As we hurl headlong into an unbelievably cold, yet brand new and shiny year, Sarah Lewis takes a look at the trends, events and people to watch in 2009

Less rubbish rubbish

Recycling rates are set to rise, with continued initiatives from both East and West Sussex.

The battle against the Newhaven incinerator, planned to come online sometime in 2011, is not going to end any time soon.

West Sussex will continue with plans to trump its traditionally more green-minded neighbour in the East with plans for a new anaerobic digestion and gasification plant.

This works by using bacteria to turn some parts of the waste into fuel gas for buses and lorries, and the rest into an alternative for fossil fuels.

Does this mean we will see an end to seagulls ripping apart bin bags for the loot inside? It’s not likely.

Caroline Lucas MEP

Elected as The Green Party’s first ever leader last year (previously the party had two principal speakers) and the prospective parliamentary candidate for Brighton Pavilion, Caroline Lucas is widely touted as the person most likely to be the first Green MP.

Whether a solitary Green MP among nearly 650 others can do any good is debatable, but there is no doubting Caroline’s ability, with her prolific writing, campaigning and myriad of awards.

In 2007, New Consumer magazine said, “If you had to trust one person with changing the world, you could do worse than rely on Lucas.”

Eco-apathy

It’s pretty hard work absorbing all the environmental stories that appear in our newspapers every morning. It’s harder work still listening to the hyped up and terrifying stories about environmental doom.

Couple that with all the other stuff to worry about – the recession, the Middle East, teenage stabbings – and frankly, who has the energy to care any more?

Never paying for anything, ever

After the hallowed Brighton and Hove tradition of sticking your junk outside with a note saying “please take me” came the fabulous free cycle.org, where people give and take each other’s unwanted goods without the merest hint of fiscal recompense.

Now we have freeconomics, where the economy is being revolutionised by the internet and the ability to get news, phone calls, music, television, films and even divorce papers online, absolutely free of charge.

Of course, the economy is in the pits right now, but we didn’t like it that much anyway.

How will the new one turn out? Maybe placing less value on stuff will lead to placing more value on cosy hippie things, such as our communities, our towns and cities and, of course, our green areas.

Bicycles everywhere

Brighton and Hove’s status as a cycling demonstration town has led to some interesting initiatives, and today is the last day for seeing, and giving views on, proposals to extend the seafront cycle lane from the Palace Pier to Brighton Marina.

The eventual plan is to link up with the cycle route on the A259 between Roedean and Saltdean.

Cycle journeys in Brighton and Hove saw a massive increase of 47.3% between 2000 and 2005 and, with the continued improvement to the cycle routes (bar, of course, the Clock Tower/Queens Road turning), there is no reason why this shouldn’t continue into 2009 and beyond.

The bicycle industry is even defying the current financial crisis and is booming across the US, Japan and China.

As to whether 2009 will see talks leading to an eventual peace treaty between cyclists and car drivers is another matter altogether.

Share your veg

With the waiting lists for allotments in Brighton and Hove still closed, and long waiting lists elsewhere in Sussex, coupled with the increase in interest in growing veg (sales of veg seeds increased 80% between 2007 and 2008 and Sussex seed supplier Thompson & Morgan said they now account for two-thirds of its sales) it would be fair to predict an increase in community allotments and more garden sharing among neighbours.

There are several community allotment projects which allow anyone to attend work days and leave with a share of the day’s harvest.

The campaign group Transition Brighton And Hove are launching a new scheme called Grow Your Neighbours Own, which pairs up keen gardeners with empty gardens.

Animals on the move

Good conservation efforts in Europe are thought to have created a springboard for unusual bird species to start appearing in Sussex, such as the white egret, which the Sussex Wildlife Trust says is becoming much more common.

Dr Tony Whitbread, chief executive of the trust, points out we are seeing many more invertebrates, insects and spiders associated with warm climates, such as the black and yellow wasp spider and their zigzag webs.

The aggressive harlequin ladybird is also thriving, but is attacking our native ladybirds and pushing them out, a trend which is very likely to continue through 2009.

But, says Tony, “Animals are often responding to things we don’t understand or chance events. We always try to predict, but what actually happens is something totally different.”

A sceptical backlash

It’s very easy to make throwaway comments: “It snowed this morning, call that global warming?” “It was cooler last year than the year before, call that global warming?”

But as we see biodiversity dropping rapidly and vast dead zones around the oceans, as satellites from Europe, Japan and the US gather new data, it’s getting harder to insist mankind is having zero impact on the planet.

But with that comes new green politics and tighter environmental legislation, so it’s likely we will hear much more from the sceptics objecting to all these changes.

This is no bad thing, though. It’s good to keep us all on our toes.