Next Event: commemorate WHiST Across the Decades 1991-1995

Our next WHiST Across the Decades event will be on Thursday 17th September, 3-6pm in our coffee bar. This time we're going back to the days when John Major was in No 10, Bill Clinton was in the White House; acid house and techno were driving rave culture; Friends was first on the telly; new age travellers were making camper van pilgrimages to Glastonbury with lurchers in tow; Nirvana were maxing out the grunge; the iron curtain was falling apart and the ANC were in power in South Africa ... and we were starting to wake up to what a couple of centuries of industrial growth were doing to our bodies and our planet.

There was increasing awareness of the loss of rainforests, the release of CFCs into the ozone layer, collapsing biodiversity, and changes to the climate. At the 1992 United Nations Rio Earth Summit, world leaders committed to addressing climate change by making the polluter pay; protection of species; and sustainable development so that poorer nations didn't feel economically forced to sell all their resources regardless of environmental impact. It's fair to say that we probably failed to "walk the talk", but in the early 90s there was a sense of hope, as The Guardian put it in 1992:

After previous false starts in the 1970s and 1980s, there can be little doubt that the 1990s are the decade of final choice.

The Guardian, 15th June 1992, 'Earth summit: Rio - the buck stops here'

Perhaps it was all too huge for anyone to contemplate? At our event, we'll be looking at some smaller scale eco-friendly changes we can make to our individual lives. When enough of us make these changes, the impact can be huge.

We'll also be looking back to what WHiST was offering at this time to help women look after their own wellbeing.

What was similar to today? What positive changes have we made? Have we lost anything? We'll be asking your opinion.

And of course, expect our usual mix of great free food (with an early 90s flavour), a quiz, poetry and - as it proved so popular last time - we're going to have another group karaoke session! Dressing up is entirely optional, but hey, we could all do with digging out the stonewashed denim and rainbow tops, couldn't we?