Environment | Longform
Unearthing Japan’s home-grown solutions to urban greening
by Francesco Bassetti
Urban greening not only boosts biodiversity and lowers air temperatures, it also provides a much-needed link to the natural world.
TOPICS
Environment | Longform Feb 21, 2021
Can Japan embrace an alternative approach to plastic?
by Mara Budgen
Japanese companies are rethinking how we make, use and dispose of products by creating substitutes to fossil fuel-based plastics.
Environment Jan 16, 2021
The true cost of the climate crisis on Japan
by Eric Margolis
The prime minister has called for Japan to be carbon neutral by 2050, but bolder measures look necessary to reduce the economic damage caused by global warming.
Environment Apr 4, 2020
C.W. Nicol, a committed environmentalist with deep humanity
by Andrew Kershaw
Author and environmentalist C.W. Nicol died on Friday after being diagnosed with cancer in 2016. As a long-standing contributor to The Japan Times, we asked his equally long-standing editor, Andrew Kershaw, to write a few words in memory of the award-winning conservationist
Environment | OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK Mar 30, 2020
We live in neither East nor West
by C.W. Nicol
With COVID-19 pulling the world apart, it's the people, from healthworkers to thoughtful neighbors that can bring it back together.
Environment Jan 25, 2020
Japan 2030: Tackling climate issues is key to the next decade
by Masami Ito
The new decade kicked off with images of Australia in flames. As the country's bushland has burned over the past few months, more than an estimated 10 million hectares have already been reduced to ash. At least 28 people and more than a billion animals ...
Environment | The Climate Crisis Jan 18, 2020
Balance of power: Redefining Japan's energy needs
by Alex K.T. Martin
Sitting silently among the rolling pastures, rice paddies and lush forests of the idyllic village of Otama are rows upon rows of photovoltaic solar panels — vast swaths of dark gray injecting dissonance into the postcard-like landscape local residents pride themselves on. These solar farms ...
Environment | The Climate Crisis Jan 11, 2020
Throwaway society: Rejecting a life consumed by plastic
by Andrew McKirdy
How much single-use plastic do you think you consume in an average week living in Japan? What if you were to collect all the plastic bottles, shopping bags, food cartons, hand wipe wrappers, straws, cutlery, packaging, packaging-within-packaging and packaging-within-packaging-within-packaging that you accumulate in a week, ...
Environment | The Climate Crisis Jan 6, 2020
Emergency on 'lucky island': Iki Island seeks to lead Japan's fight against the climate crisis
by Oscar Boyd
It's golden hour on Iki, a pristine island in southwestern Japan. A gentle breeze cools the day to a perfect 24 degrees Celsius. The roads are clean, the trees are green, a playground sits atop a grassy hill. Locals call Iki a "lucky island" ...
Asia Pacific Jan 4, 2020
More than 1,000 traumatized Australian bush fire evacuees transfered to safety of Melbourne
Over 1,000 residents and vacationers who had been stranded on a beach by bushfires in southeastern Australia landed near Melbourne on Saturday after a 20-hour journey on two ships, relieved to escape terrifying smoke and fire. Teenagers, couples, seniors and families, plus dozens of pets ...
Environment | OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK Dec 30, 2019
The fallen apples of Typhoon Hagibis
by C.W. Nicol
When the Typhoon Hagibis floods hit Nagano, it near-destroyed the apple farms for which the area is famous, with contaminants in the floodwaters making it impossible to salvage any of the surviving fruit.
World Dec 29, 2019
At least 50 people have died in Bangladesh as cold weather continues to sweep across the country, officials said. The country's lowest temperature this year — 4.5 degrees Celsius (40.1° Fahrenheit) — was recorded early Sunday in Tetulia, a border town in the north of ...