In leaked draft encyclical, pope urges urgent action to thwart climate change
The world could see the destruction of entire ecosystems this century without urgent action on climate change, Pope Francis says in a draft of his keenly awaited encyclical on the environment. In the Italian version of the 192-page document, posted on Monday by the weekly ...
What kind of life could live in the clouds?
Do you remember seeing clouds from an airplane for the first time? Even if that first time was as an adult, you were probably struck by the appearance of solidity. Seen from above, a cloudscape looks like a landscape — it looks like a ...
Invasive snapping turtles on the rise in Chiba, other areas
The population of snapping turtles has surged around Inba Pond in Chiba Prefecture increasing concerns that the alien species may pose a danger to humans and harm the local ecosystem. Snapping turtles, which inhabit a wide area from southern Canada through South America, have been ...
War on invasive species continues
With an ever-increasing number of foreign aquatic species threatening ecosystems in many areas of Japan, municipalities are calling on people not to release them into the local environment. Most of the foreign species, such as bluegill and red-eared slider, are believed to have been released ...
The fate of the contentious plan to open the floodgates of the Isahaya Bay dike protecting filled-in land in Nagasaki Prefecture has become even more uncertain now that a district court has ruled that the government must keep them closed, in direct contradiction to ...
In a decision favoring local farmers, the Nagasaki District Court issues an injunction barring the government from opening the floodgates of the Isahaya Bay dike.
Mount Fuji habitats threatened by foreign flora
Alien plants believed to have been unwittingly transported by tourists to Mount Fuji are threatening to destroy or damage the ecosystem of the nation's newest World Heritage site and even its landscape, researchers say. In a recent study of plants along the Fuji Subaru Line ...
