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The devastating effects of climate change are unfolding in front of our eyes with increasing clarity. There is an international struggle to advocate for global warming to be capped at 1.5 degrees Celsius, which is stressed in the IPCC reports. The conservation of the environment and control of pollution are a matter of international concern. During the last decades, a multiplicity of international instruments aimed to protect the environment have been adopted at the international and regional levels. These instruments have followed a sectoral approach (i.e. protection of the biosphere, oceans, conservation, etc), and while they seem to reinforce each-other, they also provide states with the choice of ‘cherry picking’ which challenges are willing to address, or at least regulate. To which extent modern international law and international politics are working towards global protection of the environment? Could we identify a true internationalization of environmental protection?

Indeed, we feel the consequences of global warming ourselves with the exceptionally hot summer and Dutch farmers’ protests against the Cabinet’s nitrogen emission-reduction measures introduced to keep in line with EU climate agreements. However, the devastation of climate change is not felt equally. Less economically developed countries around the equator with higher poverty rates bear the brunt of extreme weather conditions, despite historically not having been the biggest emitters of greenhouse gasses. How the remnants of industrialization and colonialism are felt, and how can the world approach this inequality?

Under the guise of climate or environmental protection, certain countries have also taken land control away from Indigenous populations, removing and dispersing them, leading to an erasure of culture, internal migration, and violence. The North American ‘reserves’ and Indigenous struggle in and around the Amazonian rainforest are painful examples.  There are a myriad of ways in which environmental violence takes place. In general, it includes a) violence between people and or states over natural resources; b) environmental policies and regulations that can harm people (these can result in illness and forced migration for example), and c) policies that results in the degradation of ecosystems directly or indirectly by humans.

Therefore, in this issue, we direct our focus on the importance of environmental protection, the valuable contributions of Indigenous communities, youth climate change action, the need for human rights protection in non-renewable businesses, as well as the government and the individual’s duties towards curbing climate change. You are invited to critically reflect, how we can choose appropriate policies and regulations to climate change, who should bear what costs, how should benefits be distributed, for example within the EU? Moreover, how should the disparity between the most vulnerable and most responsible be addressed?

The image of the mother of all humanity condemning us to suffer life on Earth is a poignant one that has multiple iterations, both religious and not, and has lasting effects on our civilization. In our patriarchal world, women are integral to our survival yet continually oppressed by sexist structures and cultures. Amist centuries of oppression, women have fought for rights that many of us enjoy today, but are at risk of losing it all again. How do we carry the torch today and continue the fight? That is our central question this month.

Pride month comes and goes every year, but the struggle for inclusivity, acceptance, and respect still remains for LGBTQ+ communities. Structures of alienation, oppression, and violence cause too many LGBTQ+ lives to end too early. Despite the long road to recognizing that LGBTQ+ individuals are also entitled to basic human rights, the shooting on Oslo Pride Day in Norway sent a harrowing message to the rest of the world. However, the fight is not near over, and LGBTQ+ communities have shown determination and resilience over the centuries. In this issue, we look at the systematic discrimination against these communities through a critical lens and explore more possibilities for protection.