Bambang Hero Saharjo has received death threats for testifying against companiesA scientist who takes on the companies responsible for massive wildfires across Indonesia has won the prestigious John Maddox prize for standing up for science in the face of harassment, intimidation and lawsuits.Bambang Hero Saharjo, a fire forensics specialist at Bogor Agricultural University, gathers evidence for...

Dave Morris on the collective power of research and Alastair Leake on the decline in moth populationsThe efforts of campaigners to highlight important issues can often be overlooked by a historical approach that focuses on individuals, often academics or politicians. An example is in the obituary of the biologist Victoria Braithwaite (Obituary, 9 November), which asserts that “until the early...

Boarding schools | Wellington college fees | Steve McQueen’s Year 3 project | Spike Milligan’s election advice | Shared ancestry | Parliamentary disillusionGeorge Monbiot’s article on boarding schools (Journal, 7 November) will have been a painful read for many, and may well have been painful for him to write. As a director for Boarding School Survivors Support (BSSS), I read of experience...

Big floods likely to become more frequent because of climate breakdownPoor management of the rural landscape along with global heating and building on floodplains are the main factors that led to the floods that have engulfed towns in northern England, according to experts.Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster are among the places flooded, 12 years after they were badly hit when the River Don burst...

Pentagon officials view climate breakdown as an existential threat to human society – and are already taking actionWe have heard from the scientists on climate change, with their meticulous data on ecosystem degradation and species loss. We have heard from the climate deniers, with their desperate attempts to deploy countervailing arguments. Both groups have mobilized substantial blocs of voters...