Millions of hectares of forest are burning, as we watch powerlessly. Siberian wildfires prompted Russia to declare a state of emergency in July, and now the Amazonian rainforest is ablaze. Brazil’s management of the fires has stirred global outrage. But is looking for scapegoats really all that we can do? The fate of the [...]
Seven years ago, in 2012, when China announced it wanted to build an ecological civilisation, it was hard to take it seriously. The concept sounded good, but it was too much to hope for from the world’s biggest polluter. A year later, China launched the “Belt and Road Initiative” and, ever since, all [...]
China’s industrialization has put heavy pressure on the environment. For decades, China was the fastest-growing country in the world, powered by heavy industry that transformed it into the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. The ecological degradation at home caused public outcry, but the desire to catch up with the West overrode that concern. [...]