Listen here new show from Rhimo-Rimz

Rhimo presents his new vibrant show bring­ing to light views of an altern­at­ive Brighton. Listen here

Local community group launches organic shares!

Stan­mer based grow­ing group Fork and Dig It are launch­ing a share issue with a dif­fer­ence: a share in this year’s har­vest of organic local veg.

Fork and Dig it set up the pop­u­lar ‘Veg Share’ two years ago, as Brighton’s first com­munity sup­por­ted agri­cul­ture (CSA) scheme. CSAs are a way for people to access qual­ity local pro­duce at an afford­able price, by volun­teer­ing some of their time to grow it. The more pro­duce is grown, the greater the size of each share!

All the pro­duce is grown in Stan­mer Park and cer­ti­fied organic by the Soil Asso­ci­ation. The veg travels weekly to Brighton and Hove pick up points so as to keep ‘food miles’ to a min­imum and guar­an­tee fresh­ness; or share­hold­ers can opt for door­step deliv­ery. All profits go back into the group and there are dis­counts for people on a low income.

Fork and Dig It wel­come also wel­come volun­teers  on a drop in basis every Tues­day and Fri­day and the first Sunday of the month, to enjoy the group’s beau­ti­ful site at Stan­mer Organ­ics; learn about organic grow­ing; and be part of this friendly com­munity project.

There are just 35 veg shares avail­able on a first come first served basis, with prices from £10 per week. For more inform­a­tion see www.forkanddigit.co.uk or ring 07969 805795.

Note to editors:

Fork and Dig It is a volun­teer led com­munity grow­ing group based in Stan­mer Organ­ics, Stan­mer Park, Brighton and cer­ti­fied organic by the Soil Asso­ci­ation. They grow on just under 2 acres of land sur­roun­ded by lovely woods on the edge of the Downs.

Com­munity Sup­por­ted Agri­cul­ture (CSA) offers an innov­at­ive approach where a food or farm enter­prise has mem­bers who own ‘shares’ in the har­vest and there­fore also share in the risk. 

Local food- there has been con­sid­er­able growth in the local food sec­tor with organic box schemes, farm­ers’ mar­kets, farm shops and more recently com­munity sup­por­ted agriculture.

The Soil Asso­ci­ation is a char­ity cam­paign­ing for planet-friendly food and farm­ing and has some of the most com­pre­hens­ive stand­ards for organic pro­duc­tion and pro­cessing in the world.

CONTACT:  For information/ photos/ interviews/ site visit/ photo oppor­tun­it­ies con­tact Emily: 07969 805795 or sales@forkanddigit.co.uk   www.forkanddigit.co.uk

NEW: Anti-fracking ‘tea party’ backed by Friends of the Earth Listen to Update from Carol Dawes FOE

Last week a drilling rig was set up near Bal­come in Sus­sex to start bor­ing for water samples, tak­ing res­id­ents and the Envir­on­ment Agency by sur­prise. This has gal­van­ised the local com­munity to set up “Rig­watch” — a gath­er­ing of people to mon­itor Cuadrilla’s activities.

Friends of the Earth South East Regional Cam­paigner, Brenda Pol­lack said:

“Shale gas will do little to tackle rising energy bills. It’s extrac­tion will have a dam­aging impact on local com­munit­ies and their envir­on­ment, and pump more climate-changing emis­sions into the atmosphere.”

Carol Dawes from Brighton & Hove Friends of the Earth added:

“We totally sup­port the people in West Sus­sex who are fight­ing frack­ing.  This energy pro­cess will indus­tri­al­ise the Sus­sex land­scape and under­mine invest­ment in clean, renew­able energy.”

——————————————————————————————————————————-

LISTEN HERE TO MEETING IN FULL

Speak­ers:
Dr Mari­ann Lloyd-Smith — Inter­na­tional expert on tox­ics and con­tam­in­a­tion and advisor to the anti-fracking move­ment in Aus­tralia
Tony Janio B&H Coun­cil Con­ser­vat­ive envir­on­ment lead
Howard Johns — founder of South­ern Solar and expert in local energy solu­tions
Tony Bos­worth — Friends of the Earth Energy Campaigner

Frack­ing for shale gas is one of the hot­test envir­on­mental issues of the moment. Exper­i­ence from the US has raised con­cerns about con­tam­in­a­tion of water resources and air pol­lu­tion. Pro­pos­als for shale gas drilling in the UK have led to vig­or­ous local opposition,but the Gov­ern­ment is determ­ined to press ahead. Its sup­port­ers say shale gas is a key part of our energy future , but what will be its impact on the local envir­on­ment, on tack­ling cli­mate change and on energy bills

LISTEN HERE TO CAROL DAWES FROM FRIENDS OF THE EARTH ON THE IMMINENT  EXPLORATORY DRILLING AT CUCKFIELD

See lively intro­duc­tion of the Dangers of Fracking

FOE’s report on Frack­ing is here: http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/shale_gas.pdf

AND A STORY NOT OF CUCKFIELD SUSSEX BUT OF COOK’S VALLEY  USA AND THEIR EXPERIENCE OF FRACKING

This story is the first install­ment of Truthout’s Frack­ing Road Trip series on the wide-reaching impacts of the frack­ing industry.  

