Search - environment

 
 
A sea turtle swims off the coast of Brazil. Sea turtles can migrate hundreds or thousands of miles.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Feb 14, 2024

Overhunting and habitat loss endanger migratory animals, U.N. says

One in five migratory species is at risk of extinction, according to a new report by the United Nations.
Inspections by authorities found that puppies and kittens have been traded at younger ages than permitted by law, apparently because younger animals sell better.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 16, 2024

Birth date falsifications suspected for puppies auctioned in Japan

The Environment Ministry believes breeders altered dates of birth in order to put puppies and kittens up for auction even though they were too young.
A satellite image shows the Rubymar cargo ship on Friday after it was heavily damaged in a Feb. 19 missile strike claimed by Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
WORLD
Mar 3, 2024

Ship sunk by Houthis threatens Red Sea environment

The sinking marks the first vessel lost since the Houthis began targeting ships in November.
PFAS does not break down easily and remains in the body and the environment for a number of years, and is thus called “forever chemicals.”
JAPAN / Explainer
Mar 4, 2024

Japan’s food safety panel drafts intake limit for 'forever chemicals'

The report spells out the “tolerable daily intake” of PFAS through food for the first time. Here's what you need to know.
A woman peels sugar cane on a railway track to sell it to sugar cane juice vendors in a slum area in Kolkata.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Mar 7, 2024

Climate migrants in India have hysterectomies to keep working: report

The move helps women ensure that periods or pregnancy don't stop them from working.
Firefighters tackle a blaze near the village of Piedrafita in northern Spain's Asturias region on March 31.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Mar 12, 2024

Europe must do more against 'catastrophic' climate risks, EU says

The risks are plenty and varied, including fires, water shortages, flooding, erosion and saltwater intrusion.
Climate protesters interrupt a campaign event for former U.S. President Donald Trump in Indianola, Iowa, on Jan. 14.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2024

What would a Trump win mean for the climate?

Even if Trump wins and tries to take a wrecking ball to climate policies, he ultimately can't derail the renewables revolution gaining momentum in the U.S.
Shintaro Tajima (left) and his son, Daisuke, pose in their forest in Hita, Oita Prefecture, in January. At their feet is wasabi growing in clusters.
BUSINESS / Companies / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Mar 18, 2024

Oita forestry firm signs carbon trade deal with Line operator

LY, which operates Line and Yahoo services, will purchase 1,500 tons of carbon credit per year from Tajima Forest for 10 years.
A commuter walks along an overpass in Jakarta.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Mar 20, 2024

Only 10 countries had healthy air quality in 2023, report finds

Sources of PM2.5 pollution vary widely, but the overwhelming cause is the burning of fossil fuels.
Kumamoto-based sakura researcher Toshio Katsuki  says Japan's interpretations of the cherry tree have evolved over the course of history.
COMMUNITY / 20 QUESTIONS
Mar 22, 2024

Toshio Katsuki: 'The cherry blossoms have been my vehicle to find new relationships'

A sakura researcher tells us what drew him to the flowering trees, how their significance has changed over time and his tips on the best way to enjoy them.
Wildlife researcher Amelia Hiorns says Japan's bears feel the pressure of human presence and have learned that encountering us is not worth their time.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Mar 30, 2024

Amelia Hiorns: 'Guiding and introducing people to Japan's nature has been rewarding'

Wildlife researcher Amelia Hiorns shares how separate interests in Japan and in bears culminated in conservation work in the mountains of Nagano.
Children wash their hands with a new public pump installed as part of a climate resilient water system in Inn Chey in Kratie Province.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Mar 31, 2024

Japan sits at the forefront of climate resilient infrastructure in Southeast Asia

Japanese businesses and government agencies are pouring billions of yen into various programs across Cambodia and Southeast Asia to reduce climate risks.
Reindeer that belong to Sami herder Nils Mathis Sara, 65, run in a winter pasture near Geadgebarjavri up on the Finnmark plateau, Norway, last month.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Apr 3, 2024

Reindeer herders battle power line needed for Norway's climate goal

The conflict illustrates the difficult choices countries must make to cut greenhouse gas emissions and power future growth.
3M’s Cottage Grove, Minnesota, factory had been churning out varieties of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances since the 1950s. Recent studies have linked widely used compounds within the chemical family to reduced immune response and cancer.
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 4, 2024

How PFAS 'forever chemicals' affect human health

There is firm evidence that at least one of the more than 4,000 human-made chemicals called PFAS causes cancer.
Climate change, with its natural disasters, is putting nuclear facilities and weapons complexes at risk.
COMMENTARY
Apr 4, 2024

Climate change and nuclear waste are a toxic stew

Nuclear power could be a crucial part of a clean-energy transition, but not if it comes with a high risk of multiple Fukushima-like catastrophes.
If it's too hot to do much (and the costs for air conditioning continue to surge) during the day, it might be time to consider shifting the bulk of our activities to cooler nighttime hours.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 6, 2024

A solution for scorching days: Do everything at night.

