Political Pandora

Palestine has been the political moment for the last two years. As we approach the second anniversary of the most recent iteration of warfare on Palestine (that’s 730 days of ceaseless colonial violence), some reflections seem appropriate. Shourideh C. Molavi’s Environmental Warfare in Gaza provides exactly these reflections although written almost entirely before 7 October 2023.

It is a tumultuous time for policy in general but especially so in the climate and energy space in the US. President Donald Trump’s recent orders to halt the concentration of a $6B wind farm that was almost completed is emblematic of the administration’s approach to climate. Executive Orders like EO 14154 “Unleashing American Energy” instead shift direction to exploiting natural resources and ensuring energy security.

For years, nobody in power paid attention to them. However, that started to change in March 2022, when the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-5.2) formally recognized "the significant contribution made by workers in informal and cooperative settings to the collecting, sorting and recycling of plastics." This was the first time the essential work of waste pickers was acknowledged in any UN environmental resolution.

The story of climate technology transfers reveals both the pitfalls of older North–South models and the opportunities that new forms of cooperation present. Traditional approaches have been constrained by credit rating biases, intellectual property barriers, and the chronic underdelivery of international climate finance. While China has forced technology transfers in a way that few other countries can, this has not been without its pitfalls.

The second law, the Two Status System Act, attaches two different statuses to immigrants. Those fleeing from persecution due to political beliefs, sexual orientation, and religion will be granted asylum. In contrast, those who leave their country for wars and natural disasters will have a harder time entering the Netherlands and gaining an asylum permit. 

According to the Forum ERF Policy Portal, scholars have questioned whether the standard Mercator projection was a political tool that contributed to the scramble for Africa by various Western powers. By making the continent look small and ‘conquerable’, it could have played a role in the colonisation of Africa. The late 19th and 20th centuries saw the peak of colonialism where Western powers competed fiercely for colonies in Africa, Asia and the Americas.

In 2019, before the war, Israel was responsible for 0.2% of the global carbon emissions. However, as Nina Lakhani reports for The Guardian (2025), since the start of the conflict in 2023, Israel has been responsible for 99% of the 1.89m tCO2e (metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent) produced during the confrontation, primarily because of its aerial bombardment and the ground invasion of Gaza.

In February 2025, Malawi became the first landlocked and the third African country to ratify the Global Oceans Treaty. This was a significant move as it demonstrated the importance of the oceans to places even beyond coastal regions. At the time the treaty had 112 signatures and 18 ratifications.

Lexi travels the streets of Hong Kong, dodging cars and bright lights in the night’s pleasant breeze. Hong Kong used to be colder, but Lexi moved here for the warmth. Lexias pardalis, or the Archduke butterfly, originally hails from India. As a second-generation immigrant to Hong Kong, she comes from a family that has been moving everywhere in search of warmth. 

Water is a fundamental feature of the African continent, and it is often unequally distributed. As noted by the WWF, countries around the African continent normally share important water basins, yet the increasing construction of dams and reservoirs exacerbates droughts and floods, and centralizes water collection and supply. 

Trump’s tariff-based approach will be counterproductive: it will fail to block Chinese products and will undermine domestic solar panel production through higher input costs.

Now, that vision of mass expulsion of people who are mostly refugees from the genocidal cleansing in 1948, official US foreign policy.

As melting ice caps and rising seas are unsealing these nuclear tombs, with the cumulative effects of seeping radiation reaching far and wid

“Victor regained his footing and carried the boys in his arms. But then he realised he no longer had them. The water took everything in its

Josephine Mathebula sits against a cream white backdrop, presumably in her home in the South African province of Limpopo. She is poised...

Unprecedented rainfall in the Sahara Desert has resulted in rare, temporary lagoons in southeastern Morocco, a phenomenon unseen for decades

The struggle, they say, is not just about ownership of the land, but about safeguarding Pachamama—the source of life.

The 53rd Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting was hosted by Tonga and chaired by the Prime Minister, Hon. Hu’akavemeiliku Siaosi Sovaleni.

The fate of the deep sea and the fate of our planet are intimately intertwined. That we should be considering the destruction of these place

Three hundred families—more than a thousand people—left their homes of over a  century when they evacuated a sinking Gardi Sugdub to the coa