The bluffs rise up gently from the rolling hills and farm­lands of Wisconsin’s Chip­pewa County. For years, the bluffs stood silent as small farm­ing com­munit­ies grew around them. The bluffs are too steep to farm and most of the trees in the area grow on the tops of bluffs and around their rolling slopes and steep faces. It’s unusu­ally cold for April and trees stand as sil­hou­ettes against a layer of snow.

This scene is quickly inter­rup­ted at the inter­sec­tion of two county roads in the small town­ship of Cooks Val­ley. A large bluff behind a farm has dis­ap­peared. The bluff has been blas­ted, churned up and turned into giant piles of sand. The sand will soon be trucked off to a pro­cessing plant, loaded back into trucks or per­haps onto a wait­ing train and then shipped to oil and gas fields in other states.

The sand will be mixed with water and chem­ic­als and forced deep under­ground to break up rock and release pre­cious fossils fuels. This isn’t the kind of sand you find at the beach; it’s silica, or “frack sand,” a car­ci­no­genic dust and a key ingredi­ent in the hydraulic frack­ing pro­cess which has facil­it­ated a nation­wide nat­ural gas boom and, accord­ing to oppon­ents, an ongo­ing envir­on­mental crisis. Silica particles are uniquely shaped and prop open frac­tures in the under­ground rock to free the oil or gas.

Cooks Val­ley may be far from the oil and gas fields, but like the rural neigh­bor­hoods in states where frack­ing rigs and gas pipelines have replaced pas­tures, the frack industry’s demand for nat­ural resources has pit­ted neigh­bor against neigh­bor and turned this once tight-knit com­munity upside down.

In the Shadow of the Mine

A frack sand pro­cessing plant in Maiden Rock, Wis­con­sin. (Photo: Mike Lud­wig)Jane Sonnentag is a busy woman. Sev­eral chil­dren bounce around her humble kit­chen as she holds her young­est child and laughs as she recalls her father advising her not to marry a farmer. She did not take his advice, and now Sonnentag and her hus­band Louis are rais­ing seven chil­dren on their 160-acre farm nestled between the rising bluffs of Cooks Val­ley. Sonnentag has lived in the area all her life and her fam­ily has farmed there for gen­er­a­tions. Her farm, she says, is a “little piece of heaven.” But Sonnentag’s farm is not as heav­enly as it used to be.

Since 2011, when a massive, out-of-state energy firm won a per­mit to set up shop in their neigh­bor­hood, the Sonnentags have lived in the shadow of a 234-acre frac-sand mine loc­ated on the bluffs behind their farm and home. Sonnentag explains that as many as 400 trucks, laden with silica sand or wastewa­ter from a sand-processing plant, may roll past their home in a day. “I’ve got 400 trucks and seven kids and a yard this size … it’s not fun, you know, being by a stop sign, really,” says Sonnentag. “It’s like David verses Goliath, except I don’t have a slingshot.”

For gen­er­a­tions, mom-and-pop–sized mines in Wis­con­sin have sup­plied silica for a vari­ety of pur­poses, ran­ging from water fil­tra­tion to road pav­ing. But in recent years, the industry has grown expo­nen­tially as the frack­ing boom in other states such as North Dakota, Ohio and Pennsylvania has increased the demand for silica across the coun­try. Big min­ing and energy com­pan­ies have swooped into rural com­munit­ies like the Sonnentag’s to expand exist­ing mines and break ground on massive new ones, turn­ing Wisconsin’s west­ern bluffs into giant piles of sand and its rural towns into cen­ters of sand ship­ment and pro­cessing. There are now 70 act­ive mines oper­at­ing in Wis­con­sin, along with dozens of pro­cessing facil­it­ies. Three mines, each more than 100 acres in size, are cur­rently oper­at­ing within miles of Sonnentag’s home in Cooks Val­ley, a small town­ship of less than 1,000 people.

EOG Resources, a massive energy firm and former Enron sub­sid­ary (known at the time as Enron Oil and Gas), oper­ates the mine near the Sonnentags’ home. The company’s local office told Truthout to con­tact its Hou­s­ton office for com­ments on the mine and its impacts on nearby farms, but a rep­res­ent­at­ive there failed to respond to sev­eral inquiries.

