For people who care about solving climate challenges but struggle to identify their root causes, we use the 5 Whys technique to uncover underlying problems and inspire creative solutions.
Here’s how it works: “XXX happens. Why? Because YYY.” “YYY happens. Why? Because ZZZ.” Keep asking “Why?” until you’ve explored five layers of causes. Then, suggest one creative way to address a cause identified in your list.
For example:
Now it’s your turn: Apply the 5 Whys technique to a climate issue you care about, explore five layers of causes, and propose one creative solution that addresses one of them.
Comments (14)
Cities keep building houses in flood zones, putting families in danger as extreme weather worsens.
1) Outdated Rules: City zoning maps are old, so local laws still legally allow building on floodplains.
2) Housing Crises: Huge housing shortages force mayors to rush any new construction approval just to get homes built.
3) Tax Systems: Current laws reward cities financially for breaking new ground rather than maintaining existing areas.
4) Local Pushback: Residents in safe, dry neighborhoods vote down apartment blocks to avoid extra traffic on their streets.
5) The Forced Choice: Councils feel trapped, pushing developers onto empty, low-lying old industrial wetlands that flood easily.
The Fix = Change how cities make money. Governments should give cash bonuses to councils that approve apartments in safe, established dry areas. Rewarding upward growth over spreading out naturally stops developers from building on dangerous wetlands.
My 5 Whys Analysis: Climate Mobility in Southern Brazil
Climate Issue: Communities displaced by climate-induced floods in southern Brazil (like the 2024 Rio Grande do Sul floods) struggle to integrate and rebuild their lives in host cities.
Why? Because they face severe barriers to stable housing, economic inclusion, and mental health support.
Why? Because local municipal systems are overwhelmed by sudden demographic shifts and rely on short-term emergency responses.
Why? Because there is a lack of localized data and structural frameworks to predict and plan for climate migration.
Why? Because policymakers still treat climate mobility as a temporary humanitarian crisis rather than a permanent socio-economic reality.
Why? Because there is no continuous, participatory feedback loop between displaced communities and local authorities to co-design urban policies.
The Fix = Create a "Climate Mobility Integration Lab." This would be a youth-led, participatory platform where displaced people and local youth map their own integration journeys in real-time (housing, jobs, health) and co-design policy recommendations directly with local municipalities. By shifting from top-down emergency aid to bottom-up, community-led data, cities can proactively plan for inclusive, climate-resilient urban spaces.
I’d love to hear how others are applying the 5 Whys to climate challenges in their regions! 🌍
This is so cool!! I love how you are thinking across time here. Which decision makers do you think need to be involved/adopt the recommendations of this lab? What do they care about today (access to resources, decision making power...)? Is this something every city would have (in case any city gets an influx of people) or just some cities that are seen as the safe havens?
Rebekah i-lab Thanks, Rebekah! Key actors would be municipal social services, housing, health, and urban planning, plus state migration bodies, MJSP, CONARE, and partners like ACNUR and IOM. Each cares about different things — visible results, budget justification, policy coherence, or measurable impact — so the lab's role is to translate community data into their language. I think every city needs some capacity, but the model can scale: full labs in cities like Ponta Grossa that already receive migrants, lighter versions elsewhere connected to regional hubs. At Fikra, we already do part of this informally — the lab would make it systematic and ensure migrant voices shape policy, not just consultations. Would love your thoughts!
Applying the 5 Whys technique to recurring urban and seasonal flooding in Ghana (Accra or Kumasi)
Climate Issue:
Severe seasonal and flash flooding in urban areas across Ghana, displacing communities, destroying infrastructure, and worsening health crises.
1) Why does severe flooding repeatedly devastate Ghanaian urban centres?
Because stormwater overflows major drains and waterways, rapidly flooding residential and commercial neighbourhoods.
2) Why do stormwater drains and waterways overflow so quickly?
Because many primary drainage channels and natural watercourses are heavily blocked by solid waste (plastic trash) and silt.
3) Why are waterways chronically clogged with waste and sediment?
Because rapid urbanisation has outpaced municipal waste collection infrastructure, and communities living in informal settlements lack reliable waste disposal services.
4) Why has local infrastructure failed to keep pace with urban growth?
Because city planning and municipal financing struggle to formalise and service rapidly expanding informal settlements built in low-lying, high-risk flood zones.
5) Why do vulnerable populations continue to settle in dangerous, low-lying flood zones?
Because a severe housing deficit, high land costs, and rural-to-urban migration force low-income families to occupy cheap, unprotected wetlands and river buffers.
The Fix: Community-led waste-to-asset infrastructure.
To break this cycle at its roots, cities should establish decentralised, youth-led cooperative hubs in vulnerable neighbourhoods that tackle both housing/drainage pressures and plastic pollution simultaneously
This is so interesting! It feels like you really could have very very different startups if you address level 2 vs level 4 vs level 5. Your current fix combines all of them but I might separate them. I'm intrigued by level 2. Have you talked with Judith Tukahirwa Tumusiime? She did tons of plastic clean up in Kampala Uganda. https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/BHCLI…
Rebekah i-lab , I will look her up.
Thanks for sharing.
landscape degradation and rural poverty in northern Cameroon:
1. Why ? Because the topsoil is undergoing intense wind and water erosion that washes away all fertile nutrients.
2. Why ? Because there is no longer any protective forest or vegetation cover left to bind the soil matrix and break the force of the Sahelian winds.