Working night shifts, however, comes with a host of health problems, increasing the risk of diabetes, heart disease and even cancer.
Flames blaze from a chimney at Western Europe's largest liquefied natural gas plant, Hammerfest LNG, in Hammerfest, Norway, on March 14.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Apr 9, 2024

Banks made big climate promises. A new study doubts they work.

Researchers found a reduction in lending to sectors targeted under the pledges was the same as for banks that had not made the same commitment.
Outside of some activist movements pressing governments for more climate action, global warming is not yet at the heart of the political agenda in most countries.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 2024

Climate change is political and we must treat it that way

Climate action hasn't made its way onto mainstream political agendas in most countries, to the detriment of our collective ability to solve the crisis.
Japanese gymnast Daiki Hashimoto attends a ceremony to unveil the official uniforms of Team Japan for the Paris Games, in Tokyo on Wednesday.
OLYMPICS
Apr 18, 2024

How green are your trainers? Team Japan uniforms to have carbon footprint labels

Japanese Olympians stepping up to the podium in Paris will have more than just a medal to be proud of this summer.
Toshihiro Kinjo (center), a research support technician at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, inspects an audio recording device in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, on April 3 as Masako Ogasawara, a research support specialist at OIST, looks on.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife / OUR PLANET
Apr 21, 2024

Hearing the impact of climate change in Okinawa, one bird call at a time

From Okinawa to Australia, “passive acoustic monitoring” projects are feeding scientists with data about changes to ecosystems and biodiversity.
Cracked and dry earth in the wide riverbed of the Loire River near the Anjou-Bretagne bridge, amid a heat wave in Ancenis-Saint-Gereon, France, in 2022
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Apr 22, 2024

Europe's record 'extreme heat stress' days in 2023 put lives at risk: report

Prolonged exposure to heat stress is particularly dangerous for vulnerable people such as the elderly or those with preexisting health conditions.
Tokyo observed the first "extremely hot day" of the season on July 10, 2023, when the temperature hit 36.5 degrees. A new heatstroke alert system will be put in place on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Apr 23, 2024

Japan to put special alert system for heatstroke in place

The Environment Ministry will put in place a special alert system for heatstroke to protect people from unprecedented heat.
While some publicly traded bitcoin mining companies release details of their energy use, there is no reliable data on exactly how much electricity the industry as a whole consumes.
BUSINESS / Tech / ANALYSIS
Apr 25, 2024

Bitcoin miner environmental battles heat up in U.S.

As cryptocurrency groups work to shield mines from local regulations, U.S. President Joe Biden proposed an excise tax on bitcoin energy use.
Solar panels on Dave Duttlinger's farmland that he leased to Dunns Bridge Solar in Wheatfield, Indiana
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Apr 27, 2024

As solar capacity grows, some of America's most productive farmland is at risk

The solar industry is pushing into the U.S. Midwest, drawn by cheaper land rents and wide-open fields.
The Naughton coal power plant in Kemmerer, Wyoming. Ministers from the Group of Seven countries have agreed on a schedule for phasing out coal-fired power plants, setting as a goal the mid-2030s.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
May 1, 2024

G7 to phase out coal-fired power plants by mid-2030s

The move was hailed as significant by some environmentalists but slammed as "too late" by others.
A prop depicting a water tap with cascading plastic bottles is displayed by activists near the Shaw Center venue of penultimate negotiations for the first-ever global plastics treaty, in Ottawa, Canada, on April 23.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
May 1, 2024

Plastic pollution talks make modest progress but sidestep production curbs

Some warned that too many political compromises would dilute the effectiveness of an eventual treaty while others welcomed a close focus on certain issues.
A "cooling shelter" set up inside the city hall in Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture
JAPAN
May 1, 2024

Municipalities setting up 'cooling shelters' in bid to prevent heatstroke

Operators of designated facilities will be asked to open them for use by people to escape the heat when a special alert for heatstroke is issued.
We don't know how much damage these polymers do to our health. But we can make significant inroads on litter and emissions to tackle this issue head-on.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2024

Plastic pollution is a growing problem. Here are some ideas on how to solve it.

International cooperation and proactive measures are needed to mitigate the harmful effects of plastics.
A man rides past journalists reporting on the aftermath of the Shady Fire in Santa Rosa, California, on Sept. 28, 2020.
ENVIRONMENT
May 3, 2024

Violence against environmental journalists rises, UNESCO says

More than 70% of the 905 journalists the agency surveyed in 129 countries said they had been attacked, threatened or pressured.
A salmon farm in Giske, Norway. The country produces more than half of the world’s farmed salmon.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
May 4, 2024

The world’s hunger for salmon is linked to an ecological disaster

High demand for salmon is driving another species to the verge of extinction.

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A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami