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April 30, 2024
 

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OUR PLANET EARTH

ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 27, 2001
Counting down to environmental doom
An English friend, teasing, once asked whether Americans have a sense of irony. We certainly do, I replied, though perhaps less so than the English who, for generations, never saw the sun set and now live in darkness much of the year.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 13, 2001
Shaping up the economy: more parks, fewer highways
One of the joys of visiting the United States is having a chance to check out the alternative press. This summer, while in Vermont (which some say is a state, and some a state of mind), I picked up a free copy of "Green Living: A Practical Journal for Friends of the Environment."
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 23, 2001
Poachers, politics threaten Japan's Eden
"It is a pocket of the earth that has been protected, but it will not be like this much longer if we don't do something. It's a shame, because we have it in our grasp now."
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 9, 2001
Injunction process hopeless; fate of Bullfrog Pond sealed
The fate of Bullfrog Pond now rests in the hands of a Tokyo District Court judge, but the wheels of justice turn slowly in Japan. The court has yet to grant a crucial injunction, and hearings have dragged into their third month. Meantime, the pond in Tokyo's Minato Ward, known as Gama-ike, is being destroyed.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 26, 2001
Environmentalist on the stump
Despite the sky-high popularity of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, suspicion remains that his Liberal Democratic Party has simply cloaked its wolfish heart in a soft perm. Many environmentalists fear that after Sunday's election the LDP will step up efforts to stimulate the economy by undertaking the same kinds of public works projects that have for decades ravaged Japan's natural environment.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 12, 2001
Tokai nuke incident still shows afterglow
Hisashi Ouchi died Dec. 21, 1999, less than three months after he and two colleagues set off a criticality accident at JCO Co. in the village of Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture. Masato Shinohara died seven months later, also a victim of lethal radiation exposure. The third employee, Yutaka Yokokawa, was hospitalized for several months then released. He has not yet fully recovered.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jun 28, 2001
George W. stepping on toes to dance with special interests
U.S. President George W. Bush is not the beau of the ball among scientists these days. "On both missile defense and the greenhouse effect," Dr. Hugh Gusterson of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology tells the New York Times, there is "substantial [scientific] consensus against the White House."
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jun 14, 2001
When a little profit exacts a high price
Public-works projects, such as the bungled reclamation of Isahaya Bay in Kyushu and Tokyo's ill-conceived Ken'odo ring road, exemplify the bureaucratic myopia that is razing Japan's natural heritage. But the destruction is not always on a grand scale, nor solely the handiwork of public servants. Private developers, too, are plowing over, filling in and building on natural treasures of all kinds.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
May 24, 2001
Highway interchange to obliterate historic sites
Look southwest from the top of Mount Takao on clear winter mornings. Mount Fuji soars above its surroundings, white and massive in the royal blue sky. Except for a few pylons in the distance, the view is timeless.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
May 10, 2001
Long-protected holy mountain to be gutted by highway project
Japan's Environment Minister, Yoriko Kawaguchi, recently told Mick Corliss of The Japan Times that she would like to incorporate an "environmental perspective" into public-works projects. If she is serious, there could be no better place to begin than Mount Takao.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Apr 26, 2001
New land law still ignores public voice
Owning property in Japan is a constitutional right, but it has its limits. The government can take private property for uses that advance the public welfare.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Apr 12, 2001
From ridiculous to sublime: the arguments of a fossil fool
Last month, the White House announced that U.S. President George W. Bush would not support the Kyoto Protocol because it "is not in the United States' economic best interests." The protocol is aimed at reducing human emissions of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, that contribute to global warming and climate change. Governments, corporations and individuals worldwide reacted quickly to the news, most criticizing Bush's shortsightedness.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Mar 26, 2001
Bush ignores experts on climate change
The rubber has met the road and we now know that U.S. President George W. Bush is driving under the influence, his judgment impaired by fossil fuel lobbyists.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Mar 11, 2001
Japanese neighbors join in incinerator struggle
Two previous columns have focused on a United States government lawsuit seeking a provisional injunction against a private incinerator in Ayase City, Kanagawa Prefecture. The Americans, however, are not the only ones eager to shut down the facility. Other neighbors, too, are fired up about Envirotech and its owner, Tetsuro Murata.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 26, 2001
Incineration as usual in Kanagawa, despite suit
If the video were not so alarming, it would be humorous: Chaplinesque workers scurry to and fro while a claw-loader swivels and bends in every direction, making piles of waste disappear, covering others with paper and cardboard, and using a mattress clenched in its claw to sweep its work area clean.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 12, 2001
U.S. sues Atsugi incinerator operator
A landmark pollution case now before the Yokohama District Court is exposing the dirty underbelly of incineration practices in Japan, and highlighting what some would call the willingness of officials to turn a blind eye to dangerous waste burning.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jan 22, 2001
Hydrogen future: Iceland's quest for a clean, green energy legacy
The future is wherever people are "thinking outside the box," seeking atypical solutions to problems of the status quo.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jan 8, 2001
Zero emissions: route to sustainability for a clean revolution in the 21st century
The age of zero emissions is dawning, and Japan could one day lead a global clean revolution. The next decade should tell whether this nation will lead, or will consign itself to industrial mediocrity by adhering to the status quo.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Dec 25, 2000
World fisheries collapsing as technology and demand soar
As this is the season of giving, here is a gift, a riddle:
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Dec 10, 2000
Japan's new goodwill ambassador to the UNEP
Tokiko Kato Tokiko Kato is every bit as energetic and candid in person as she appears on stage. Best known as a singer and musician, Kato is also a poet and painter, and serves on the board of the World Wide Fund for Nature Japan. Though her schedule is hectic, it is by choice, and she has energy to spare. This autumn Kato became Japan's first "Special Envoy" to the United Nations Environment Program.
When will Japan intervene to support the yen?
Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki has reiterated the government's readiness to take an appropriate action as the yen continues to slide against the U.S. dollar.
'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.
Raising kids in Japan as a single parent? It takes a village.
Making things work as a foreign, single mother in Japan isn't easy, but these tips and tricks can help you through the hardest parts.
Yen rebounds strongly after first slide past ¥160 since 1990
The yen dropped to ¥160.245 per dollar on Monday before heading into the other direction to ¥155.01 amid speculation of an intervention by Japanese currency authorities.
JAL cancels international flight after captain gets drunk at Dallas hotel
A Japan Airlines' flight from Dallas to Tokyo was canceled last week after its captain got drunk at a local hotel.
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.
Casa del Cibo: A thriving jewel born from Tohoku’s harsh past
When chef Ryohei Ikemi moved to Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, and opened Casa del Cibo in 2011, it was the first proper Italian restaurant in the city.
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.

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