Western Front sketches: 2 – The Christmas Truce sculpture, Messines
In the main square of the small town of Messines, on the high ground of a ridge that saw the prelude to the infamous Battle of Passchendaele, stands a sculpture of two officers, one British and one German, with a football. This is Andy Edwards’ Christmas Truce memorial, a poignant reminder of a moment in December 1914 when the humanity of ordinary men on both sides of the conflict was spontaneously shared, only to be suppressed in the bloody campaigns reasserted in the days that followed.
Western Front sketches: 1 – The Grieving Parents by Käthe Kollwitz
An account of the incredibly tragic story behind ‘The Grieving Parents’, the brilliant German artist Käthe Kollwitz’s memorial to her son who was killed in 1914, and my experiences of drawing of this deeply moving sculpture
A missed opportunity for linking health impacts of air pollution in UK and developing countries
The public in the UK and other developed countries are rightly concerned about the health impacts of air pollution, and our journalists are justified in keeping this topic on the agenda. Our media could so easily use this concern to highlight the massive impact on health, development, and the environment of energy poverty and air pollution from the continuing widespread reliance on solid fuels in the developing world, but are generally failing to do so. This topic, and the key policies and investment required to bring about a rapid, just and effective clean energy transition, need the attention and scrutiny of our best journalists, in the UK, other developed countries, and in the developing nations.
Creating healthy school kitchens in Africa: a new documentary film
This new documentary film produced by the CLEAN-Air (Africa) research team at the University of Liverpool tells the story of this major health and environmental challenge through the accounts of cooks, students, the head teachers of two schools, and those leading an exciting new initiative aiming to convert school kitchens from use to wood fuel to clean fuels such as LPG right across East Africa.
New ‘State-of-the-Art’ air pollution laboratory opens at KEMRI, Nairobi
Air pollution is a critical issue for health, climate and development globally, and especially so for Africa. To date, facilities for accurate measurement of air pollution in Africa have been limited. This is now set to change with the opening of a new ‘State-of-the-Art’ air pollution laboratory at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), in Nairobi.
