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Editor's note
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The toll of the recent fires in the Amazon rainforest is starting to emerge from the smoke. In July 2019 alone, an area the size of Manhattan is thought to have been lost each day to the flames. The scale of this destruction seems beyond human accountability, but it’s not. Quite the opposite – the Amazon fires were set deliberately by farmers and others within Brazil, often with the aim to displace indigenous Amazonians and open more of the region to development.
Since coming to power, Jair Bolsonaro has relaxed safeguards for mining in the region and slashed funding for Brazil’s environmental protection agency. Within his first year in office, fires in the Amazon have leapt 84%. But the world needn’t stand impotent while the rainforest burns, says Tara Smith, a lecturer in law at Bangor University.
Destroying the Amazon rainforest harms the indigenous people that live there and accelerates climate change, endangering the world. Those responsible could be tried for crimes against humanity, Smith argues, just as those threatening vulnerable groups and global well-being have in the past. Such ambitious legal action on the environment has never succeeded before, but a renewed effort could deter wanton destruction, and hold the powerful to
account for their role in climate breakdown.
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Jack Marley
Commissioning Editor
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Top stories
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A protestor dresses as Jair Bolsonaro on Amazon Day in Rio de Janeiro, September 5 2019.
EPA-EFE/MARCELO SAYAO
Tara Smith, Bangor University
Destroying the Amazon rainforest will accelerate climate change, harming millions. Can those responsible be prosecuted?
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Reconnecting with nature.
Steve Carter/Unsplash
Heather Alberro, Nottingham Trent University
Humans did not always see themselves as he separate from the natural world. If we are to reverse its decline, we must re-entangle ourselves with it.
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United by geography, divided by ideology.
Shutterstock.
Karine Varley, University of Strathclyde
Relations between the UK and France are often portrayed as a history of at best mutual suspicion and at worst open hostility..
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Science + Technology
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Kent Willis, University of Tennessee
Fungi live in everyone's gut – but now a new study reveals that this colonization may begin before birth.
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Paul K. Byrne, North Carolina State University
This hot, acidic neighbor with its surface veiled in thick clouds hasn't benefited from the attention showered on Mars and the Moon. But Venus may offer insights into the fate of the Earth.
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Wim Naudé, United Nations University; Paula Nagler, United Nations University
Germany's rising inequality shows what happens when consumers and companies don't widely embrace innovation.
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Politics + Society
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Jon Stokes, University of Oxford; Stefan Stern, City, University of London
Boris Johnson fails on six scores of inspiring leadership.
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Gemma Bird, University of Liverpool
The new Greek government is putting in place new measures to stop the flow of refugees crossing the Aegan Sea.
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Business + Economy
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Pat Ranald, University of Sydney
The biggest barrier to Australia and much of the rest of the world signing up to the world's biggest trading bloc appears to have been removed.
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Health + Medicine
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Carl Philpott, University of East Anglia
Those little nuggets in your nose are actually a sign your body is working to protect you.
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Covering Climate Now
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Sebastian Leuzinger, Auckland University of Technology
Planting any tree is more important than planting a particular tree when it comes to removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
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Featured events
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Courthouse Hotel , 19-21 Great Marlborough Street, London, City of, W1F 7HL, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — The Conversation
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Northampton Square, London, Islington, EC1V 0HB, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — City, University of London
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Dalhousie Building, Dundee, DD1 5EN, Dundee, Angus, DD1 5EN, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — University of Dundee
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Julian Study Centre Lecture Theatre, University of East Anglia, Norwich , Norfolk, NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — University of East Anglia
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