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ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH

Nov 13, 2003

Poor farmers pay price for subsidies

By Stephen Hesse

Beyond the negotiations and protesters that highlight agricultural trade talks lies a simple reality: In the end, each nation must feed its own people.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK

Nov 6, 2003

Where there's muck -- there's crystals of money

By C.W. Nicol

I just got back from Vancouver, Canada, where I was staying with my dear old friend Fred Koch and his wife Akiko. I first met Fred back in the early 1970s when I worked for the Environmental Protection Service in Canada, and when Fred, then a keen young engineer, was hired by EPS to do some contract...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT

Oct 30, 2003

Our oceans' ecology is all at sea

By Jack Moyer

For many years, I have been attempting to inform people that our life-supporting oceanic wildlife is being rapidly destroyed by human misuse and overuse.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT

Oct 30, 2003

Winged lords of high places

By Zhang Zhi-Yen

It was in early November 2002 that we drove on a rough mountain track from Guiyang to Caohai Nature Reserve on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / GARDEN PATHS

Oct 23, 2003

A garden of poetry in the city's heart

By Linda Inoki

Long ago, Japanese aristocrats used to debate about which was the finest season, spring or autumn. Generally, poetic souls favored autumn, which -- with its crying insects, fragile flowers and falling leaves -- epitomized the fleeting nature of life.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER

Oct 23, 2003

Freshwater pearl mussel

By Rowan Hooper

* Japanese name: Kawashinjukai * Scientific name:Margaritifera laevis * Description: Mussels are bivalves: mollusks that have their body contained between two shells. Young freshwater pearl mussels often have yellowish-brown shells, which become green-tinged and darker as they mature. This animal grows...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Oct 16, 2003

Tyulenii fur seals are all washed up and in no hurry to go

By Mark Brazil

It felt as if we were an invading force as we set the bows of our black rubber zodiac boat for the shore. Tyulenii Island, a raised tableland of sandstone barely a kilometer long and less than half that wide, was our target. Winds blowing up the Sea of Okhotsk were pushing a rising swell along the unprotected...

ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH

Oct 9, 2003

The roots of national security grow under our very feet

By Stephen Hesse

For many policymakers, the concept of national security now simply means possessing the capacity for overwhelming destruction. Armchair warriors find such thinking reassuringly straightforward and comforting, a neat and tidy corollary of "Might makes right." It is also pure fantasy.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER

Oct 9, 2003

Aggregating anemone

By Rowan Hooper

* Japanese name: Yoroiisoginchaku * Scientific name:Anthopleura japonica * Description: Anemones are marine invertebrates, cylindrical animals with rings of tentacles on the upper surface. They are related to jellyfish and corals. Aggregating anemones grow up to 3 cm in diameter and can have a brilliant...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK

Oct 2, 2003

Blowing up the merits of charcoal

By C.W. Nicol

When I was 12, chemistry didn't interest me much until I found a battered old book in the school library that gave detailed instructions on the making of gunpowder. I still remember the recipe, which includes 75 percent potassium nitrate, otherwise known as saltpeter, and 10 percent charcoal.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / GARDEN PATHS

Sep 25, 2003

Lush 'theme park' of the shoguns

By Linda Inoki

Four hundred years ago, Edo was little more than a fishing village in the large domain of Tokugawa Ieyasu. But then, in 1603, the new shogun made this quiet spot his power base, and over the next two centuries Edo became one of the greatest cities in the world. Remarkably, the Koishikawa Korakuen garden,...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER

Sep 25, 2003

Flatbottom Sea Star

By Rowan Hooper

* Japanese name: Kihitode * Scientific name: Asterias amurensis * Description: Sea stars are echinoderms, in the same family as sea urchins and sea cucumbers, though unlike those animals they are not eaten in Japan. Like all echinoderms (which means "spiny skin" in Greek), sea stars have a five-way...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.

What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Muji has been sustainable from the beginning

Muji has been sustainable from the beginning

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