Irish Examiner View: Three wise changes that are an antidote to world’s angst

For any person inclined to imagine the glass is half empty rather than half full these are challenging times. Even for well-rooted optimists there’s more than enough angst to go around. The environment, political uncertainty, coronavirus and economic fragility combine in a storm-clouds-ahead sort of way. Yet, we persist and try to remake our world in a way that should make tomorrow better than today. Over recent days there have been, across the world, three modest examples of positive, challenge-the-consensus change that should benefit the societies that introduced them.

Just yesterday, a 20mph — 32km/h — speed limit was imposed on central London roads to reduce road deaths. Days earlier Luxembourg introduced free public transport. One of Europe’s smallest countries, it has a population of 614,000 but some 200,000 workers, almost half the workforce, commute from Belgium, France or Germany. Not to be outdone, naturally, New York has banned plastic bags. An incredible 23bn plastic bags are are used in the state each year — 500m a week — but from now on shops found offering single-use bags face a fine of $250 for the first offence and $500 a bag thereafter.

It is 18 years since Ireland introduced a plastic bag levy. That led to a 90% drop in use and reduced litter. A small change paid huge dividends, surely a lesson worth applying more often and on a grander scale. The more important lesson however is that we should lead change rather than fear it.