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September 19, 2024
 

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CLIMATE CHANGE

Traditionally seen as a cautionary tale of collapse due to overpopulation, recent research suggests that Easter Island's population was likely small and that they adapted to environmental challenges through innovative agricultural practices.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 23, 2024
Easter Island collapse gets the fresh look it deserves
Once viewed as a cautionary tale of overpopulation, recent research suggests Easter Island's population was small and adapted through innovative agriculture practices.
A construction worker in Akasaka-Mitsuke, Tokyo, on Wednesday. High temperatures are projected to linger on past the summer.
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2024
High temperatures expected to continue in Japan through October
The warm fall will follow what has already been a particularly hot summer, with July’s average temperature coming in at a record high for the month.
Existential risks like bioterrorism or climate change, created by humans, are not being treated by governments with anything like the seriousness or urgency they deserve.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 21, 2024
Will we survive the next 100 years?
Existential risks like bioterrorism or climate change, created by humans, are not being treated by governments with anything like the seriousness or urgency they deserve.
New gene-edited crops could address climate change and agricultural challenges; however, high regulatory barriers and safety concerns limit innovation.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 18, 2024
It’s time to embrace a new era of gene-edited food
New crops may improve our health or help us mitigate and adapt to climate change.
Collector containers at the Climeworks AG carbon removal plant in Hellisheiði, Iceland. Once fully operational, the facility will be capable of capturing up to 36,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 19, 2024
New 'carbon removal budget' suggests massive removal shortfall
Much of the technology to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere hasn’t reached its full potential — and time is running out.
The volunteer lifesavers of Nishihama Surf Lifesaving Club never know what's in store at the start of their day.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Aug 19, 2024
It's no simple day at the beach for Japan's volunteer lifesavers
Protecting beachgoers from drowning, heatstroke and possible tsunami, lifesavers are seeking formal recognition for what they do.
The parliament building in Tokyo. With concerns about summer heat rising and many elections taking place in summertime, it may not be tenable to conduct campaigns as in the past given health risks to candidates, their staff and voters.
JAPAN / Politics / Boiling Point
Aug 17, 2024
Hotter summers pose a threat to Japan's tradition of stump speeches
Balancing health concerns with legal restrictions as well as candidates' desire to be as publicly visible as possible, even in super hot weather, might be tricky.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida poses for a group photo with other regional leaders prior to the Asia Zero Emission Community (AZEC) leaders meeting in Tokyo in December.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 16, 2024
Japan's energy diplomacy reflects global divide over how to reach net zero
Japan’s focus should be on advancing truly innovative and effective renewable technologies, rather than prolonging fossil fuel use.
Tourists at a water fountain at the Acropolis archaeological site during extreme hot weather conditions in Athens in July 2023.
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2024
Extreme weather drives travelers to cooler destinations this summer
Cruise operators, hotel companies and airlines are adding trips and accommodations to meet rising demand for temperate destinations.
A ward for heatstroke patients at a hospital in Chennai, India, in May. The country experienced a severe heat wave over the spring and summer, raising concerns about the long-term impact of climate change-induced extreme heat on human health.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 14, 2024
Climate change: A health emergency in the making
Global warming's impact on health is an increasingly urgent issue — just look at excess deaths caused by extreme heat. But are health care systems well-equipped enough?
A Plug Power hydrogen plant in Woodbine, Georgia
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Aug 14, 2024
Why almost nobody is buying green hydrogen
Many of the projects now touted with great fanfare by countries vying to become 'the Saudi Arabia of hydrogen' will likely never get built.
A Palestinian mourns those killed in Israeli strikes, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 14, 2024
Extreme heat poses new challenge for aid agencies in Gaza
Aid trucks in Gaza often spend hours under the sun waiting for clearance due to Israeli restrictions.
The destruction left behind by the Borel Fire near Lake Isabella, California, on July 29
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 13, 2024
Wildfires are getting weirder. Case in point: 'firenados.'
Sometimes fire thunderstorms even create their own lightning, which spawns new blazes miles away.
