Viva Brighton Issue #79 September 2019

VIVA
B R I G H T O N
#79 SEPT 2019
EDITORIAL
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When we decided on ‘footprint’ for our September
theme, my mind filled with rambling thoughts of
trekking, tightrope walkers and shoes. But, with
things the way they are, it was no surprise that
environmental concerns and our carbon footprint
came to the fore.
As we measure our collective environmental impact
in the death of glaciers, we need all the reminders we
can get if we’re to turn the (rising) tide of the climate
emergency.
So, in this issue we do indeed have a shoemaker and
plenty of inspiration to get out walking, but we also
hear from some local change makers – environmental
and otherwise. Like Mary-Jane Farrell, one of
the organisers of the Brighton youth strike for
climate action; Atlanta Cook of the environmental
consultancy Ocean’s 8 Brighton; Alexander Thomson
who is on a mission to freecycle waste from the
construction industry with his virtual skip and Justin
Francis who has been leading the way with low
impact tourism since 2002.
Plus we meet a Sussex University epidemiologist who
is determined to eradicate a particularly nasty but
largely forgotten tropical foot disease, and Lewes FC
who are levelling the (football) playing field in pay
equality. Inspiring people who are walking the talk.
On the copper plaque recently unveiled to
commemorate the death of the Okjökull glacier, the
Icelandic author Andri Snær Magnason wrote, in a
letter to the future, ‘We know what is happening and
what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it.’
If we are to do what needs to be done, we all need to
tread a great deal more lightly.