Researchers analysed data from over 129,000 individuals across five years to track the mental health impact of accessible, well-maintained greenspaces.

The study revealed that people living within a 10-minute walk of an upgraded woodland were 10% less likely to be prescribed antidepressants.

They were also 6% less likely to need anti-anxiety medication compared to those living further away.

In the 1990s, a major campaign emerged in West Dunbartonshire to protect one of its most treasured landscapes, the Kilpatrick Hills from proposed development.

In this episode, Clydesider TV explores the story of that campaign through the voice of one of its key figures, Gordon Doughty, who played a leading role in the Clydebelt campaign to preserve the area’s natural beauty.

From community meetings to public opposition, this was a defining moment in local environmental activism and one that helped shape the landscape we still know today.

This film has been created by Clydesider volunteer Sarah Dillon as part of our ongoing work to document the people, places, and movements that have shaped West Dunbartonshire’s history. Through In Peace and Revolution, funded by ‪@TheNationalLotteryHeritageFund‬, we explore stories of activism, change, and community action across the region — highlighting the voices behind movements that have often gone unrecognised.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/54131806

Scottish rewilding estate hosts pioneering research into nature and mental health - Trees for Life

Rural school pupils visiting Trees for Life’s Dundreggan rewilding estate near Loch Ness have been helping shape a pioneering nature-based research programme to boost young people’s mental health and wellbeing.

Working alongside researchers from the University of South Wales (USW), pupils from Highland schools have been exploring how spending time in nature can improve wellbeing, help young people cope with difficult times, and support the mental health of those living in remote and rural communities.

Many young people face poor mental wellbeing, because of issues including exam stress, bullying, body image worries, and climate anxiety, say the researchers. Rural school students also experience infrastructure and social barriers, including isolation.

A new nursery has been opened near Loch Lomond as part of a project to supply and expand native woodland across Scotland’s first national park.

It will include restoration and maintenance of both temperate rainforest and the remnants of Caledonian pine woodlands.

One of our key programmes is Healthy Pathways, which has been developed to support adults build confidence, connections and create a stronger sense of community.

The project provides a safe, welcoming space where people can take part in creative, therapeutic and social activities that encourage connection, self-expression and renewed confidence.

All sessions are free, with materials provided.

In addition to the creative café, Healthy Pathways will be running a series of free health and wellbeing workshops.

Themed sessions will include mindfulness, healthy eating, budgeting, healthy relationships and health and fitness.

A third aspect of the Healthy Pathways programme will be the creation of a new womenʼs group around gender specific issues.

Mass urban transport schemes are to be celebrated but should come hand in hand with holistic thinking about how to transform our cities to be more sustainable. They should come with a great expansion of safe-cycling routes such as in Copenhagen; a citizens assmbly to discuss a 15 Minute City plan for Edinburgh; a permanent ban on AI data centres; protection of, and mass expansion of green spaces and allotments; a plan for tree planting; affordable low-carbon housing; create alternative zero-carbon to flying in and out of the city; cancel cruise ships from the Forth; have a wider plan to accelerate community renewables in the city. And, crucially, create participatory forums for citizens to discuss the way forward, as Patrick Geddes noted: “Town-planning is not mere place-planning, nor even work-planning. If it is to be successful it must be folk-planning.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/50556488

D'aww, look at the kittens!

Hi DIY!

My headphones of many years recently broke. My first response was to attempt to glue them back together with super glue (ethyl 2-cyanoacrylate) however that didn't seem to hold. Not even a little bit.

I then did a bit of searching and found that Sony often use ABS plastic in headphone manufacture, so presumably these are ABS. I then read super glue should work okay on ABS, however there seemed to be no bonding happening at all.

Do any of you have any tips for the best kind of glue or epoxy to bond these plastic parts back together and get the music flowing again?

I plan on wrapping the joints in thread afterwards, for additional durability. But first I need to get them bonded.