When EOG Resources was blast­ing apart the bluffs, Sonnentag says, the shock would shake her house. Once a blast knocked her to the floor. At times, dust from the min­ing oper­a­tions would invade their farm. EOG Resources would dis­patch a couple of water trucks every hour to wet down the dust and keep it out of the air, but the effort was “like tak­ing a thimble to a dust bowl.” With dust blow­ing in the wind and hun­dreds of trucks passing their house every­day, the Sonnentags became increas­ingly con­cerned about their health. “There were not a lot of days we could go out­side, because we have two kids who have asthma,” Sonnentag says.

Silica dust is a known car­ci­no­gen and has been linked to lung dis­ease and can­cer among work­ers, and the fed­eral gov­ern­ment has set lim­its on silica expos­ure for the work­place — but has not set lim­its on pub­lic expos­ure. The frack sand industry in Wis­con­sin routinely assures the pub­lic that air­borne silica poses no proven dangers to the pub­lic, but without any fed­eral or state reg­u­la­tion of expos­ure, the industry’s assur­ances do little to ease Sonnentag’s mind. What if silica is the next asbes­tos, she won­ders? Her fam­ily never signed up to be “test dum­mies.” And what about the water? Point­ing toward the mine, Sonnentag says that EOG Resources is cur­rently truck­ing wastewa­ter from its sand-processing plant, where the sand is treated with water and chem­ic­als, and dump­ing it back into the mine. “I always thought my kids would want to live here long after we’re gone, but now I don’t know. There might not be any air to breath and water to drink.”

Reg­u­lat­ors Stretched Thin

The Wis­con­sin Depart­ment of Nat­ural Resources (DNR) reg­u­lates sand mines as “non­metal­lic mines,” a class that includes the small gravel pits and lime­stone mines that have long oper­ated through­out the state. Tom Woletz, the DNR point per­son on frack sand, tells Truthout that DNR has reg­u­lated sand mines in this way for years, but now the frack-sand rush has brought much lar­ger mines to the state. “The fugit­ive dust, that is a poten­tial prob­lem, and that’s what people are con­cerned about,” Woletz says.

DNR requires mine oper­at­ors to mon­itor silica dust emis­sions and report them to the state, but DNR offi­cials rarely visit the mines in per­son. Fed­eral fund­ing requires the agency’s lim­ited staff to focus on major sources of air pol­lu­tion such as large metal­lic mines.

“Some of these mines are never going to see a DNR air inspector at all unless there is a com­plaint,” says Woletz. “We could use more people on the ground to make sure that these people are doing the appro­pri­ate things.” A state budget pro­posal could add two more com­pli­ance officers to the DNR staff, and Woletz says DNR could always use more people. But much of the respons­ib­il­ity to keep silica out of the air in rural neigh­bor­hoods falls on the industry, he says, and DNR can’t always be there to hold its hand. “There’s some really good [oper­at­ors] out there, and there’s some that have a ways to go,” he says.

In 2012 alone, the DNR issued viol­a­tions to at least 15 frack-sand oper­at­ors in the state, accord­ing to state records.

Under state rules, a mine loc­ated near a child care cen­ter or a neigh­bor­hood oper­ates under the same pol­lu­tion stand­ards as a mine loc­ated in the middle of a forest, accord­ing to Woletz. In many cases, it’s up to the county or local gov­ern­ment to reg­u­late truck­ing, mine loc­a­tions and land use. With some res­id­ents sup­port­ing local meas­ures to pro­tect their homes and farms and other res­id­ents eager to cash in on the sand rush, local con­tro­ver­sies over sand mine reg­u­la­tion have cre­ated bru­tal divi­sions in com­munit­ies that would oth­er­wise be mod­els of Mid­west­ern neighborliness.

“There are fam­ily mem­bers up in Chip­pewa County that may never talk to each other again, ever,” Woletz admits.

That’s a famil­iar story to Sonnentag, who was involved in a local push to reg­u­late the sand mines in Cooks Val­ley under a local ordin­ance that was opposed by local landown­ers, includ­ing her neigh­bors. “Sand has dic­tated everything in this town … pit­ted neigh­bor against neigh­bor,” she says. The best man at her wed­ding will no longer talk to her. He wanted to start a mine on his land, Sonnentag says, and saw her fam­ily and other sup­port­ers of the ordin­ance as stand­ing in his way.

“It’s unfor­tu­nate, because he’s no closer to get­ting that mine star­ted than I am to becom­ing a veget­arian,” Sonnentag says with a grin.

