Editor's note

Children are likely to live long enough to see the worst effects of climate change. Yet as they cannot vote, they are unable to do anything about it through the democratic channels that adults take for granted. With no other ability to influence things, it’s no wonder pupils at some schools will be skipping classes today to go on their first “climate strike”, says environmental philosopher Rupert Read. Meanwhile, Benjamin Bowman answers the first question of Just So You Know, our Q&A service for teenagers, which wonders why it is that teenagers don’t have a greater say in their future.

Since the 1950s, the received wisdom has been that one hormone dictates whether human foetuses become boys: testosterone. Now, says Paul Fowler, his research team have proven otherwise. Another vital hormone is involved, and it originates not from the testes but a different part of the anatomy. The implications for treating sexual development disorders like deformed penises could be groundbreaking.

There is a mountain of drug research and nearly all of it focuses on harms, despite the fact that millions of people use drugs without coming to harm. In fact, drugs give many people lots of pleasure. Ian Hamilton and Alex Aldridge argue that it’s time we studied the pleasure that drugs induce as it might lead to better policies.

After a new Conservative youth group called Turning Point UK launched earlier this month, it was criticised on social media for being “far right”. But Chris Allen and Ilda Cuko suggest the group doesn’t readily fit traditional understandings of who and what the far right is.

Will de Freitas

Environment + Energy Editor

Top story

Valentin Flauraud / EPA

School climate strikes: why adults no longer have the right to object to their children taking radical action

Rupert Read, University of East Anglia

Climate change will hit young people hardest, yet they cannot access the democratic processes that adults take for granted.

Little boy blue. noBorders - Brayden Howie

Move over testosterone, another hormone is also vital for making boys – and it doesn’t come from the testes

Paul Fowler, University of Aberdeen

What we thought we knew about male development since the 1950s has now been turned on it head.

Aleksandra Belinskaya/Shutterstock

Drugs: researchers shouldn’t just focus on the harms

Ian Hamilton, University of York; Alex Aldridge, Royal Holloway

Understanding the pleasure drugs give people would help to prevent the harms.

A screenshot from promotional material by Turning Point UK. Turning Point UK

Turning Point UK: new conservative youth group doesn’t fit traditional understandings of the ‘far right’

Chris Allen, University of Leicester; Ilda Cuko, University of Leicester

Traditional ways of describing the 'far right' are becoming outdated.

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