Ultra I&C provides communications tech solutions and mission software for military and government forces worldwide.

Ultra I&C’s parent company Booz Allen describes itself as an “advanced technology company” that builds “commercial-grade products and solutions for America’s most critical defence, civil, and national security priorities”.

Footage posted on social media by People Against Genocide – a group that says it is “taking direct action to stop the UK-Israel weapons trade” – appears to show two people inside the damaged building.

Across the Forth Valley, there are already many fantastic groups, projects and individuals looking after nature and biodiversity, with community gardens, wildlife surveys and habitat restoration projects happening all over the region.

To celebrate, we’re hosting the Forth Valley Biodiversity Festival, which is a month-long programme happening this August which aims to support existing efforts and bring these groups together under a shared festival banner. August is the perfect time to run the first year of this festival, as pollinators, butterflies, dragonflies, bats and wildflowers will all be out on display!

“Tranent currently has one of the lowest levels of tree cover in East Lothian and I’m sure this community-led scheme will bring about much-needed improvement, especially in residential areas.

“Trees can provide many health benefits, including better air quality and reduced stress levels. I believe Tranent Tree Town will create a model which can be rolled out across other communities in the county which are also in need of greater urban tree canopy cover.”

Doors Open Days Festival 2026 takes place over the weekend of September 5th and 6th.

“This year’s festival highlights the environmental, social, and economic challenges facing our communities, while celebrating how our region is responding and adapting to them.

“I encourage everyone with a story to share to consider hosting an event. It’s a wonderful opportunity to attract visitors from across the country and beyond, while strengthening connections with local communities.”

And on August 29 a free ‘Compostable Art’ session will see collective home embedded artist Alicia Storie run a workshop focussed on making artworks from the landscape we call ‘home’.

Alicia is a climate artist and designer with a particular interest in circular design, sustainable materials, and climate conscious design within our homes and communities.

As festivals like this grow, the language that once described the work gets taken up by institutions and funding bodies far removed from the actual effort.

Words like diversity, participation, inclusion, community and solidarity get turned into criteria and tick boxes, things to be measured and reported rather than practised. They stop describing anything real. And the festival that inspired them gets cited as evidence of a thriving community by the very institutions that had nothing to do with building it. I want to be clear: this festival was never trying to hit a diversity target. It started because people were being attacked in the street.

The question we keep returning to is this: what kinds of artistic practice help create a shared world in which more people can appear, act, speak, disagree, remember and be recognised?

The conditions that a festival creates – being visible, on the street, together, part of something that says you belong here – can generate things that outlast the event itself. Networks form. Organisations get founded. People who were isolated, find each other.

We received a licence application from the Men of Ness for a 2026 guga hunt. After assessing the application against the legislation and using the most recent scientific evidence, our Board’s decision is to refuse a licence.

We have used the latest information available and commissioned an updated population model to help predict the effect of the guga hunt on the gannet population. As a result, we have concluded an adverse impact is possible, both at the applicants’ requested application limit of 2,000 juvenile gannets, and at a reduced limit of 500.

Our Board has therefore refused the 2026 licence on that basis.

This decision does not prevent the Men of Ness applying for and obtaining a licence in future years. The hunt is recognised in law under the Wildlife and Countryside Act and NatureScot has a duty to consider any licence application based upon the best available science.

We’re turning their wheels
They don’t care if we’re stressed
With no time to think
We’re all left depressed

They need us too scared to stand up and strike
They need us compliant not looking for rights
There’s more of us, we need to rise up
There’s more of us, we need to stand up

If we get together a worker lead movement
We don’t need statistics
Or their management

They need us too scared to stand up and strike
They need us compliant not looking for rights
There’s more of us, we need to rise up
There’s more of us, we need to stand up
We need to stand up and fight

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/40884556

As an anti-racist festival born out of community solidarity, the packed programme is once again brimming with grassroots arts, heritage trails, live music, film screenings, and radical discussions.