author

 
 

Meta

Eric Roston
For Eric Roston's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
A woman sits where her apartment once stood in Lahaina, Hawaii, after the city was devastated by a wildfire, on Aug. 11.
ENVIRONMENT
Nov 17, 2023
Nowhere is safe from worsening climate change, new U.S. report warns
The report comes at a time of record-shattering heat, with recent months ranking as the hottest on record across the world.
Cooling towers at a coal-fired power plant in Germany. While surface temperatures might stabilize quickly after reaching net-zero, other shifting parts of the climate are harder to slow once set in motion.
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science
Nov 17, 2023
Amid climate efforts, will net-zero emissions be enough?
A new study suggests uncertainty about how climate systems will respond after emissions stabilize is an argument for reducing them as quickly as possible.
A woman in Vatican City on July 19 during a heat wave. Projecting temperatures is inherently imprecise because modern humans have never experienced such extremes.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jul 29, 2023
An overheating planet requires extreme climate solutions
Projections say warming will only get worse, but humans exert control over planet-warming pollution and can change these models’ trajectories.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 13, 2023
California wildfires are five times bigger than they used to be
The burned area grew 172% more than it would have without climate change.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 1, 2023
Humans have blown past key limits for Earth’s stability, scientists say
A new analysis also includes criteria for justice for the many millions of people at risk today and the billions coming in the future.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 25, 2023
Guam typhoon highlights climate threat to U.S. military in Pacific
Many of America’s most strategic assets are in places increasingly threatened by extreme weather events, rising seas and other consequences of climate change.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 23, 2023
El Ninos cause trillions in lost economic growth, study shows
With the world 1.2 C hotter than it was before industrialization, El Nino now practically guarantees record heat.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 9, 2023
A fifth of the world’s species-rich wetlands have been destroyed
Wetlands provide critical and historically under-recognized benefits to humanity, including flood defense, water storage and biodiversity protection.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 25, 2023
Jacinda Ardern leaves mixed record on tackling climate change
Ardern established a new policy framework for New Zealand to address global warming, but there’s a sense that her government failed to deliver fully on its climate promises.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Nov 11, 2022
Can world leaders at COP27 climate summit still limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius?
One of the key objectives around which the 2015 Paris Agreement was formed, the figure has become a shorthand for the success of every subsequent climate summit.
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 16, 2022
Climate change intensified rain that fueled deadly Pakistan floods, study says
The death toll from the floods has risen to nearly 1,500 and the physical damage to the country may surpass $30 billion.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 29, 2022
Climate change made deadly U.K. heat wave at least 10 times likelier
More than 840 people may have died in England and Wales during the extreme heat, according to a preliminary analysis.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 5, 2022
Planet’s breakneck warming likely to pass 1.5 degrees, U.N. scientists warn
The world may be on track to warm by more than 3 degrees — a change that would painfully remake societies and life on the planet.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 5, 2022
A Paris Agreement architect is now terrified by lack of climate action
'I don't have words to explain. u2018Concerning' is not enough. This is frankly a terrifying report,” Costa Rican diplomat Christiana Figueres said.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 5, 2022
Five takeaways from the U.N.’s latest 3,000-page climate report
The new report updates previous work by the IPCC, and offers evidence that climate action, when done right, can improve the health and wellbeing of people around the world.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 23, 2021
How fast will the Earth heat? New tool provides granular estimates
The Probable Futures initiative hopes its interactive maps showing how fast the Earth could heat will lead citizens and countries to ask questions about climate change.
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Apr 28, 2021
Why it’s so difficult to compare nations’ climate goals
There is no common accounting for what nations in the Paris Agreement are doing to fight climate change.
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Apr 23, 2021
Biden’s climate summit shows how far U.S. leadership has to go
Many of the 40 heads of state who participated had their own message: America needs to do more to convince everyone else that it's both up to the task and reliable over the long haul.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 5, 2021
Famed climate scientist reverses course on Atlantic weather after 20 years
The newest climate models can no longer find evidence of a temperature flip in the Atlantic every few decades, suggesting the phenomenon was caused by something else.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Nov 25, 2020
Climate scientists turn Mount Everest into a lab
Climate science started on mountaintops. John Tyndall was a mid-19th-century British scientist and devoted mountaineer who scaled several Continental peaks, making the first recorded trip up Switzerland's Weisshorn. He sketched out the glaciers he saw there, and how they moved. By 1859, he’d become the first European to demonstrate that carbon dioxide absorbs heat.

Longform

Historically, kabuki was considered the entertainment of the merchant and peasant classes, a far cry from how it is regarded today.
For Japan's oldest kabuki theater, the show must go on