Michael Richardson - The Japan Times

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Michael Richardson

For Michael Richardson's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

COMMENTARY

Dec 29, 2009

Persuading China to put the screws to Iran

SINGAPORE — Will the world's leading powers act in a more united way on Iran's nuclear program than they have so far over climate change?

COMMENTARY

Dec 22, 2009

Rice prices rock a buoyant economic boat

SINGAPORE — Asia is leading the world economy out of recession. The region's most populous nations — China, India and Indonesia — appear to doing particularly well, setting the pace for renewed growth in Northeast Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia.

COMMENTARY

Dec 15, 2009

Underwriting a global reforestation program

SINGAPORE — Where does Southeast Asia rank in greenhouse-gas emissions, a key focal point of the international climate change negotiations?

COMMENTARY

Nov 30, 2009

Less efficient natural 'cleaning' could tip global carbon balance

SINGAPORE — Nearly everyone is familiar with budgets. Households keep them. So do companies and national governments. But what about the carbon budget that measures the health of our climate system?

COMMENTARY

Nov 12, 2009

Re-energizing America's role in trade talks

International trade has been an engine of growth for many Asian countries, enabling them to create jobs and raise living standards faster than in countries elsewhere in the world that were unready to take advantage of surging trade opportunities.

COMMENTARY

Nov 4, 2009

Pollution fears don't dent coal's popularity

Asia's rebound from the global economic slump is cheering the world with its promise of more growth, jobs and trade. But the revival is bad news for the environment because it is largely driven by a production and transport system addicted to fossil fuels, especially coal and oil. This helps explain why it is proving so difficult to bridge the gulf between developed and developing countries in negotiations leading to the United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen in December.

COMMENTARY

Oct 23, 2009

Influential Asian groupings

SINGAPORE — Can Asia leverage its growing weight in the global economy into a more influential leadership role in the world? This will be tested soon.

COMMENTARY

Oct 15, 2009

An angel among the evil energy resources

Environmental activists have an aboveground and a below-ground view of the world. Energy sources harnessed on or very close to the surface, like wind, wave, tidal, solar and hydro power, are good. They are renewable and do not emit carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas that is widely thought to be responsible for global warming.

COMMENTARY

Sep 22, 2009

Is Earth's methane a time bomb?

SINGAPORE — Developed and developing countries continue to haggle over terms of a new pact to limit global warming gases. With only 15 full negotiating days scheduled before a climate change summit convenes in Copenhagen at the end of the year, the next round of negotiations in Bangkok (Sept. 28-Oct. 9) looms as a make-or-break effort.

COMMENTARY

Sep 4, 2009

Less water for more food as Asia urbanizes

SINGAPORE — Industrialization and urbanization across Asia have encouraged the misconception that they are the main gluttons of water. But the dominant force in Asian water consumption is agriculture.

COMMENTARY

Aug 19, 2009

A greater role in relief work for armed forces

Will Asia-Pacific armed forces find their role in national defense and security shifting significantly in the future as the effects of climate change caused by global warming intensify? If so, how quickly will it happen?

COMMENTARY

Aug 4, 2009

Drawing down the nuclear stock

Conflicts of interest dividing Moscow and Washington have overshadowed a more positive development — real progress in nuclear arms cuts between the two powers that together hold 95 percent of the world's nuclear weapons.

COMMENTARY

Jul 8, 2009

U.S.-proposed 'green tariffs' raise Asia's ire

When U.S. lawmakers recently approved legislation to limit U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, it was widely hailed as an important new step in confronting climate change. Under the Bush administration, the United States refused to join other industrialized nations in capping emissions, arguing that to do so would add unfair costs to business and blunt its competitive edge.

COMMENTARY

Jul 1, 2009

Tough to thwart North Korean arms exports

The cargo ship Kang Nam 1 has long been on a watch-list of North Korean vessels suspected of illicit trading. But it recently emerged from the shadows at the center of a cat-and-mouse game in Asian waters, tracked by U.S. warships, maritime reconnaissance planes and satellites under a United Nations resolution that bans Pyongyang from exporting arms of any kind and using the profits to sustain its military.

COMMENTARY

Jun 24, 2009

Tough to intercept missiles

Due to the severe economic slump, the United States recently announced that it would make substantial cuts to its costly and controversial missile defense program. Several new parts of the planned shield are to be canceled.

COMMENTARY

Jun 18, 2009

Kim's defiance raising the stakes

North Korea has confirmed the worst suspicions of those who fear the destabilizing consequences of nuclear proliferation by announcing that it will become a full-fledged nuclear state, able to build both uranium and plutonium bombs and fit them to the nose cones of its missiles.

COMMENTARY

Jun 6, 2009

Dodging a CO₂ hangover

Officials from Japan and other parts of the world are meeting in Bonn, Germany, until June 12 for more negotiations on a new set of global arrangements to prevent runaway climate change. The deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which ends in 2012, is supposed to be clinched at a climate summit convened by the United Nations in Copenhagen in December.

COMMENTARY

May 29, 2009

China closing energy deals while oil is cheap

SINGAPORE — Cash-rich China is using a period of relatively low oil prices to improve its energy security and ensure that its economy has the oil-based fuels needed to sustain growth when recovery from the slump takes hold.

COMMENTARY

May 4, 2009

Tracking and demobilizing debris in space

SINGAPORE — The 25 radar and optical telescope centers around the world that help the U.S. Armed Forces track debris in space have become increasingly busy in the past couple of years as man-made junk orbiting Earth proliferates, posing a growing danger to both civilian and military use of space.

COMMENTARY

Apr 7, 2009

Carbon slump threatens emission-cut goals

SINGAPORE — First, came the credit crunch and recession. Now there is a carbon price slump that may undermine one of the main ways governments have chosen to combat global warming. This is happening as Japan, the United States and other advanced economies develop plans for carbon trading based on national emissions targets.

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.

Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Students ‘study abroad’ on island of Suo Oshima

Students ‘study abroad’ on island of Suo Oshima

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