Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
The US withdrawal from Unesco is intelligible and may be wise. The remaining members should abandon gentility in the hope of winning overdue reform. Unesco alone is not the worry.
In Washington next week Antarctic Treaty members will wrestle with mineral exploitation. Their task would be easier if territorial claims were subsumed in a wider framework.