A Frac­tured Community

Sleet is turn­ing the snow to ice out­side of Sonnentag’s house, but her kit­chen, busy with young chil­dren arran­ging pots and pans on the floor, is warm and cozy. Sonnentag chats with Vic­toria Trinko, who lives a few miles up the road on a small farm loc­ated across the street from a frack sand mine. The two women are dis­cuss­ing the local polit­ics sur­round­ing the ordin­ance they fought for years to put in place in order to reg­u­late the sand mine operations.

“It’s really split our com­munity apart,” Trinko says.

Earlier that morn­ing, Trinko had returned to her home after volun­teer­ing at a Sunday pan­cake break­fast. She says the turnout was good con­sid­er­ing the cold weather and a bit of friendly com­pet­i­tion from another pan­cake break­fast at a local church. She takes a seat in her liv­ing room, where she has agreed to be inter­viewed by Truthout. A pic­ture of her daugh­ter, who is now study­ing abroad, hangs above the mantle. The con­ver­sa­tion quickly turns to sand.

Trinko is the Cooks Val­ley Board clerk and kept notes on the battle over the ordin­ance, which was first drawn up and passed in 2008 after res­id­ents learned that sand mines might open in the neigh­bor­hood. The ordin­ance addressed noise from blast­ing, hours of oper­a­tion, silica dust con­trol and the num­ber of trucks allowed to rumble down the roads.

Landown­ers who wanted to lease their prop­er­ties to min­ing com­pan­ies or open their own mines quickly hired a law­yer and sued the town to defeat the ordin­ance. It amoun­ted to a “zon­ing ordin­ance” and was not prop­erly filed with the county, they argued, and a local judge agreed.

“So we appealed,” Trinko says, “and that made them all angry.”

What fol­lowed was three years of lit­ig­a­tion and show­downs in the local town hall. At one point, the town board was accused of embez­zle­ment; at another, the pro-mining landown­ers tried to take over the board and dis­miss Cooks Valley’s vil­lage powers, which, under state law, grant the town­ship the author­ity to pass ordinances.

“It’s got­ten really, really nasty,” Trinko says.

Neigh­bors have sued neigh­bors, and Trinko her­self was sued (along with two board super­visors) over open records laws. Mean­while, the town board con­tin­ued to appeal the chal­lenge to the min­ing ordin­ance, which even­tu­ally landed at the Wis­con­sin Supreme Court. As clerk, Trinko had been keep­ing notes through­out the whole fiasco, and even­tu­ally, she had to hand them over to the highest court in the state.

“I was very proud of myself, I guess, or sat­is­fied, that my paper­work held up in the [Wis­con­sin] Supreme Court,” Trinko says with a smile.

In 2012, the Wis­con­sin Supreme Court reversed an appeals court decision and ruled in favor of the Town of Cooks Val­ley, and the town­ship was finally allowed to begin enfor­cing the reg­u­la­tions it ori­gin­ally passed in 2008. As the battle over the ordin­ance wove its way through the courts, how­ever, three mines were estab­lished in Cooks Val­ley, includ­ing those near the Trinko and Sonnentag farms. To date, the town­ship has only com­pleted the per­mit­ting pro­cess for one mine under the ordin­ance. A draft per­mit pre­pared by the town­ship for the EOG Resources mine includes man­dat­ory air mon­it­or­ing and a $112,500 fee to be paid to the Sonnentag fam­ily, so they can build a new house, across the street and farther away from the mine’s truck­ing route.

For Trinko, the mat­ter of sand min­ing con­tin­ues to be a big part of daily life. As town clerk, she receives per­mit notices and posts them in pub­lic places such as the local bar. But there are more per­sonal issues as well. In 2011, after the mines began dig­ging into the bluffs, Trinko said she could “chew on dust” when work­ing out­side her house. Soon she would have a sore throat, but not the cold that usu­ally accom­pan­ies it. She says the symp­toms dis­ap­pear when she travels to visit rel­at­ives in other states.

Trinko now believes she has developed asthma from liv­ing near the sand mines. She saw a breath­ing spe­cial­ist who told her that the breath­ing prob­lems were related to her liv­ing envir­on­ment, but the spe­cial­ist refuses to go on the record with report­ers due to the ongo­ing controversy.

Trinko says her daugh­ter is wor­ried the air pol­lu­tion may be short­en­ing her life, but she wants to stay on her farm. It has been in her fam­ily since her father bought it in 1936. Trinko points out the win­dow to a bluff rising bey­ond the next pasture.

“That bluff … that’s where my dad grew up,” Trinko says. Frack-sand min­ing and pro­cessing con­tin­ues nearby, and another facil­ity in the area is under devel­op­ment. “It would be very sad to see all the trees dis­ap­pear. Plus, I am breath­ing this stuff.”

