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May 02, 2024
 

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CLIMATE

Fire in the Taiga forest outside Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk in 2014
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 23, 2024
Scientists warn missing Russian data causing Arctic climate blind spots
The Arctic is warming between two and four times faster than the rest of the planet and holds glaciers, forests and carbon-rich frozen soils at risk of irreversible change.
An offshore wind turbine off the coast of Naraha, Fukushima Prefecture, in 2013. Japan aims to increase its offshore wind power capacity to 10 GW by 2030.
ENVIRONMENT
Jan 21, 2024
As Japan makes major investments in wind power, some residents are pushing back
In a sense, the city of Ishikari represents the idealized, natural version of Hokkaido for many Japanese. Some residents say massive wind turbines will destroy that image.
Solar installations in the village of Hjolderup in Denmark
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 21, 2024
Europe’s climate push fails to stem crisis in solar industry
Despite insistence to push for more homegrown energy infrastructure, governments have been slow to prop up the ailing industry.
Around 100 YouTube channels actively deny climate change, while also spreading videos attacking solutions such as wind and solar.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 17, 2024
Attacks on renewable energy are proliferating on YouTube
While videos espousing climate denial are declining across nearly 100 YouTube channels, videos attacking solutions such as wind and solar are growing.
A banner for the World Economic Forum hangs on a building on the first day of the annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Monday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 16, 2024
Pre-Davos survey indicates CEOs' fears regarding AI and climate
Some 45% of more than 4,700 global CEOs surveyed do not believe their businesses will survive, barring significant changes, in the next 10 years.
U.S. climate envoy John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, speak during a news conference in Dubai on Dec.13.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 16, 2024
U.S. and China start new climate era after veteran envoys step down
The challenge now is building a system that can continue even without the connection shared by the departing envoys.
An old growth forest near Fort St. James, British Columbia, Canada, in an area where pellet producer Drax is permitted to cut.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Jan 14, 2024
Japan's thirst for biomass is having a harmful impact on Canada's forests
Experts and activists say biomass is not the climate solution it might appear to be on the surface and is far from being sustainable.
John Kerry at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, in 2021. Kerry, U.S. President Joe Biden's special envoy for climate, plans to step down from the Biden administration.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 14, 2024
John Kerry to step down as Biden’s climate envoy
Kerry, 80, plans to transition out of the U.S. government and help the re-election campaign of U.S. President Joe Biden, a report said.
People cool off on a beach in Rio de Janeiro in November amid a heat wave.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 13, 2024
El Nino could make 2024 hotter than record-setting 2023
The U.S. NOAA predicted there is a 1 in 3 chance that 2024 will be warmer than 2023 — and a 99% certainty that 2024 will rank among the five warmest years ever.
Climate activists install a portrait of French President Emmanuel Macron at Trocadero Square in front of the Eiffel tower to mark the fifth anniversary of the 2015 United Nations Paris Agreement, in December 2020.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 12, 2024
We need to remain true to the pillars of green wisdom
While the Group of Seven countries bear the greatest CO2 responsibility, China, which is now the second-largest emitter in history, must be fully committed, too.
A Tokyo Gas Co. storage tank at the company's Setagaya facility in Tokyo
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 12, 2024
World trying to quit fossil fuels gets flood of gas instead
Formerly a sluggish sector, global events spurred LNG's expansion
A Joshua Tree is seen as the York fire burns in the distance in the Mojave National Preserve on July 30, 2023. The year of 2023 was the hottest on record, with the increase in Earth's surface temperature nearly crossing the critical threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius.
WORLD
Jan 10, 2024
2023 declared hottest recorded year as Earth nears key limit
Climate change intensified heatwaves, droughts and wildfires across the planet, and pushed the global thermometer 1.48 C above the preindustrial benchmark.
People holding parasols amid scorching heat in Osaka's Umeda district in July.
JAPAN
Jan 5, 2024
2023 marks Japan's hottest year on record
The average temperature in 2023 was 1.29 Celsius warmer than the mean temperature for 30 years through 2020, surpassing the previous record set in 2020.
Carbon capture could help mitigate emissions at polluting power plants, but with the technology largely unproven at scale, it also risks extending their lives.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 5, 2024
The world’s next big carbon capture challenge? Figuring out how to use it
Fossil fuel industry's involvement raises fears that the technology might be used to prolong oil and gas extraction, while costs and scalability could limit its utility.
Cargo ships wait in the anchor zone to cross the Panama Canal from the Pacific entrance near Panama City, Panama, on Sept. 1, 2023. Ships have been waiting for days as the congestion to cross from both sides increase due to intense droughts in the country.
WORLD / Society
Jan 3, 2024
Saving the Panama Canal will take years and cost billions, if it’s even possible
Climate change-induced drought is limiting the number of ships on the waterway, which handles about 46% of containers moving from Northeast Asia to the U.S. East Coast.
Take any scientific issue that involves political choices, from public health to climate change, all sides claim to be basing their concerns on science.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 2, 2024
Let’s stop insulting each other as ‘anti-science’
Take any scientific issue that involves political choices, from public health to climate change, all sides claim to be basing their concerns in science.
Though ChatGPT debuted in late 2022, it was really in 2023 that we started to get a sense of what large language models could do, including diagnosing complex medical issues.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 31, 2023
The 10 most intriguing science breakthroughs over the past year
As 2023 has drawn to a close, let’s look back on some of the astounding breakthroughs we’ve seen in the last 12 months.
A colorful coral reef made out of wool to raise awareness about climate change, at a museum in Baden-Baden, Germany, in January 2022
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Dec 31, 2023
The art world's big planetary problem
Over the last five years, it’s become increasingly clear to major art institutions in Japan and around the world that the sector has a sustainability issue.
A Khudi Bari tiny home in Char Shildaha, Bangladesh
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 30, 2023
Bangladesh's tiny houses tackle giant flood challenge
The Khudi Bari — resilient tiny homes made on bamboo stilts rising out of the floodwaters that are also easy to move to safer locations when needed — offers hope to millions.
A Palestinian child cries next to his mother after they were rushed to a hospital following an Israeli strike in the southern Gaza Strip on Nov. 13. Fighting erupted after Hamas conducted a coordianated attack against Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians. More than 20,000 people in Gaza have died in the conflict, according to the enclave’s health ministry.
WORLD
Dec 27, 2023
Images of 2023: World
Images of 2023: From war in the Gaza Strip and in Ukraine to concerns in Asia over North Korea and China, conflict took center stage in 2023.
'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines
A pedestrian cools himself with a folding hand fan as he waits for a ride along a road in Manila on Wednesday, as extreme heat hit the Philippines.
Did Japan intervene to prop up the yen? Analysts think it did.
A man walks past an electronic board displaying the exchange rate for the yen against the U.S. dollar (right) in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
Number of vacant homes in Japan hits record high of 9 million
A vacant house in Tokyo is seen demolished in January 2020.
Weak yen fattens tourist wallets in Japan
People visit the Ameya Yokocho market in Tokyo's Ueno district during the Golden Week holiday on Tuesday.
Kishida sets sights on energy and climate in South America trip
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will use a policy speech in Sao Paulo to set out his vision for ties between Japan and South America, almost 10 years after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe advocated for stronger ties between the two in the same city.
Yellow sand allergy: A health issue made worse by climate change
A screenshot of the Meteorological Agency's satellite image of clouds and yellow sand (in pink) on Sunday.
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.

Podcast

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.
[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Longform

When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.
Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Vol. 35: Travel in time — and stay there
Vol. 35: Travel in time — and stay there

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