Last year, I went to a citizens’ assembly. It was one of the most optimistic moments of 2019 for me. A few dozen people, pretty well reflective of the local community, gathered in a library in Camden to examine the climate crisis and make recommendations on how to overcome it.

The idea seems to be catching on. France convened its own panel earlier this year. Other UK towns and cities have followed suit. And this week, a UK nationwide “climate assembly” comprising 108 people presented its conclusions after six weekends of deliberations.

For me, the three most interesting things about these assemblies, many of which have been brought together to discuss the climate crisis, are as follows:

1. After learning about the facts, no one leaves thinking, “Yep, we’re good – we don’t need to do anything about the emergency on planet Earth.”

2. The solutions suggested all seem very doable – taxing frequent fliers, greening urban spaces, carbon pricing, a blitz of solar panels, incentivising non-carbon alternatives, limiting road use by the most polluting vehicles …

3. By their very nature, the assemblies are not just tackling subject-specific issues, but the broader democratic malaise. They help inform the public, connect locals more tightly to decision-making, and give people a real sense that something can be done.

Perhaps a stint or two on a citizens’ assembly should be mandatory, like jury service or driving tests. What do you think? Let us know.

Otherwise, on the Upside this week, for your general delectation, we had:

• A natural way to fight rising seas. Three-minute read

• The universities filling welfare gaps. Two-minute read

• The stop-start promise of Africa’s Great Green Wall. 20-year prospect

• Rain dance: the Nigerian boy who pirouetted into our hearts. Four-minute adagio

• Eight secrets to a fulfilled life. Three minutes to read, a lifetime to master

What we liked

Every week seems to bring new health and scientific inquiry: this week it was the Hungarian scientist trialling a gene-based treatment to restore sight in the blind, and experiments in New Zealand to transmit power wirelessly.

We were mildly encouraged by findings that showed a simple way to stop wind turbines killing so many birds.

And finally, altogether, aaah – the toddler with a cleft lip whose family adopts … a pup that also has a cleft lip.

What we heard

Last week we asked for your good-luck-bad-luck stories. Judy Rose responded:

I was called for a mammogram in late February, only to be recalled in March just before lockdown as a cancerous lump had been located. Bad luck. However, it turned out it was very small, and was treatable by operation and radiotherapy. What’s more, at 72, I wasn’t eligible for a ‘routine’ mammogram, but had been selected as part of a trial of women over-70 (think the cut-off was 75) which randomly picked half of those for the check. Even more randomly, only 2% of those checked were found to have a cancerous growth. And even more fortunately, the hospital I attended was continuing with cancer ops to ensure no life-threatening backlog was built up.

Op was carried out successfully in June, lymph glands showed no spread, radiotherapy of five short sessions as belt and braces delivered shortly after, so now cancer-free. Unbelievable good luck. It scares me to think that there are others less fortunate than I who are facing far worse scenarios than this. Luck, maybe, but so random as to be almost unbelievable.

Maureen A Byrne traced her good luck back several decades:

I was trained as a secretary/shorthand typist and in 1966 was doing a job I loved in a small theatre, booking acts, dealing with ticket sales, arranging theatrical digs for artistes and all the other things required for running a theatre. Unfortunately, business was slow, and one day the management informed me that they had to cut costs.

Needless to say I was devastated, despite being given a glowing reference on leaving. I spent a month looking for another suitable post and then saw an advert recruiting clerical officers for the then National Assistance Board, which was to become the Ministry of Social Security. I applied, got the job, stayed the course, gained promotion and finally retired with a civil service pension. I would never have thought of leaving the theatre job, but the push, which at the time seemed such bad luck, turned out for me to be the most fortunate turn of events. So, one never knows what is round the corner.

Jules Easlea wrote in on a separate matter:

I’ve been working with arts organisation Kinetika on a project in Purfleet which is in Thurrock – once dubbed the unhappiest place to live in England.

The project has brought together people across the town to create 25 beautiful silk batik flags celebrating the communities in Purfleet, which has recently been renamed Purfleet-on-Thames.

The upside of lockdown was that people could still work on designing and painting the flags. The flags are part of the T100 festival, which begins and ends in Purfleet and starts on 12 September. The festival’s theme is mandalas, and the upside of the new restrictions is that everyone can get involved in making mandalas, wherever they are.

That’s tomorrow folks, so if you’re in or interested in the area, check it out.

Where was the Upside?

On the Parisian public transit network, now free to residents under 18.

Thanks for reading. Do tell us about the citizens assembly you’d like to attend. And have a good weekend