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April 25, 2025
 

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ENVIRONMENT

Last year was the hottest on record in Japan and globally. An enduring stretch of peak warm weather worldwide has prompted scientists to look for the causes as they try to understand whether we have entered a dangerous phase of accelerated heating.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 2025
Creating the best possible climate models is existential
Scientists' work in building and interpreting climate models must be fine-tuned so that this data can inform the policies capable of living up to the challenge of global heating.
Kengo Kuma & Associates oversaw the construction of the Malaysia pavilion, which is encased in interwoven rows of bamboo that appear to ripple.
LIFE / Style & Design
Apr 24, 2025
Built in a flash, Osaka Expo pavilions wrestle with sustainability
Architects of country pavilions speak on the challenges that shaped their design choices.
An aerial photo taken on March 20, 2025, shows part of the original site of Lang Nu village in Vietnam's Lao Cai province, after it was wiped away in a landslide triggered by Typhoon Yagi's devastating heavy rains last year.
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 23, 2025
Vietnam village starts over with climate defenses after landslide
She and dozens of survivors have been relocated to a site that authorities hope will withstand future climate change-linked disasters.
Pope Francis was known for his strong environmentalism, highlighted by his influential 2015 encyclical calling for global climate action.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 23, 2025
The next pope will help decide the planet’s fate
As much of the world retreats from climate activism, the Vatican has a chance to stand out by choosing another vocal environmentalist to lead 1.4 billion Catholics.
Keen to end its reliance on rice imports, Indonesia wants to plant vast tracts of the crop, along with sugar cane for biofuel, in the restive eastern region of Papua. But environmentalists warn it could become the world's largest deforestation project, threatening endangered species and Jakarta's climate commitments.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Apr 22, 2025
Indonesia food plan risks 'world's largest' deforestation
Deforestation linked to the plan is already underway.
An LNG tanker is guided by tug boats in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, on April 14, 2022. The European Union is looking at ways to make it easier for U.S. gas exports to comply with its methane emissions rules.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 21, 2025
EU explores tweaking methane rules for U.S. gas to help trade talks
The European Commission is looking at using flexibilities in how it applies the bloc's methane rules, which could benefit U.S. liquefied natural gas exporters, sources say.
People walk near Tokyo's Sensoji temple in July 2024 amid a heat wave.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Apr 19, 2025
Japan to start special heatstroke alert system Wednesday
The Environment Ministry will issue the special alert when dangerous heat levels are expected.
Burnt power banks containing lithium-ion batteries are shown at the Consumer Affairs Agency
JAPAN
Apr 17, 2025
Japan urges proper disposal of lithium-ion batteries
The Environment Ministry issued a notice to local governments on Tuesday requesting the thorough separation and collection of such batteries.
A joint study by the National Institute for Environmental Studies and Waseda University warns that, in the coming decades, nearly three-quarters of the country could face conditions in which intense physical outdoor activities should be suspended for months at a time.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Apr 16, 2025
Rising temperatures could cancel most outdoor school sports in summer by 2060s
Six out of eight regions in Japan could see weekly sports cancellations due to dangerous heat by the 2060s.
Students raise their hands in class in front of fans at an elementary school in Manila on March 21. Last year, heat waves forced millions of children in the Philippines out of school. It was the first time that soaring temperatures had caused widespread class suspensions, prompting a series of changes.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Apr 14, 2025
Early holiday, more fans: Philippines' schools adapt to climate change
Heat waves forced millions of children in the Philippines out of school in 2024, the first time that soaring temperatures had caused widespread class suspensions.
A man recycles electronic waste from computer power supplies at a scrap yard in Ahmedabad, India
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 11, 2025
From Daikin to Samsung, companies fight Modi over e-waste policy
India wants to tackle its mounting e-waste problem. Global electronics companies say the cost is too high.
The Laguna Grande restoration project at Valle de Mexicali, Baja California state, Mexico
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Apr 10, 2025
Once-dying Mexican river delta slowly nursed back to life by conservationists
In drought-hit Mexico, conservationists are reviving the Colorado River Delta, restoring wetlands and drawing back wildlife once lost.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks during a campaign rally in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 10, 2025