Top Human Rights: Special Report on Guantanamo Hunger Strike

Radio Free Brighton’s Maria McE­voy exam­ines the issues around the hun­ger strike at Guantanamo Bay with con­sult­ant neur­o­lo­gist and human rights cam­paigner David Nich­oll, Joy Hurcombe of the Save Shaker Aamer Cam­paign, Clara Gut­ter­idge Human rights law­yer form­ally with reprieve.org and her fel­low RFB reporter Mis­sie, who is work­ing with young people from Pri­ory School amnesty group who are join­ing the cam­paign.  Listen here

Update: Brighton & Hove MP Car­oline Lucas called for the Prime Min­is­ter David Cameron to per­son­ally inter­vene and phone Pres­id­ent Obama now to secure the release of Shaker back to the UK and his fam­ily. Watch the video at  bit.ly/104K63

Read on if you want to find out more about this story

FORMER GUANTANAMO CHIEF PROSECUTOR LAUNCHES FAST-GROWING ONLINE PETITION TO CLOSE GUANTANAMO

• Col. Mor­ris Davis, former Chief Pro­sec­utor at Guantanamo Bay from 2005 to 2007, launches peti­tion on Change.org call­ing on Pres­id­ent Obama to take con­crete steps to close Guantanamo Bay Deten­tion Center.
• Over 75,000 sign onto Col. Davis’ peti­tion in less than 24 hours, fol­low­ing Pres­id­ent Obama’s vow in a press con­fer­ence on Tues­day to renew efforts to close Guantanamo Bay.

WASHINGTON, DC – Col­onel Mor­ris Davis, who was the Chief Pro­sec­utor for Ter­ror­ism Tri­als at Guantanamo Bay from 2005 to 2007, has launched a rap­idly grow­ing peti­tion on Change.org call­ing on Pres­id­ent Obama to ful­fill his prom­ise to close the Guantanamo Bay Deten­tion Center.

As the Chief Pro­sec­utor for Ter­ror­ism Tri­als at Guantanamo Bay. Col. Davis per­son­ally pro­sec­uted Osama Bin Laden’s driver Salim Ham­dan, David Hicks, and Omar Khadr. Davis stepped down from his post due to dis­agree­ment over the use of cer­tain inter­rog­a­tion tech­niques. Since leav­ing his post at Guantanamo, Davis has become one of the prison’s most out­spoken crit­ics. On Tues­day, he star­ted a Change.org peti­tion call­ing on Obama to ful­fill past prom­ises to close the deten­tion facil­ity and to trans­fer the 86 detain­ees cleared for release.

“As the Chief Pro­sec­utor for the Ter­ror­ism Tri­als at Guantanamo Bay, I saw many things that I regret see­ing. Since its begin­ning Guantanamo has been costly, inef­fi­cient, and mor­ally wrong,” said Col. Mor­ris Davis, who launched the cam­paign on Change.org. “Now there are over 100 inmates on hun­ger strike to protest their cur­rent situ­ation. Obama must uphold the prom­ise that he made on Tues­day and close Guantanamo Bay Deten­tion Cen­ter before someone dies.”

In less than 24 hours, over 75,000 people have signed onto the peti­tion, and it has been covered in the Guard­ian, BBC, and The Huff­ing­ton Post.

The peti­tion is part of a grow­ing grass­roots move­ment around the issue. Wit­ness Against Tor­ture has coördin­ated people around the coun­try to fast in solid­ar­ity with the hun­ger strike, hun­dreds of let­ters have been writ­ten to the pris­on­ers, and hun­dreds of phone calls have been made to the Depart­ment of Defense, White House, and US Military’s South­ern Command.

As of May 1, over 100 inmates out of 166 total pris­on­ers were on hun­ger strike at Guantanamo Bay. The hun­ger strike began with a few men in Feb­ru­ary in protest of cur­rent prison con­di­tions, and it is estim­ated that 21 are cur­rently being force fed.

“Col. Davis is using Change.org’s tools to suc­cess­fully con­nect with thou­sands of people who sup­port his peti­tion to close Guantanamo Bay,” said Emilia Guti­er­rez, cam­paign man­ager at Change.org. “It’s clear his cam­paign is res­on­at­ing with people.”

Journ­al­ists inter­ested in set­ting up an inter­view should use the con­tact details at the top of the page.

Live sig­na­ture totals from Col. Davis’ petition:

• www.change.org/CloseGitmo

Journ­al­ists in con­tact­ing the US Depart­ment of Defense Press Office should try:

United States Depart­ment of Defense

• (703) 697– 5131

For more inform­a­tion on Wit­ness Against Tor­ture, please visit:

• http://witnesstorture.org

For more inform­a­tion on Change.org, please visit:

• http://www.change.org/about

Change.org is the world’s largest peti­tion plat­form, empower­ing people every­where to cre­ate the change they want to see. There are more than 35 mil­lion users in every coun­try who use our tools to trans­form their com­munit­ies – loc­ally, nation­ally and globally.

