Ten years ago, on March 12, 1992, this column began its life on these pages. Though it’s still “green,” when compared with colleagues who have graced The Japan Times for several decades, Our Planet Earth has now appeared more than 245 times. Looking back ...

Last June, in the Rose Garden of the White House, President George W. Bush declared the Kyoto Protocol “fatally flawed in fundamental ways,” and dubyaed it “unrealistic, arbitrary and not based on science.” He gave assurances, though, that he was serious about dealing with ...

As Japan’s economy sputters to a halt, the rest of the world looks on incredulously, wondering if this nation is up to the task of an overhaul. Japan, however, is not the only country veering toward a breakdown, according to Lester Brown, president of ...

Two weeks ago, this column introduced Stefan Ottomanski as an educator who thrives on uncertainty. However, he is the first to admit that he did not acquire this trait by choice: It is simply a necessity in his classroom. Ottomanski works for the Japan ...

First of two parts Stefan Ottomanski is a rare educator: He thrives on uncertainty and views obstacles as opportunities to teach both his students and himself lessons that were never part of the curriculum. Ottomanski works for the Japan Wildlife Research Center in the ...

With only days to go before 2002, New Year’s resolutions are in order — in theory, anyway. Whatever we promise, one thing is certain: Resolutions, viewed from this side of Jan. 1, are always made with the best of intentions. But good intentions make ...

Have difficulty getting your head around global warming? Join the club. For the past few weeks, I have been researching climate change and the Kyoto Protocol. My discoveries gave me pause — but not about climate. What surprised me was that so many people, ...

How’s this for a writer with a bee in his shorts?: “Upon ratifying the Ramsar Convention, Japan agreed to ‘promote the conservation of wetlands and waterfowl by establishing nature reserves in wetlands . . . and providing adequately for their wardening’ [Article 4]. So ...

Who’s consuming whom? Are we consuming advertising and living a better life because it educates us about a wide range of choices? Or is advertising consuming us, urging us to want, need and buy whatever the market has to offer? Few argue that advertising ...

This week’s column is about air pollution, principally emissions from diesel engines. But first, the forest and cedar trees. A cleared stand of Kitayama cedar at Kitayama, northern Kyoto, shows how 1-2 percent of these forests nationwide may soon look. For those in Japan ...

If readers of this column two weeks ago found the results of the 2001 “Environmental Doomsday Clock” questionnaire depressing, that’s not surprising. For the seventh year in a row, respondents worldwide have set the clock at “extremely concerned.” Adding pessimism (realism?) to fear, 68 ...

An English friend, teasing, once asked whether Americans have a sense of irony. We certainly do, I replied, though perhaps less so than the English who, for generations, never saw the sun set and now live in darkness much of the year. For Americans, ...