Geographical Magazine November 2025 Back Issue

As the world prepares for COP30 in Belém this month, the urgency
month (Page 26) confronts the stark reality that fires, not logging, are
now the leading cause of tropical forest loss. In 2024 alone, the tropics lost 6.7 million hectares of primary rainforest – an area the size of Panama – with the Amazon burning at levels once thought impossible.
The symbolism of hosting a climate summit in the rainforest could not be clearer: this is the last chance to act before resilience gives way to irreversible decline.
Elsewhere in this issue, Jennifer Carlos takes us to Kerala, where landslides and erratic monsoons have left families living in constant fear (Page 36). The soil itself, once fertile, is now cracking under the pressure of an unmanageable climate. Meanwhile, Stuart Butler reports from the Sundarbans, where rising seas are pushing tigers into closer and deadlier contact with people (Page 44).
These aren’t distant or abstract stories – they’re lived experiences, reminders that climate change is measured not just in graphs, but in grief and survival.
As leaders gather in Brazil, we can only hope that their pledges move beyond rhetoric. The stakes could not be higher – for the Amazon, for Kerala, for the Sundarbans, and for us all.