Foreword
In 2019 , the European Parliament declared a global ‘ climate and environmental emergency ’. This followed an eruption of public pressure ( fuelled by righteous anger ) designed to pressurise global leaders into addressing the reality of the unfolding climate catastrophe . Although climate-related citizen activism first evolved in the 1990 ’ s , over the last two years we have seen a major escalation in direct action with an unprecedented series of rolling school strikes and more generalised mass protest initiatives bringing city centres around the world to a standstill . To accompany this pressure on global decision makers , we also , of course , need to make radical adjustments to our own behaviour in both our personal lives and in our public interactions with the places where we study , work or go for leisure .
Although this , by itself , is by no means a sufficient response to the most pressing disaster of our times , we will from now on publish our CommitTED journal in electronic format . By using less paper , we will be minimising our negative impact on forests , reducing our use of energy resources and also limiting our carbon footprint … In short , this is an early salute to the annual World Free Paper Day on 6th November . In the words of the headline from a September 2019 article in the Guardian newspaper , ‘ Tiny changes might seem insignificant . But they are how we save the planet ’.
Sevinç ATABAY Turkish Education Association General Director