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John Vidal
For John Vidal's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 2, 2014
Melting Arctic ice brings hope to Russian city
The city of Nadym, in the extreme north of Siberia, is one of the Earth's least hospitable places, shrouded in darkness for half of the year, with temperatures plunging below minus 30 Celsius and the nearby Kara Sea semipermanently frozen.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 5, 2014
Wolf numbers surge across Europe
A twig snaps, a crow calls, but nothing moves in the dense pine forests of Spain's Guadarrama mountains. Vultures and eagles soar over the snowcapped peaks and wild boars roam the valleys below, as they have for centuries. But for the farmers who work this land, a threatening and worrying comeback is taking place in this timeless landscape, home to Spain's newest national park.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Oct 11, 2013
Illegal taps on oil pipeline wreaking havoc on Nigeria
The flames roared 20 meters above the Niger delta swamp for 48 hours; 6,000 barrels of crude oil spilled into the creeks and waterways around the village of Bodo and several people died.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Sep 6, 2013
Pacific islands fighting for survival as sea levels rise
Pacific islanders challenged world leaders this week to act on climate change, warning that their low-lying atolls are close to becoming uninhabitable because of rising seas and increasingly severe floods, droughts and storm surges.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 16, 2013
Race to build water-grab dams endangers Himalayas
The future of the world's most famous mountain-range could be endangered by a vast dam-building project, as a risky regional race for water resources takes place in Asia.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 12, 2013
Global threat to food supply as water wells dry up
Wells are drying up and underwater tables falling so fast in the Middle East and parts of India, China and the United States that food supplies are seriously threatened, one of the world's leading resource analysts warned on July 7.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jun 1, 2013
Ecological disaster looms for rain forests of Sumatra
Our small plane had been flying low over Sumatra for three hours but all we had seen was an industrial landscape of palm and acacia trees stretching 50 km in every direction. A haze of blue smoke from newly cleared land drifted eastward over giant plantations. Long drainage canals dug through equatorial swamps dissected the land. The only sign of life was excavators loading trees onto barges to take to pulp mills.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jun 1, 2013
Indonesia seeing a new corporate colonialism
Land conflicts between farmers and plantation owners, mining companies and developers have raged across Indonesia as local and multinational firms have been encouraged to seize and then deforest customary land — land owned by indigenous people and administered in accordance with their customs.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jan 25, 2013
Can the discovery of oil save Ecuador's rainforest?
American biologist Kelly Swing thwacks a bush with his butterfly net and a dozen or so bugs and insects drop in. One is a harvester, or daddy-long-legs, another a jumping spider that leaps onto a leaf where two beetles are mating.

Longform

A statue of "Dragon Ball" character Goku stands outside the offices of Bandai Namco in Tokyo. The figure is now as recognizable as such characters as Mickey Mouse and Spider-Man.
Akira Toriyama's gift to the world