Out with a Bang

Colleagues,

I will be away for a few days on bereavement leave, but want to post an item out of huge respect for my brother-in-law Joe Weston, who died suddenly and expectedly on Saturday 5th November.

Joe was a distinguished academic and worked in the Planning Department at Oxford Brookes.

One of Joe's academic disciplines was in the field of environmental impact assessment (EIA) and here's a link to a thought-provoking article he wrote on the nature of EIA in a risk society: http://tinyurl.com/bwqsy8m

Joe was also a serious thinker on the broader front on the future of environmental politics which led to his editing of the book Red and Green: The New Politics of the Environment.

Behind all of this however, Joe was a lifelong environmental campaigner. In tribute to this 2011 ironically marks the 20-year anniversary of one of his greatest successes.

In 1991, and working through Friends of the Earth, Joe was part of a campaign that successfully thwarted the plans to route the M40 extension through an area of oustanding natural beauty, Otmooore.

Adapting techniques used to defend areas of the Brazilian rain forest from logging the campaign was a historic success. More detail is here: http://tinyurl.com/79mm2ke

Joe's obituary appears in today's Oxford Mail and tomorrow's Oxford Times. It reads:

It is with overwhelming sadness that the family of Doctor Joe Weston (PHD, MSc, MRTPI) announce that he went out with a bang at our firework party. He left us while singing and dancing with friends and family. No words can describe the loss felt by those closest to him.

Funeral service will be held at the Oxford Crematorium at 3pm on Tuesday 15th of November. Joe leaves his wife, son, daughter and a wealth of loved ones to carry his memory.

No flowers please. All donations to The Rain Forest Foundation (http://www. rainforestfoundationuk.org/) 'Dress to go down to the pub'.

Although we didn't speak to one another often enough, and this usually and simply down to work pressures, I shall miss Joe immensely.

My heartfelt condolences go to my sister-in-law Anna, nephew Mike and neice Alice.

In Solidarity

Ian