Listen Here — Dangers of Smart Meters + Event Alfriston Sunday 23^rd, June, 10:30 — 6pm. Be there!

LISTEN HERE:  Est. Janu­ary 2012, Stop Smart Meters! (UK) is an inde­pend­ent, not-for-profit voice call­ing for an imme­di­ate halt and reversal of the UK’s Smart Meter pro­gramme — which in itself is part of a global Smart Grid agenda. Our cam­paign aims to raise aware­ness about Smart Meters so that people can become informed about Smart Meters and take neces­sary and appro­pri­ate action to res­ist them. This is a very long way indeed from what Big Energy and Big Util­ity are try­ing to do.

There are many ser­i­ous prob­lems presen­ted by web-enabling our elec­tri­city, gas and water sup­plies and turn­ing our homes into wire­less, network-attached nodes on the Inter­net. From doc­u­mented (and sup­pressed) health risks, unwar­ran­ted pri­vacy viol­a­tions and safety issues to the loss of sov­er­eignty & con­trol of our prop­erty in our own homes and much higher bills, the Smart Grid will cause far more prob­lems than it pur­ports to solve. In real­ity, Smart Meters are a money-making solu­tion to a very dif­fer­ent chal­lenge — namely, how profit-seeking cor­por­a­tions can con­tinue to mon­et­ise fur­ther aspects of our lives.

We encour­age you to stand on your inde­feas­ible human rights and to say a loud “NO!” to Smart Meters. Smart Meters are not man­dat­ory — you are law­fully entitled to refuse one on whatever grounds you like. And if you would like to help other people do the same, please down­load and hand-out our leaf­lets to your neigh­bours and friends — this will make a huge dif­fer­ence in rais­ing aware­ness about Smart Meters within your own com­munity. — See more at: http://stopsmartmeters.org.uk/#sthash.5aKRWJ9U.dpuf

Listen Here: New show from Brighton Left Radio

With an inter­view about Genet­ic­ally mod­i­fied crops and a dis­cus­sion on immig­ra­tion Sam and Thomas bring you a wide range of views and opin­ions on top­ical and inter­est­ing issues across the globe. Listen here.

Brighton and Hove Eco Houses Event: Celebrate Hanover Centre eco-refurb 22^nd-23^rd June including One Planet Public Meeting

 Two days of cel­eb­ra­tion will show­case an ongo­ing envir­on­mental trans­form­a­tion of Brighton’s Han­over Com­munity Centre.

A raft of energy-saving meas­ures was made pos­sible after the local car­bon reduc­tion group ‘Hanover10:10′ won £10,000 in a national envir­on­mental com­pet­i­tion run by energy firm EDF, and gained a fur­ther £1,000 dona­tion from The South­ern Coöperative.

The Centre will open its doors on June 22 and 23 as part of Brighton and Hove’s Eco Open Houses event. It will give people a chance to look round, get inform­a­tion on the improve­ments, and dis­cuss energy-saving with those involved.

A key high­light is a One Planet Liv­ing pub­lic meet­ing at 5pm Sat June 22. The key­note speaker will be Pooran Desai OBE, who is one of the UK’s lead­ing sus­tain­ab­il­ity experts, at BioRe­gional. The meet­ing is organ­ised by Han­over Action for Sus­tain­able Liv­ing (HASL), Brighton.

Spe­cially com­mis­sioned inform­a­tion boards will be unveiled at the Centre show­ing insu­la­tion works car­ried out over the last 2 years with con­tri­bu­tions from local volun­teers, stu­dents and the sup­port from local busi­nesses. These link to fur­ther inform­a­tion on how every­one can take action them­selves. Plans for fur­ther major improve­ments will on show together, com­plete with dis­plays from the Eco Open Houses.

The aim of the work is to reduce the Centre’s energy bills, and its car­bon foot­print by 10% year on year. Part­ner­ship with the Uni­ver­sity of Brighton enabled ‘smart meter’ install­a­tion, mon­it­or­ing whether the tar­get will be met, and provide data for local stu­dent research projects.

Last month the City became the world’s first to win ‘One Planet Liv­ing’ status.  The even­ing ses­sion on June 22 will be a chance to find out what this means in practice.

Paul Nor­man, Coördin­ator of Hanover10:10 said: ”this has been a great part­ner­ship that really engaged local people using the Centre, local stu­dents and envir­on­mental groups in the eco-refurbishment of the Centre, in a way that helps the whole Han­over com­munity become more sustainable.”

