In December 2019, the European Commission announced The European Green Deal, a plan to facilitate a transition to sustainability with the goal of making Europe climate neutral by 2050 (1). Green Deal objectives include preserving and restoring biodiversity and reducing net emissions of greenhouse gases (1). The EU Parliament adopted a resolution supporting these environmental goals in January (2). Lisbon, Portugal's capital, has been designated the European Green Capital 2020 for spearheading sustainability efforts (3). However, Lisbon's airport has reached capacity, and plans to build an additional airport are at odds with Green Deal objectives. The proposed location for the new airport is a peninsula at the heart of the Tagus estuary (4), a vast coastal wetland of key importance for breeding, wintering, and passing migratory birds in the East Atlantic Flyway (5, 6). This wetland is a major hub linking Palearctic and Nearctic breeding areas with Afro-tropical wintering areas for an estimated 300,000 waterbirds and many other migratory bird species. The region is protected under national legislation, EU directives, and international conventions (5-7). However, the privately funded proposed airport received an environmental license in early 2020 (8), and, despite the aviation sector facing unprecedented reductions in activity due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Edited by Jennifer Sills pandemic (9), the Portuguese government reiterated in July its intentions to go forward with this new infrastructure (10). By expanding its airport capacity, this EU member state will deliver a negative contribution toward climate targets by neither retiring nor halting new infrastructure (11), as well as threaten biodiversity through negative, permanent, and irreversible effects on bird species in an EU-designated protected area. These species already face massive declines globally [(e.g., (12)]. We urge the Portuguese government and the European Union to put the Green Deal into action by abandoning this project.
Recent protests across the United States and the world have called attention to anti-Black racism in policing, employment, housing, and education. Science and medicine also have long histories of racism (1, 2). This unfortunate yet persistent aspect of science and medicine includes the use of obsolete concepts of race to measure human biological difference and the false belief, by some, that differences in disease outcomes stem primarily from pathophysiological differences between racial groups (3, 4). We are particularly concerned that explanations for the disproportionate rates of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Black, Latino, Indigenous, and other communities of color will mistakenly point to innate racial differences instead of long-standing institutionalized racism and other underlying social, structural, and environmental determinants. Although genetic risk factors may contribute to severity of COVID-19 (5, 6), race is a poor proxy to understand the population distribution of such risk factors (7). Compelling evidence shows that racism, not race, is the most relevant risk factor (8, 9). We are hopeful that scientists will not turn to racial science-a reflection of long-standing beliefs about superiority LETTERS A member of the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium, formed to help address health disparities in the African American community, tests a patient. Racial disparities in COVID-19 cases are better explained by structural racism than by genetic differences.
Rainforest gives way to pastures in the Brazilian Amazon in Mato Grosso. LETTERS with Brazil conditional on: (i) upholding the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; (ii) improving procedures to trace commodities associated with deforestation and Indigenous rights conflicts; and (iii) consulting with, and gaining consent from, Indigenous Peoples and local communities to define strict social and environmental criteria for traded commodities. The EU was founded on the principles of respecting human rights and human dignity. Today, it has the opportunity to be a global leader in supporting these principles and a habitable climate by making sustainability the cornerstone of its trade negotiations with Brazil.
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