3. Why? Because local trees have been massively deforested by communities for firewood, and free-roaming livestock continuously trample and destroy any natural young saplings.
4. Why? Because smallholder families lack immediate alternative energy sources and regular financial revenues, preventing them from investing time or resources into protecting plots.
5. Why ? Because traditional reforestation campaigns completely exclude local populations from financial management and fail to deploy irrigation technology adapted to extreme Sahelian heat, making tree maintenance economically unviable for the village.
Solutions : replace industrial machinery with local craftsmanship by commissioning rural women artisans in Lagdo to produce porous clay jars that are buried directly near the roots of 4,000 native trees . Through a targeted HIMO-powered framework, local community guards and farming families receive direct cash-for-work payments to monitor the site and fill these jars. In return, the community cooperative gains exclusive rights to harvest, transform and sell the fruits of all the trees.
Problem: Floods and landslides destroy homes, damage farms, and cause loss of lives.
1. Why? Heavy rainfall triggers flooding and landslides.
2. Why? Rainwater flows rapidly down slopes, carrying soil, rocks, and debris.
3. Why? Steep terrain and exposed or unstable soil increase the risk.
4. Why? Some settlements and farms are located in vulnerable areas, and protective measures may be inadequate.
5. Why? Risk mapping, land-use planning, early-warning systems, and disaster preparedness may be insufficient.
Climate issue: Why are the Himalayas experiencing devastating flash floods, glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), landslides, and other natural hazards?
1. Why are these disasters causing significant damage in the Himalayas?
2. Why do these disasters continue to cause severe losses despite scientific warnings?
3. Why are scientific findings often acted upon only after a disaster occurs?
4. Why do policymakers fail to enforce stricter preventive measures?
5. Why does tourism and development sometimes take precedence over people's safety?
My proposed solution: Shift from disaster response to disaster prevention by making scientific risk assessments an integral part of policymaking. After every major disaster, authorities should investigate whether similar climatic, geological, and environmental conditions exist in other Himalayan regions and take preventive action before another tragedy occurs. Credible scientific warnings should trigger timely risk assessments, effective early-warning systems, and enforceable regulations. Tourism and adventure activities must be restricted or temporarily suspended in high-risk areas whenever public safety demands it. Although relocation can be challenging, protecting vulnerable communities must take precedence over tourism revenue. Adventure travel can wait; people's lives cannot.
“Greenhouse gas emissions from global consumption continue to rise, harming the planet. Why? Because sustainable consumption patterns are not widely adopted by everyday consumers.”
“Sustainable consumption patterns are not widely adopted by everyday consumers. Why? Because consumers face a 'green gap' where they struggle to find, trust, and consistently buy authentic green products.”
“Consumers face a 'green gap' where they struggle to find, trust, and consistently buy authentic green products. Why? Because green brands struggle to achieve strong green brand equity and effectively market their sustainable FMCG products to the public.”
“Green brands struggle to achieve strong green brand equity and effectively market their sustainable FMCG products to the public. Why? Because individual businesses lack the specialised green marketing frameworks, scientific consumer data, and unified multi-stakeholder networks needed to shift market behaviour at scale.”
“Individual businesses lack the specialised green marketing frameworks, scientific consumer data, and unified multi-stakeholder networks needed to shift market behaviour at scale. Why? Because historically, there has been a disconnect between local market actions and global sustainability platforms that unite consumer information with actionable local retail ecosystems.”
To address the core bottleneck where green brands lack unified networks and retail point of sale platforms to build brand equity (Layer 4), Greenics Consultancy leverages its role in the global One Planet Network (OPN) multi-stakeholder partnership—specifically within the Consumer Information for Sustainable Consumption and Production Programme.This is a clear, precise, and efficient solution that directly mirrors our overall goal and mission to drive clean consumerism. By operating as a curated, online marketplace for verified green Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) Globally, we integrate global sustainable consumption guidelines with an accessible digital retail ecosystem. This efficiently closes the "green gap" by giving manufacturers and producers immediate market visibility while providing everyday consumers and governments with a trustworthy, direct avenue to make green lifestyle choices part of their routine and National data metrics for reporting purposes, businesses are able to get real-time data on behavioural intelligence and production planning processes to curb overproduction and pollution waste.
*In the context of the 5 Whys breakdown provided above, Layer 4 represents the structural business problem where sustainable brands fail to build long-term value, trust, and influence (equity) because they lack the proper tools, data, and collaborative networks to change consumer habits.
The root cause behind the devastating flash floods, GLOFs, and landslides in the Himalayas is accelerated climate warming, as the 'Third Pole' warms faster than the global average.
This thermal rise drives rapid glacial retreat, forming unstable glacial lakes (leading to GLOFs), while altering monsoon dynamics into extreme precipitation events (cloudbursts). Combined with permafrost thaw and unmanaged infrastructure development, the structural stability of slopes is severely compromised. Addressing this requires a combination of real-time monitoring systems, nature-based stabilization, and climate-resilient local governance."
Wow... I love the topic and I love the comments too. This reminds me of different challenges our community/country is facing and mostly we look the problem from it's consequences and not their roots. And this is why we fail in most of our problem.
Guys when is the link for the 22nd October Recording