Involve yourself

Lucas has decided that he will need to be well equipped to participate in the citizen forum on wind energy and sits by his computer. He goes through the search engines and find out that wind energy has been promoted quite widely, but it still has not spread all around the Baltic Sea Region. He wonders why it is so and decides to understand what it needs to get a decisions like this through.

What is the true aim with the citizen forum, is it to inform, influence or decide? Or all of this? Lucas is not sure anymore what kind of possibilities he has in order to enable a more sustainable change to take place. He would like to encourage his friends and relatives to join in, but is afraid that he would mislead them. He calls to the organizers of the forum and they tell him that the forum offers a possibility to discuss and share opinions. Lucas doubts that.

Lucas is convinced that he would have a lot to say and familiarizes himself with information on citizen forums. Luckily he found many good cases about it and feels that with the information gathered he is ready to take part and heads to the citizens forum on wind energy.

Balanced article?

In the kitchen, Lucas opens the local news paper where there is a long article about energy company that would like to locate wind mills near the city. The local residents are opposing the plans and claim that it would spoil their view and also damage the local attractive surrounding. The article also raises possible noise as one reason to oppose the project.

Only in couple of sentences the positive results of such investments are explained. Lucas is surprised, as this is exactly what would need to be highlighted. He would be willing to buy wind energy knowing that it is renewable and will not damage the environment. In the long run it would even be cheaper for the locals as they are not so dependent on external sources. Are the pros and cons in balance in the article?

Lucas would like to support the company and starts to think who actually has the power in matters like this. Is it really in the hands of consumers or actually does media have a bigger role to play? In the article all interested stakeholders are invited to take part in a citizens forum organized tonight in the city hall. Lucas decides to take part in it to find out more.