June 2008 Volume 13 Number 6

Whose town is it anyway?

How connected do you feel to your immediate environment?  Do you want to be active in shaping the area in which you live, or have you slumped into an apathetic slumber, convinced that your opinion doesn't matter and that life is just the way it is?  It is great to hear of towns where the public is fighting the mighty powers of the supermarkets, stating that it doesn't want out-of-town stores that, all too surely, lead to the death of the High Street and important community relationships. 

Nick Reeves wants to take this further.  He wants to see a revolution in our cities, before the skyline is blighted by soaring monstrosities, created by egotistical architects with a total disregard for the human scale.

There is a theme of empowerment that runs through this edition of WEM.   Yifat Susskind of MADRE explains how the organisation is empowering women in the developing world on page 14.  Mike Follows questions whether the public should swallow the Government's hard-sell of nuclear on page 18.  And Eileen Woods highlights the creative collaboration that can work to transform public spaces on page 24.  Don't miss our second excerpt from Burning Ice, Cape Farewell's book recording Arctic voyages with scientists and artists  on page ten.  This month we are featuring the work of Antony Gormley and Peter Clegg.
I look forward to your comments.

Erika Yarrow, Editor, WEM (Water & Environment Magazine) wemeditor@ciwem.org

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