General

We are witnessing the first signs of the climate crisis. While the word ‘crisis’ should jolt us awake, here’s another statistic: 75% of 10,000 youngsters reported that they thought the future is ‘frightening’. These are the findings of a study, published by The Lancet Planetary Health, which included respondents from Australia, Brazil, Finland, France, India, Nigeria, Philippines, Portugal, the UK, and the USA. More than 50% of the respondents reported feeling sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless, and guilty.

Year after year, the many days marked for environmental awareness push for concrete actions to protect our planet.

Rather than jumping on the ‘Go Green’ bandwagon and hastily considering the on-the-horizon (and sometimes even the in-the-pipeline) options, it would be simpler to start off with correcting the wrong we are doing—by giving up the habits that are bad for the environment. This would be quicker too, which is crucial given the time we have for arresting or limiting environmental damage and climate change.

• The problem: It’s often not easy to explain what ‘policy’ is and why it matters.
• Why it matters: To participate in policy decision-making – the foundation of any democracy – citizens need to understand what’s at play.
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