Mr Desai, co-founder of green developers BioRe­gional and inventor of the One Planet Liv­ing concept said: “One Planet Liv­ing is a simple philo­sophy, a story and a set of prin­ciples which can act as DNA from which sus­tain­ab­il­ity can emerge…Its prin­ciples can be used to cre­ate a clear frame­work for sus­tain­ab­il­ity for a per­son, busi­ness or local authority”

Eco Open Houses open­ing for the Han­over Centre:

Sat June 22^nd  2-5pm,

Sun June 23^rd  10-1pm and 2-5pm

 One Planet Liv­ing pub­lic meet­ing: Sat 22^nd June 5pm-6.30pm

Upcoming Greencycle Events

3^rd June — Feb­ru­ary 2014  Volun­teer­ing at Fold and Dig It

Fork and Dig It wel­comes people of all ages and abil­it­ies to get out of town and spend some time on site in a peace­ful loc­a­tion within easy trav­el­ing dis­tance from the heart of Brighton. Volun­teer­ing can involve sow­ing, plant­ing, dig­ging, net­ting, har­vest­ing, com­post­ing and much more besides. All work is super­vised. Bring enthu­si­asm, sens­ible clothes and some lunch and enjoy learn­ing to grow at your own pace. See below and have a look at our con­tact page to find out more. On-site: Volun­teer days are Tues­days and Fri­days 10am — 2.30pm, and the first Sunday of each month 11am-3pm. If you’d like to get stuck get in touch to let us know when you’re com­ing. Skilled: We’re also really happy to hear from people with skills in areas such as car­pentry, irrig­a­tion, tree-surgery and any other skills related to small-scale food agri­cul­ture. Do give us a call. Fork and Dig It is a big site run almost entirely by volun­teers — some weekly, oth­ers monthly, and some once or twice a year — whether you have one day to spare or many, if you are inter­ested in the pro­ject and can offer time or expert­ise we’d love to hear from you. As well as all the intrinsic bene­fits (includ­ing a share of the har­ves­ted pro­duce to take home whenever avail­able), reg­u­lar volun­teers are offered rel­ev­ant external train­ing oppor­tun­it­ies to expand and improve their own (and the group’s) know­ledge & skill-sets. If you are inter­ested in volun­teer­ing with us visithttp://www.forkanddigit.co.uk/ or con­tact us via the email address provided

For more details see http://www.forkanddigit.co.uk/.

13^th June 7:30 An Even­ing with Sat­ish Kumar

Soil, Soul and Soci­ety – a talk by envir­on­ment­al­ist and human­it­arian, Sat­ish Kumar with film excerpts from Earth Pilgrim.

For more details see http://www.brightonpermaculture.org.uk.

15 June 2013 10:00AM to the 23^rd June Eco Open Houses

15–16 & 22–23 June Vis­its to new and ren­ov­ated eco-houses in Brighton & Hove are avail­able over four days, to dis­cover how the own­ers reduce energy, water bills and envir­on­mental dam­age. Eco Open Houses is of value to homeown­ers, build­ers, and any­one inter­ested in mak­ing build­ings more eco-friendly. See web­site for full details. ***NOTE vis­its are free but some must be booked in advance. Full details: www.brightonpermaculture.org.uk

18^th June Physic: An Intro­duc­tion to Everything

This FREE work­shop will make a chal­len­ging sub­ject access­ible and fun with the help of cool exper­i­ments and demon­stra­tions! Want to know how to view an atom with a toi­let roll holder and an old CD? Everything you wanted to know about the uni­verse but were too afraid to ask. ALL WELCOME. PLEASE REGISTER AS PLACES ARE LIMITED.

For more details see http://www.freeuniversitybrighton.org/events/physics-an-introduction-to-everything/.

15 August 2013 09:30AM to 16^th August 2013  05:00pm Intro­duc­tion to Permaculture

This course intro­duces the basics of per­ma­cul­ture design and shows how this approach can be applied to indi­vidual cir­cum­stances to facil­it­ate a move towards sus­tain­ab­il­ity. Cost: £90-£210. Tutors: Bryn Thomas and Hed­vig Mur­ray. See web­site for full details. ***NOTE book­ings can only be made via our web­site:www.brightonpermaculture.org.uk

Brighton and Hove People’s Assembly Against Austerity includes speakers Mark Steel, Owen Jones available to listen to here.

This event took place in the Brighthelm to which all Brighton and Hove res­id­ents were invited to. The speak­ers dis­cussed issues around aus­ter­ity for the Brighton spe­cific occu­pa­tion against privat­isa­tion at the Uni­ver­sity of Sus­sex to global issues of hun­ger and fuel poverty.

