Archives for Health and Environment - Page 2
WINTER WELLNESS
SUSAN MCFIE On 21st February a Winter Wellness Event took place at Castle Down Primary School. The community event was the inspiration of Green Party Cllr Glenn Haffenden. The idea…
Opt Out and Meet The Neighbours
By Susan McFie Many local residents are furious over the dumping of sewage into our coastal waters. Many more are rightly concerned about the spraying of their streets with a…
Bathers Going Through the Motions
BY PAUL MCLAUGHLIN Hundreds of environmental campaigners recently gathered in St Leonards for the unveiling of a mock Blue Plaque to highlight the continued dumping of raw sewage into the…
Santa’s Naughty List
Alex W is a Hastings resident. He is just six years old. Alex has several environmental concerns and decided to address them to the Prime Minister. He is still waiting…
Porky Parable
By Robin Holtom Reading that the People’s Republic of China is building a 26-storey factory farm for 650,000 pigs, I am reminded of Charles Lamb’s essay on Roast Pork. “Mankind,…
Heart Surgery Stitch-Up?
Conquest Hospital Loses Out to Eastbourne on Future Despite an outcry by Hastings Borough councillors and more muted objections from within the local medical community, the Conquest Hospital is to…
Creepy Crawly Christmas
Should we swap our traditional Christmas turkey for a plate of locusts to help the environment, asks Susan McFie? Love it or hate it, Christmas is coming and it’s just…
Get me out of here
Suzanne Kelly argues eating insects is wrong and that some reality TV shows institutionalise animal cruelty. As seems often to be the case, I’m A Celebrity – Get Me Out…
Tis The Season…
Christmas is coming and the nights are drawing in. But for some of us this is not the season to be jolly. Victoria Kingham describes her experience of living with…
Life with ADHD
During ADHD awareness month, HIP asked one young man about his view of public perception and the effect of this on his daily life. If you would like to talk…
Sleepwalking to Catastrophe
We must stop economic growth fuelling ecological collapse before it really is too late argues Richard Price. Hastings resident Peter Butchers has fished for prawns and mussels in the local…
Are You Havin-A-Larf?
Laughter Yoga is coming to Hastings. If the very idea makes you snigger then read on. Susan McFie looks into the history and benefits of a remarkable therapy. Laughter they…
Let them eat… fruit
Anna Sabin charts the progress of two prospective Community Orchards for Hastings. The proposal to plant up to 20 fruits trees on the westernmost of the West Hill lawns and…
Let them eat… porridge
Following the release of the Environment Agency’s latest annual Environmental Performance Assessmenton our local water company, Kent Barker writes an open letter to the bosses and board at Southern Water…
Down to Earth
Writing about the soil in the shadow of Big-Farmer and Big-Pharma, Gwendoline Coates finds inspiration in the writings of Alastair McIntosh and Adam Horovitz. I write about soil from both…
Vermilion Marine Research
Susan McFie visits a world Biodiversity Hotspot on the Mediterranean coast and looks at the work that’s taking place to reverse the tide of ocean habitat destruction. The winding corniche…
Power From the People
Kent Barker considers a series of simple measures that could be taken to help us achieve carbon neutrality – and asks why the government appears to be not just ignoring…
Always hungry
An ever-increasing number of people are having to rely upon food banks. Things are inevitably getting worsewith the cost-of-living crisis. Richard Price looks back at the history of malnutrition in…
Butterflies are free … but under threat
By Suzanne Kelly The world’s prominent scientists agree that climate change is all too real, and is threatening the world’s plant and animal ; Much attention has rightly been paid…
Sustainable Fashion
By Suzanne Kelly As the world wakes up to the environmental changes that are upon us – floods, droughts, temperature extremes, rising sea levels – many of us have started…
The Cost of Energy Security
Kent Barker considers the government’s dilemma in trying to achieve energy security, minimise fuel poverty, and meet its climate change targets. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but energy prices…
Virus ‘Kills Millions’ of Birds
By Richard Price With attention over the past two years focused on the Covid-19 pandemic, you may have missed the news of another virus that is spreading round the country…
Healthy Living for Mental Health
Following this year’s Time to Talk day organised by Mind and Re-think Mental Illness, Raquel Palmer of Licenceto KALE in Robertson Street welcomes the initiative, but considers some of the…
Green Resolutions
I wonder how many people have made planet-friendly resolutions for 2022? It seems likely that reducing plastic use will feature high on many lists. For those raised in the shadow…
The Raven – Evermore?
By Richard Price As a boy growing up in the 1970s and 80s I loved The Saga of Noggin the Nog, a classic of early children’s television. Noggin struggled against…
Decorations are not just for christmas
By Suzanne Kelly Our Christmas decorations should all be down now, but here’s a fun and easy project to make a decorative wreath to hang outside to feed birds. Climate…
Climate Change “Skulduggery” Row
The Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill is a Private Member’s Bill first presented in the UK Parliament in September 2020 by Green MP Caroline Lucas. Over the last year, it…
Rising Tides
As delegates from COP 26 make their way home, Richard Price looks at what failure to stem climate change could mean for us here in in this area of the…
Impressive Turnout for Clean Water Protest
By Suzanne Kelly Over fifty people turned out on Wednesday 27 October to highlight the continuing problems with water pollution. Facebook groups including Hastings Environment Network and Plastic Free Hastings…
VIEWPOINT
Goosed! Richard Price decries the loss of public land being sold off by local authorities including Hastings Borough Council. The law locks up the man or woman/Who steals the goose…
A Win-Win for Sedlescombe Sensory Garden
At a glittering ceremony in London hosted this month by the Society of Garden Designers, local garden designer Kristina Clode received not just one but two major awards for her…
Food Matters
What does food mean to you? It could be one of the most important aspects of your daily life or it could be no more than an essential, biological, fuelling…
Southern Watergate
By Ben Cornwell and Suzanne Kelly A few weeks ago, at Bulverhythe beach, all you would have heard were the calming sounds of the sea breeze, the pebbles clattering under…
Wild at Heart
Rewilding has become a familiar term these days, even finding its way into Radio 4’s long running series The Archers. The ‘everyday story of country folk’ has been keeping up…
The Long Road to Sustainability
On a recent road trip to Scotland, Kent Barker and Susan McFie were on the lookout for a changing environmental landscape and to see if the UK government’s carbon neutral…
Walking and the Meaning of Being Present
By Katie Fielder “Live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find eternity in each moment.” Henry David Thoreau They say that walking is a thinker’s pastime. Philosophers, poets…
Sea Shepherd Removes Hazards from Bexhill Beaches
Sea Shepherd UK volunteers spent hours removing debris and hazards such as discarded fishing net from the Bexhill coastline on Saturday 29th May. A Bexhill resident discovered the materials washed…
Failure to Roundup Glyphosate
Looking out of my window the other day I was greeted by an unexpected sight… a municipal vehicle spraying the weeds with herbicide. As our local council has spoken out…
Property development flouts animal welfare in Bexhill
The Queen’s speech recently revealed government promises to improve standards of animal welfare. The Action Plan for Animal Welfare now includes the recognition of animal sentience. Under EU law animals…
Coastal Protection Works Underway
Many locals will have noticed the changing ‘beach-scape’ over the last few weeks. Deep pools suddenly appeared on the shore trapping fish and attracting the curious. Suzanne Kelly investigates for…