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Editor's note
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This week witnessed rolling 24-hour news coverage of the devastating Hurricane Harvey as it deluged the US Gulf Coast and flooded the city of Houston. In comparison, catastrophic floods claiming thousands of lives elsewhere received much less air time.
Monsoons hit South Asia hard, affecting 40m people and killing more than a thousand. From Mumbai to Assam, Nepal and Bangladesh, land has been deluged, livelihoods wrecked, buildings felled and cities brought to a standstill. Here, our academic experts explain and explore how urban planners must rediscover ecology to create sustainable environments. They also look at how we can improve the living conditions of the world’s most marginalised and vulnerable populations from Vietnam to Sierra Leone to the Himalayas.
Elsewhere, our authors explore ecological disasters wrought by snakes, neo-Nazis’ strange passion for milk, and the dicey ethics of luxury tourism in the Global South.
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Clea Chakraverty
Commissioning Editor
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Top story
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Mumbai rains flooded the city for a week, leaving thousands helpless while building collapsed killing dozens on August 31th.
PUNIT PARANJPE / AFP
Harini Nagendra, Azim Premji University
Flooding in India's largest city is a reminder that urban growth has to work with nature.
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Energy + Environment
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Jagannath Adhikari, Curtin University
Nepal has blamed India for exacerbating intense monsoon flooding that has killed at least 1,200 people in the last two months.
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Tony Redmond, University of Manchester
Foreign aid can harm as well as help.
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Jason von Meding, University of Newcastle; Hang Thai T.M., University of Newcastle
Disasters may have 'natural' triggers but why are ethic minorities forced to live under harsh conditions that make them particularly vulnerable to catastrophes?
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Russ Schumacher, Colorado State University
An expert in extreme weather events explains why the rain – and thus flooding – associated with Hurricane Harvey has been 'unprecedented.'
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Science + Technology
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Elizabeth Wandrag, University of Canberra; Haldre Rogers, Iowa State University
Guam's trees are in trouble, thanks to the accidental release of a snake species 70 years ago, which has killed off many of the bird species that are vital for the health of the island's forests.
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Matthew Robert Bennett, Bournemouth University; Per Ahlberg, Uppsala University
A new study can't rule out the possibility that human ancestors lived on Crete at the same time as they evolved in Africa.
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Business + Economy
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Marco Aponte-Moreno, St Mary's College of California ; Lance Lattig, St Mary's College of California
New US sanctions against Venezuela deliver a clear condemnation of the Maduro regime's authoritarian maneuvering but overlook two key problems: Russian meddling and the humanitarian crisis.
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Patrick Bond, University of the Witwatersrand
The sub-imperial formation called BRICS, which pretends to be a progressive global force could be divided by a series of crises.
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Rob Gowers, Anglia Ruskin University
Everyone can stop talking about money for a few months. But expect more records to be set next year.
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Arts + Culture
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Paul Hanna, University of Surrey
It's not just the price to you, but how much it costs the destination.
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Kevin D. Murphy, Vanderbilt University; Carol Willis, Columbia University; Daniel Bluestone, Boston University; Kerry Traynor, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York; Sally Levine, Case Western Reserve University
We asked five architecture experts to name one building or structure they wish had been preserved, but couldn't resist the tides of decay, development and discrimination.
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Politics + Society
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Jan Boesten, University of Oxford
The last time the FARC joined in democratic politics, thousands of its members and leaders were murdered. Will this time be different?
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Andrea Freeman, University of Hawaii
The U.S.-based white supremacist movement that calls itself the "alt-right" has recently embraced milk as a symbol.
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Health + Medicine
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Fabienne Cazalis, École des Hautes Études en sciences sociales (EHESS)
Autism manifests in different ways. The signs are often less visible in women than in men, leading many to be underdiagnosed.
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