impressions of the event from roving correspondent Anna Scott.
DAY 3 in Glasgow After my day in the Green Zone, I decided that I would spend a day on the streets. The sun was out and the autumn leaves looked so golden and beautiful it seemed criminal to be inside. I began the day with a special Sussex Bylines assignment. In late August, one […]
COP26 can be confusing for average climate activist, as our correspondent Anna Scott finds, as she navigates the streets and the world of the ‘Green Zone’.
Our correspondent Anna Scott begins her reports from the COP26 conference in Glasgow with a photo essay on the inventiveness of protesters.