Canada’s Mark Carney treads a fine line on climate in a tight election
In a nation whose energy sector is still dominated by oil and gas, the question is how much the new prime minister may need to play down his green resume in order to win.
Cargo ships are loaded with containers at the port of Bangkok on April 3.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 10, 2025
U.S. exits carbon talks on shipping and urges others to follow
A State Department spokesperson confirmed that Washington would not be "engaging in negotiations" at the U.N.'s International Maritime Organization.
Workers harvest grapes of Merlot in Contessa Entellina, southwest of Sicily, in 2024. Global temperatures hovered at historic highs in March, Europe's climate monitor said on Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Apr 8, 2025
Global temperatures at near-historic highs in March, says EU monitor
In Europe, it was the hottest March ever recorded by a significant margin, driving rainfall extremes across a continent warming faster than any other.
Demonstrators gather in support of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) outside the agency's main campus in Atlanta on March 28.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 8, 2025
Volunteers on 'right side of history' fight Trump data purge
The Trump administration has gutted several federal agencies, fired tens of thousands of employees and altered or deleted thousands of government webpages since taking office.
Wall Street banks, under political pressure and tempted by short-term gains, are abandoning climate commitments and pouring billions into fossil fuels, risking both environmental catastrophe and massive future economic losses.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 2025
Wall Street will regret helping the world burn
For an industry in the business of money, it sure has a funny way of ensuring its destruction. 
An artificial glacier built by local residents during the winter to conserve water for the summer at Pari village in the Kharmang district of Pakistan's mountainous Gilgit-Baltistan region are seen on March 18. At the foot of Pakistan's impossibly high mountains whitened by frost all year round, farmers grappling with a lack of water have created their own ice towers. The ice forms in the shape of cones that resemble Buddhist stupas, and act as a storage system — steadily melting throughout spring, when temperatures rise.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Apr 6, 2025
Artificial glaciers boost water supply in northern Pakistan
Warmer winters as a result of climate change has reduced the snowfall and subsequent seasonal snowmelt that feeds the valleys of Gilgit-Baltistan.
A new study questioning human-induced global warming — which claims to be entirely written by Elon Musk's Grok 3 AI — has gained traction online.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 4, 2025
Experts warn 'AI-written' paper is latest spin on climate change denial
The surge of AI in research, despite potential benefits, risks triggering an illusion of objectivity and insight in scientific research, they warn.
Japan must correct Trump’s false data for trade talks, says Kono
Former Foreign Minister Taro Kono
Japan wants to 'separate' tariff and security issues. That may be tough.
Japan’s chief tariff negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, poses with a "Make America Great Again" cap at the White House in Washington on April 16.
Social media helps fuel growing 'sex tourism' in Japan
People walk down a street in the red-light entertainment area of Kabukicho in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo on March 31.
Nintendo says demand for Switch 2 console in Japan is overwhelming
An attendee plays with the Nintendo Switch 2 gaming device at a media event in Tokyo on April 3.
Top Japanese firms scrap employment system that held women back
MUFG Bank, a unit of the nation’s biggest banking group, is among firms that recently scrapped a clerical job category that consisted almost exclusively of women, a sign that the financial sector is finally getting more serious about reducing gender inequalities.
Japan weighs using U.S. rice imports as tariff negotiation tool with Trump
A restaurant owner pours California-grown Calrose rice into a rice cooker at his restaurant in Tokyo
Is Japan’s parliament ready to welcome more youth to its ranks?
Lower House lawmaker Kai Odake in his Tokyo office on Wednesday
Crow meat, goat tartare: Mauvaise Herbe raises its game
Crow meat, shaped into a ball and attached to a foot of the bird, is one of the peculiar offerings of game at Mauvaise Herbe.
Cases of epidural use in labor rise in Japan alongside concerns
Of the 721,000 childbirths reported in 2024 in Japan, 13.8% involved the use of an epidural, according to the Japan Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Nothing sells like Shohei Ohtani, MLB’s marketing megastar
People walk past an advertisement featuring Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani outside Tokyo Dome on March 18.

Podcast

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

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.
By Tomoko Otake

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