Economy | ANALYSIS
Households to take hit from tax hike
by Tomoko Otake
The consumption tax increase will hit every household in Japan hard, with many people’s financial future hanging on whether their wages rise enough to offset the hike's impact.
Environment | OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK Aug 31, 2013
Hope blooms eternal for the Simien National Park
by C.W. Nicol
In 1967, Ethiopia was the last African country south of the Sahara still without any national parks — an embarrassment for a nation then entertaining ambitions to assume leadership of the continent. In September that year, after five months on Baffin Island working as ...
Environment Aug 31, 2013
Asian tuk-tuks filling niche in Paris
The humble tuk-tuk, a fixture of Asian cities from Bangkok to Bangalore, is rapidly becoming a common sight in the touristy parts of Paris — and the bane of traffic police. The three-wheeled auto rickshaws, as well as human-powered pedicabs, first appeared in the ...
Environment Aug 31, 2013
'Red-Dead' plan by Jordan, Israel worries experts
A plan to link the Red Sea with the shrinking Dead Sea could save it from total evaporation and bring desalinated water to thirsty neighbors Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians. But environmentalists warn that the “Red-Dead” project could have dire consequences, altering the unique ...
Environment Aug 31, 2013
Otters surprise as sea grass saviors
Otters can help rejuvenate sea grasses, a vulnerable natural resource that protects coastlines and provides habitats for fish, according to new research. Scientists examined how the sea grasses in one area of California rebounded when otters returned to the area, and found that the ...
Environment Aug 30, 2013
Smokestack emissions could produce energy
by Brian Palmer
If pollution had a mascot, it would be the smokestack. Do a Google image search for “pollution.” What do you see? A bunch of smokestacks with ominous gray clouds billowing out the top. It is a reasonable association to make. Smokestack emissions contain nasty ...
Environment Aug 28, 2013
U.S. nuclear plant to shut over costs
A 40-year-old nuclear plant in Vermont will shut down next year due to the high costs of competing with cheap natural gas, the company said Tuesday. Entergy Corp. said the Vermont Yankee plant, which employed some 600 people and was licensed to operate until ...
Environment | OUR PLANET EARTH Aug 24, 2013
Reflecting at leisure on who we are and where we live
by Stephen Hesse
My day job as a professor in Japan offers precious few chances to take a step back from work and give the old brain a bit of free rein. But August is one such golden opportunity. This year, as usual, I have been visiting ...
Environment Aug 21, 2013
Humans '95% likely' behind warming
It is all but certain that human activity has caused a steady increase in global temperatures over the past 60 years, leading to warmer oceans and an acceleration in rising sea levels, according to the most recent climate change report by an international U.N. ...
Environment Aug 20, 2013
'Earth Overshoot Day' marked
The United States, China and Qatar were accused of environmental plunder on Tuesday as green activists marked “Earth Overshoot Day,” the date at which mankind has exhausted a year’s budget of natural resources. “In just over eight months, we have used as much nature ...
Environment Aug 19, 2013
Global coastal flooding losses could hit $1 trillion a year by 2050: report
The world's 136 largest coastal cities could risk combined annual losses of $1 trillion from floods by 2050 unless they drastically raise their defenses, a study warns.
Environment | WILD WATCH Aug 17, 2013
Trekking back in time among Okinawa's fronded wonders
by Mark Brazil
A heavy fog hangs around the forested area of Yambaru in the northern hills of Okinawa. On this rainy-season morning in June, there’s a steady dripping all around, though what I can see of the sky is cloudless. Instead, this “rain” is droplets that ...
Environment Aug 16, 2013
White House reinstalling symbolic solar panels
Jimmy Carter first installed solar panels in 1979. Ronald Reagan called them a joke and had them removed in 1986. And this week, nearly three years after promising to restore them as a sign of the administration’s commitment to renewable energy, President Obama is ...