News about climate problems comes barreling at us every day. Just last week, it was in the form of thick, hazy smoke from wildfires burning out of control in eastern Canada. Some friends of mine in New York City said it smelled like a campfire – indoors. What I heard from family and friends was fear, sadness and apathy. “What can one person do?” my friend Cynthia asked me. “The news is always the same on climate, and it is always bad.”

True, but there are solutions to the climate crisis. None are easy. But consider this: Last year, for the first time, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change highlighted the power of behavioral change to force large-scale mitigation.

At The Conversation, we don’t shy away from documenting the effects of climate change, but we also look at it through the lens of solutions. Here’s a good example: Drew Shindell points out that air pollution is often not talked about in the same sentence as climate change. It should be. He sets out how we can improve air quality – steps that would also provide climate benefits.

In Senegal there have been violent protests following the arrest of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko. One of the government’s reactions was to shut down the internet and social media networks. While the government cited threats of fake news, Jeffrey Conroy-Krutz warns that the shutdown will be costly – both financially and politically – and that the short-term benefits that come from limiting protests could be outweighed by hardened and expanded opposition among young people.