Listen here to some of the speak­ers from Brighton and Hove people’s assembly against aus­ter­ity. This record­ing starts with Kayla Entre from Brighton and Hove energy ser­vices. Other speak­ers on this record­ing are Hil­ary Wain­wright from Red Pep­per, journ­al­ist and comedian Mark Steel and Owen Jones.

Director of CUPP at Brighton Uni tells RFB about the Volunteering Programme

Listen to David Wolfe tell RFB about the Com­munity Uni­ver­sity Part­ner­ship Pro­gramme at the Uni­ver­sity of Brighton here. To read more about the pro­gramme  take a look at the University’s web­site via this link.

Listen to Member and Founder of Resound Male Voices Chat about their Choir and a Selection of their Music

Scott ‚a  mem­ber of Resound Male voice , and  Stephan, the founder, chat to RFB about their group. Listen to their inter­view and selec­tion of their songs here.

Led by Swedish opera singer Stefan Holmstrom, Resound Male Voices is a small ensemble with big ambitions!

We sing everything from early music to pop, barber­shop to opera,jazz, folk, impro­visa­tion and more. We’re a group where every voiceis vital, every voice is heard and every­one is given the chance to per­form solos, duets, trios.

Get in touch if you fancy being part of Brighton & Hove’s new­est an most innov­at­ive male voice group!

Email us at membership@resoundmalevoices.org or check out our Face­book page: http://www.facebook.com/resoundmalevoices

Photo cour­tesy of Justine Kilkerr

Something Underground Theatre presents “The Well”

Join Uganda Bike Ride 2013 for Maternity Worldwide

Atten­tion keen cyc­lists and adven­ture seekers! Mater­nity World­wide are pleased to launch their annual African bike ride chal­lenge, pre­vi­ously in Ethiopia, we are excited to launch our new ride in Uganda to mark our latest pro­ject there.

Details about the ride are below, it is suit­able for people who haven’t cycled much in the past as there is plenty of time to begin some train­ing. Please for­ward to any friends or col­leagues who you think may be inter­ested and don’t hes­it­ate to con­tact me if you have any questions.

Uganda Bike Ride

Cycle from the bust­ling Ugandan cap­ital city of Kam­pala, whiz past the source of the Nile and take in the stun­ning sights at the Murch­ison Falls National Park on a 3 day safari before head­ing to Hoima where you’ll visit the people whose lives you will help to trans­form with the money you raise. After that you can head home, tri­umphant, with life chan­ging exper­i­ences and a group of fant­astic new friends.

When: Thursday 26^th Septem­ber to Wed­nes­day 9^th Octo­ber 2013
Total dis­tance: 370km over 5 days
Char­ity: Mater­nity World­wide – sav­ing lives in child­birth in devel­op­ing coun­tries by train­ing doc­tors and mid­wives, improv­ing access to health centres and hos­pit­als and provid­ing com­munity edu­ca­tion about mater­nal health and the risks to look for dur­ing preg­nancy.
Total cost: £1400 (includes flights, accom­mod­a­tion, food and drink on the ride and 3 day safari)
Fun­drais­ing tar­get: £1400

More inform­a­tion is avail­able on our web­site http://www.maternityworldwide.org/news/uganda-bike-ride-2013/

If you are inter­ested in tak­ing part or want to find out more please do not hes­it­ate to con­tact Kirsty on 01273 234033 or email fundraising@maternityworldwide.org<mailto:fundraising@maternityworldwide.org>.
Thank you!

Kirsty Erridge
Fun­drais­ing Sup­port Officer

[cid:image003.jpg@01CE5879.4A390120]

01273 234033
Com­munity Base │113 Queens Road │Brighton │BN1 3XG
www.maternityworldwide.org
Face­book<http://www.facebook.com/maternityww> Twit­ter<http://www.twitter.com/maternityww>
Registered Char­ity No: 1111504

Fundraiser for ‘Doctor’s Without Borders in Syria’ The Cowley Club, 8pm, 26^th June

An even­ing of live music fea­tu­ing ‘Sole­bound’, dar­bua, Irish folk and solo gui­tar to raise money for life-saving med­ical work in Syria.

8pm, 26^th June, The Cow­ley Club, 12 Lon­don Road, BN1 4JA 01273 696104

New: Rob and Scott Show latest listen here

Scott is back for one week only and He and Rob are back to their old selves. Two charm­ing Uni­ver­sity of Brighton stu­dents let loose on the air­waves. Cov­er­ing everything from films to news, the Brighton uni­ver­sity stu­dents mix wit and charm whilst doing their best not to swear and offend. Listen here to their latest show