Who Shapes Environmental Policy Worldwide?
In the Amazon and elsewhere, nature’s last best hope is a hodgepodge of forces.
Recently, FP’s Robbie Gramer reported from the Brazilian Amazon, where rampant deforestation threatens to transform the rainforest into a savanna—and thus jeopardize global efforts to rein in climate change. “As the Amazon edges closer toward that brink,” Gramer wrote, “a hodgepodge of scientists, Indigenous communities, underfunded environmental protection officials, and foreign governments have scrambled to find ways to protect what they can and stave off that tipping point for as long as possible.”
Recently, FP’s Robbie Gramer reported from the Brazilian Amazon, where rampant deforestation threatens to transform the rainforest into a savanna—and thus jeopardize global efforts to rein in climate change. “As the Amazon edges closer toward that brink,” Gramer wrote, “a hodgepodge of scientists, Indigenous communities, underfunded environmental protection officials, and foreign governments have scrambled to find ways to protect what they can and stave off that tipping point for as long as possible.”
This edition of Flash Points explores the forces that shape environmental policy in the Amazon and beyond—from local communities and scientists to foreign governments and global nonprofits—and the barriers to environmental preservation and conservation worldwide.
Camp 41, a remote scientific research station in the Amazon rainforest, is viewed from above in Brazil on Oct. 18. Michael Dantas / United Nations Foundation photos
Who Owns the Earth’s Lungs?
The battle to save the Amazon goes beyond Brazil, FP’s Robbie Gramer writes.
The sun filters through a redwood tree in California. Sepp Friedhuber/Istock photo
Nature Is Becoming a Person
How to make sense of the new global trend that grants legal rights to animals, plants, and rivers, according to Justin E. H. Smith.
Signs opposing fracking are posted in the front of the yard of an Evans City, Pennsylvania, home on Feb. 23, 2012. Keith Srakocic/AP
Why Scientists Should Shape Environmental Policy
If experts and industry leaders cooperate, innovation may be possible, James Saiers writes.
A student holds a plant during a national campaign for the reforestation of El Salvador at Walter Thilo Deininger National Park near San Salvador, El Salvador, on June 5, 2017.Oscar Rivera/AFP/Getty Images
Sustainable Investment Is Flooding the Market
And Latin America is poised for a windfall, Lisa Viscidi writes.
A ranger fires his assault rifle at a target during pre-deployment shooting practice in the Garamba National Park in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo on Feb. 6, 2016.AFP/Tony Karumba
Western Nonprofits Are Trampling Over Africans’ Rights and Land
Indigenous people are being forced out from so-called protected areas, Aby L. Sène writes.
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