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Environment: The globe's green avenger

Nature volume 460, pages 454–455 (2009)Cite this article

Maurice Strong has shaped how nations respond to planetary crises. Ehsan Masood meets the man whose successes — and failures — laid the groundwork for the current climate talks.

In 1971, Maurice Strong did something most people would find unthinkable: he showed up at the office of India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to tell her that she was wrong. The formidable Gandhi, like the leaders of other developing nations, wanted to boycott the United Nations' first major international environmental conference, planned for the following year in Stockholm. The developing nations feared that environmental agreements would undermine their ability to prosper — a concern that still resonates today.

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  1. Ehsan Masood
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Ehsan Masood teaches international science policy at Imperial College London.

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Masood, E. Environment: The globe's green avenger. Nature 460, 454–455 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/460454a

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