People rest outside Matadero cultural center during the fourth heatwave of the summer in Madrid on Sunday.
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 12, 2024
Experts are fighting over whether to give heat waves names
The arguments against naming heat waves aren’t so removed from the arguments in favor: Heat is complicated, and its threat level tricky to generalize.
Forest in the town of Kamishihoro, Hokkaido, which was designated as an advanced area for decarbonization in fiscal 2022.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 12, 2024
Japan looks to farms in 'advanced decarbonization areas'
Example projects include "agrivoltaics" initiatives and those using livestock manure as a source of biogas.
There are now more than a dozen apps aimed at helping users keep tabs on their individual emissions.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 12, 2024
Steps, calories … CO2? Emissions-tracking apps are on the rise
Carbon-tracking services walk a fine line between highlighting purchase emissions and suggesting individuals alone can solve the problem of climate change.
Although markets can promote economic efficiency under the right conditions, there is no “invisible hand” to deliver solidarity, agency, material sufficiency and environmental sustainability.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 11, 2024
A new worldview for troubled times
The problem is not that humans are predominantly ignorant or evil. Most people abhor social discord, abject poverty and environmental destruction.
Flaring at the Cameron LNG export terminal in Hackberry, Louisiana. Flaring, a common sight at LNG plants, is a controlled burning of gas for reasons ranging from depressurizing equipment to disposing of gas that can’t be used. The practice is a "waste of money" and negatively impacts climate change and human health, says the International Energy Agency.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET
Aug 11, 2024
Japan fuels U.S. LNG boom even as climate targets and impacts loom
For over half a century, Japan has been a sizable buyer of LNG, and its government, banks and energy companies have played a key role in continued investment.
Homes surrounded by floodwaters in Steinhatchee, Florida, after Hurricane Debby made landfall on Aug. 5.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 10, 2024
Clashing risk predictions cast doubt on black box climate models
Insurers and investors are using private modeling tools to make risk assessments, but they have major inconsistencies.
Bottles of Coca-Cola inside a fridge in the Olympic Village.
OLYMPICS
Aug 7, 2024
Health experts urge Olympics to cut ties with Coca-Cola
Events at the Paris Games have been lined with advertising for the ubiquitous fizzy drinks of Coca-Cola, which has been sponsoring the Olympics since 1928.
Japan set to hold rates steady as yen rallies and LDP candidates stump
The Bank of Japan is holding its policy board meeting this week.
Deaths among elderly people using electric wheelchairs on the rise
A re-creation of a scene in which an electric wheelchair tire has become stuck in a gutter
How Intel lost the Sony PlayStation business
Intel in 2022 lost out on a contract to design and fabricate the chip for Sony’s next-generation PlayStation 6.
Mount Fuji restrictions reduce dangerous overnight climbs
Hikers pass through a temporary gate set up at the fifth station of the Yoshida Trail on Mount Fuji in Yamanashi Prefecture in July.
LDP presidential hopefuls lay out priorities for PM in online debate
Candidates for the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election take part in a debate in Tokyo on Saturday. On Monday evening, they took part in an online debate, during which they each made a case for what the top priority should be for Japan's next prime minister.
‘Shogun’ and the painstaking art of ‘getting it right’
Hiroyuki Sanada and the cast and crew of "Shogun" accept the award for best drama series at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, California.
Japan’s schools battle to keep kids cool, with or without AC
Students sit under a misting system during recess at Hikarigaoka Haru no Kaze Elementary School in Nerima Ward, Tokyo, on Sept. 6.
Chris Broad's new bar puts cocktails first, YouTube second
A self-proclaimed lover of great cocktails, YouTuber Chris Broad says his new Shibuya watering hole is more a place to get yourself a solid drink than it is anything related to his social media career.
In LDP presidential poll, three kingmakers hold all the cards
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo in January as former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga (left) looks on.
How China’s dominance of solar and batteries is impacting Japan’s energy transition
Solar panels and wind turbines at a power plant in Hami in China's Xinjiang region. The U.S. and other countries have described China’s actions against Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region, a key cog in the cleantech supply chain, as a genocidal campaign aimed at erasing an entire culture.

Podcast

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

Longform

A store clerk tries to cool things down in front of their shop by spraying a hose.
Is extreme weather changing the way Japan shops?
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Sasakawa works for a sustainable blue economy
Sasakawa works for a sustainable blue economy

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