Tag - environment

 
 

ENVIRONMENT

A hydrogen storage tank and loading system at a liquefied hydrogen receiving terminal in Kobe
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 27, 2023
U.K. concerned about Japan’s co-firing plans to curb emissions
The move 'prolongs the life of coal plants and leads to emissions,' said the head of climate change and energy at the British Embassy in Tokyo.
A Satellite image shows the world's largest iceberg, named A23a, in Antarctica on Nov. 15.
WORLD / Science & Health
Nov 25, 2023
World's largest iceberg breaks free and heads toward Southern Ocean
At almost 4,000 square kilometers (1,500 square miles), the Antarctic iceberg called A23a is roughly three times the size of New York City.
COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber addresses delegates during the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi on Sept. 5.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 23, 2023
Sultan al-Jaber: the UAE oil boss steering COP28
Climate funding has caused divisions between developed countries held largely responsible for global warming and poorer countries most vulnerable to it.
Stacks of trays holding treated limestone, used to absorb CO2 from the air in Tracy, California.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 23, 2023
Why carbon capture is no easy solution to climate change
The technology — vital to the climate strategies of many world governments — is expensive, unproven at scale, and can be hard to sell to a nervous public.
Despite being a global leader in more costly offshore wind production, the number of new turbines going up in the English countryside has been at a virtual standstill for nearly a decade.
BUSINESS
Nov 22, 2023
Winds of change? The bid to revive England's onshore sector
The number of new turbines going up in the English countryside has been at a virtual standstill for nearly a decade.
A wind turbine and an electricity pylon in Finedon, Britain. Developers can no longer use financial modeling that assumes gas power plants are used constantly throughout their 20-year-plus lifetime, analysts said.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 21, 2023
Giant batteries drain economics of gas power plants
Batteries that ensure stable power supply are becoming cheap enough to make developers abandon scores of projects for gas-fired generation worldwide.
Visitors stroll through a tunnel of autumn maple leaves at Mount Koya in Wakayama Prefecture on Nov. 4.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Nov 19, 2023
Fall is the new summer: Warming threatens Japan’s cultural calendar
Climate change is disrupting Japan’s autumn and seasonal experiences, and with it the rhythm of people’s lives.
Petroleum pipelines and fuel storage tanks at a refinery near Manama, Bahrain, in 2017
ENVIRONMENT
Nov 18, 2023
To meet climate goals, Gulf countries will have to overhaul everything
The growing oil-rich region faces myriad challenges as the world pushes to decarbonize.
Overflowing trash next to a vending machine in the Asakusa district of Tokyo, which is popular with tourists, in March
JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 18, 2023
Trash cans make techie comeback in Japan as tourists flood cities
This week, the tourist-heavy Dotonbori district in Osaka installed around 20 new technologically enabled garbage cans called SmaGO.
A study using a late 20th century baseline determined that glaciers in south Greenland shrank in length by 18% on average, while glaciers in other parts of Greenland retreated by up to 10%.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 17, 2023
Greenland’s glaciers are shrinking at ‘unprecedented’ rate as Earth warms
Over 1,000 peripheral glaciers and ice caps are disappearing twice as fast as they did during the 20th century.
An offshore wind turbine, operated by Swancor Holding stands in the Taiwan Strait off the coast of Miaoli County, Taiwan, in 2018.
BUSINESS
Nov 17, 2023
Japan firms exit Taiwan offshore wind projects amid industry woes
Shikoku Electric Power decided to pull out of the Yunlin Offshore Wind Project in the Taiwan Strait due to delays threatening its profitability.
Bears doing yoga? If you’re in the city, why not?
PODCAST / deep dive
Nov 16, 2023
Bear goes the neighborhood? Japanese wildlife is on the move.
This week, Alex K.T. Martin joins us to discuss why people are encountering bears, boars and other wildlife in the most unlikely of places.
Port Plus is a training and education facility in Yokohama built by and for general contractor Obayashi, a storied Japanese builder that traces its roots back to 1892.
BUSINESS
Nov 16, 2023
Wooden high-rise in Yokohama grows Japan’s timber ambitions
Port Plus, which was finished last year, is composed mainly of 540 wooden rigid cross-joints.
Armando Aroca, environmentalist, former guerrilla and current nursery manager of the Common Community Multi Active Cooperative (COMUCCOM) farm, points to a mural with the image of murdered environmentalist Jorge Santofimio in Puerto Guzman, Colombia, on June 27.
ENVIRONMENT
Nov 16, 2023
How the murders of activists hurt Colombian ecological preservation
Conservationists are targeted as their work poses a threat to illegal activities
A street thermometer marks 40 degrees Celsius in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 15, 2023
Heat projected to kill nearly five times more people by 2050
A team of international experts warned that without climate change action, the "health of humanity is at grave risk."
Slum dwellers shout slogans as they carry empty containers during a protest over water scarcity in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh in 2009.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Nov 13, 2023
South Asia worst in world for water scarcity, says U.N.
"Climate change is disrupting weather patterns and rainfall, leading to unpredictable water availability," the U.N. said in a report.
Wind turbines along the crest of a hill at the Martin de la Jara wind farm, operated by Iberdrola SA, in the Martin de la Jara district of Sevilla, Spain, in April 2023
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Nov 13, 2023
U.S. and EU lead push for COP28 to back tripling of renewables
More than 60 countries are said to be backing the targets to be included in the outcome of the U.N.’s forthcoming COP28 talks in Dubai.
According to new analysis, 99% of the world’s population experienced above-average warmth in the past 12 months, making the period the hottest 12 months on record.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 10, 2023
‘No one is safe from climate change’ after hottest 12 months
Average temperatures between the start of November 2022 through October this year were 1.32 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Staff at the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon 2023 collect used paper cups after the event on Oct. 15.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 9, 2023
Japanese paper-makers pioneer domestic recycling of paper cups
Until now paper cups have typically been discarded as flammable waste, but are made from high quality pulp that can be reused.
Pedestrians and shoppers walk past a branch of fashion retailer H&M in central Stockholm on July 17.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 9, 2023
Sustainable cloth-maker Renewcell struggling amid slow adoption
Stock in Renewcell lost over 80% of its value in the last month and the firm has reported an operating loss of $17 million in nine months.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji