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August 21, 2025
 

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ENVIRONMENT

Sustainability

Climate change
Energy
Sustainability
Wildlife
Earth science
Muddied prospectors pan for gold in Manica province, Mozambique, near the Zimbabwe border, in 2010.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Mozambique's illegal miners reap risky rewards but land suffers
Rivers around mining sites are polluted, and mercury has seeped into the soil, creating a nightmare for farmers.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Indonesia grapples with small-scale illegal gold mining
Local authorities face the challenge of encouraging villagers to keep to less-destructive ways of making money, such as sustainable agriculture.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
'Bad actors' blamed as plastic pollution treaty talks end again without deal
Countries said they wanted further negotiations despite six rounds of talks over three years having failed to find agreement.
Ecuadorian Ambassador Luis Vayas Valdivieso at the start of plastic waste treaty negotiations in Geneva on Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 9, 2025
U.N. plastic pollution treaty talks progress not 'sufficient': chair
The negotiations, which opened on Tuesday, have four days left to find consensus on a legally binding instrument that would tackle the growing problem choking the environment.
A chicken stands in a garbage dump filled with plastic in Rodriguez, Rizal province, the Philippines, on Nov. 28, 2024.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 7, 2025
Trump administration memo urges countries to reject plastic production caps
By Olivia Le Poidevin and Valerie Volcovici
The U.S. stance broadly aligns with the positions laid out by the global petrochemicals industry.
Activists stage a demonstration in front of the United Nations Offices in Geneva on Monday.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 5, 2025
Pressure from oil producers and U.S. threaten global pact on plastics pollution
By Olivia Le Poidevin and Valerie Volcovici
Plastic production is set to triple by 2060 without intervention, choking oceans, harming human health and accelerating climate change, according to the OECD.
Some 460 million tons of plastic are produced globally each year, half of which is single-use.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 2, 2025
Efforts set to resume to reach plastic pollution pact
The coming talks follow a failure to reach a deal last December on how to stop millions of tons of plastic waste from entering the environment each year.
Workers remove copper from industrial wiring inside a recycling shop in Manila on June 26.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jul 29, 2025
In the Philippines, informal e-waste dismantling poses health risks
By Pam Castro
Scavenging electronic waste for the nickel, aluminum and copper inside releases a toxic brew of chemicals, including lead, mercury and cadmium, into the air.
Sheep on the eastern shores of Lake Hawea, near the town of Wanaka on the South Island of New Zealand. New Zealand sheep farmers are fighting to stop the loss of pasture to fast-spreading pine plantations, which earn government subsidies to soak up carbon emissions.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jul 28, 2025
New Zealand farmers battle pine forests to 'save our sheep'
By Ben Strang
New Zealand is one of the rare countries to allow 100% of carbon emissions to be offset by forestry.
A drone view shows turf from Derryrush bog left out to dry after being harvested from the blanket bog in Derryrush, Ireland, in April 2024. Ireland's bogs were formed over thousands of years as decaying plants formed a thick layer of peat in wetland areas.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jul 16, 2025
World risks up to $39 trillion in losses from vanishing wetlands: report
By Duncan Miriri
Some 22% of wetlands, both freshwater systems and coastal marine systems, have disappeared since 1970, the report says.

JICA to designate four Japanese cities as 'hometowns' for African nations
The Japanese flag (left) with the flag of the African Union
103-year-old remembers Soviet attack right after WWII
Shoichi Takahashi holds a photo of himself when he was younger, in Otaru, Hokkaido, on May 17.
Schools get students involved in revision of unreasonable ‘black rules’
At Yawata Junior High School in Nagoya, there are no more rules on clothing and hairstyles. Students are free to wear either the school's uniform or clothes of their own choosing.
Tokyo crowned No.1 'workation' spot
Workations were a burgeoning trend in the corporate world for years before the COVID-19 pandemic turbocharged it.
Japanese man suspected of ordering double murder in Manila
Two suspects arrested over the killing of two Japanese last week are held in restraints in Manila on Tuesday.
Tokyo crowned No.1 'workation' spot
Workations were a burgeoning trend in the corporate world for years before the COVID-19 pandemic turbocharged it.
Candidates preparing to make final pitches for Sawamura Award
Hawks pitcher Livan Moinelo has a 1.13 ERA in 19 starts this season.
Winning warship bid gives Japan confidence boost as Tokyo eyes more exports
Australia’s decision to select Japan's upgraded Mogami-class warship, seen in this computer-generated image, has been “well received across Japanese industry," a Defense Ministry official said.
In Paris, chefs Chizuko Kimura and Kei Kobayashi make their mark
Chef Kei Kobayashi is France's only Japanese chef with three Michelin stars.
In preserving Japanese hospitality, ‘details are everything’
Beniya Mukayu, a traditional "ryokan" inn located in Ishikawa Prefecture, considers itself at "the heart of onsen towns, local residents, farmers, fishermen, sake brewers and artisans" — all of which need new, sustainable methods of serving visitors to survive into the future.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers
By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Ishii Iron Works remakes self for workers, new energy
Ishii Iron Works remakes self for workers, new energy

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