Tag - smog

 
 

SMOG

A commuter walks along an overpass in Jakarta.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Mar 20, 2024
Only 10 countries had healthy air quality in 2023, report finds
Sources of PM2.5 pollution vary widely, but the overwhelming cause is the burning of fossil fuels.
A housing development next to the Sasol’s petrochemicals plant in Sasolburg, South Africa.
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 2, 2024
What it's like to live in the most polluted place on Earth
Coal and steel plants offer steady work for residents in South Africa's Vaal Triangle, yet they’re also pumping out harmful emissions.
Traffic along a highway amid heavy smog and pollution in New Delhi in November
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Dec 7, 2023
As China enjoys cleaner air, India's pollution struggle continues
Huge swaths of northern India choke on clouds of polluted air during winter as temperatures drop, winds disappear and farmers set fields ablaze.
A mother assists her child to breathe with the help of a nebuliser at the emergency ward of the government-run Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya children hospital in New Delhi on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Nov 10, 2023
'Like breathing poison': Delhi children hardest hit by smog
"Imagine telling a parent not to let their child go out and play in this toxic environment."
Asep Muizudin Muhamad Darmini was recently discharged from a hospital in Jakarta after being treated for a respiratory illness caused by the city's air pollution.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Sep 13, 2023
Breathless Indonesians irate over pollution crisis in Jakarta
Air pollution is hardly a new phenomenon in the city, but monitors and activists say the effects have been even worse than usual this year.
People sit on a rail track as smoke rises from steel mills near a slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Aug 30, 2023
Air pollution now a risk to life expectancy in South Asia: study
Rapid industrialization and population growth have contributed to declining air quality in South Asia.
Flames reach upward along the edge of a wildfire near Mistissini, Quebec, in June.
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 23, 2023
As wildfires multiply, a new era of air pollution
The average American had already been exposed to 450 micrograms of smoke per cubic meter by early July, worse than from 2006-2022.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 9, 2023
How wildfire smoke impacts human health
Wildfire exposure is bad for the human body no matter how healthy a person is or how long they’re exposed to it.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 9, 2023
Wildfire smoke increases the risk of contracting COVID-19
Millions of people in Canada and the U.S. are currently at an elevated risk of catching COVID-19, thanks to the smoke from hundreds of wildfires.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 8, 2023
Smoke from Canadian wildfires blankets New York
The U.S. National Weather Service issued air quality alerts for a large part of the eastern U.S. as fires threaten critical infrastructure in Quebec.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 31, 2023
Thai forest fires worsen pollution that’s left 2 million ill
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has ordered urgent steps to put out forest fires in Nakhon Nayok province to the east of Bangkok and those in the country’s northern region.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 23, 2022
Beijing is fixing its foul air. Why can’t New Delhi?
The return of smog season in India's capital has again left residents asking why nothing has changed. The answer may be largely political.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 26, 2020
New Delhi's poisonous air a perennial crisis of its own making
Thousands of families who live near a smouldering waste landfill in a northern corner of India's capital have boarded up their doors and windows because they say the air outside is so toxic that they would be coughing all day.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Jul 9, 2020
Smog caused an estimated 49,000 deaths in Beijing and Shanghai since Jan. 1
Air pollution has caused an estimated 49,000 deaths and $23 billion in economic losses in the cities of Beijing and Shanghai alone since Jan. 1, according to a "clean air counter" launched by environmental groups on Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Jul 4, 2020
Japan Times 1920: Cholera comes to the capital
Although cholera made its appearance in South-Western Japan some time ago, Tokyo has been so far free of the epidemic.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 18, 2020
China sees post-lockdown rise in air pollution
Some air pollutants in China have risen back to above last year's levels after dropping when the government imposed strict lockdown measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic, according to a study published Monday.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 3, 2020
Armed with good data, engineers wage quiet battle for cleaner air
As countries try to slash air pollution and step up action on climate change, many are looking at a key culprit: tailpipes.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 30, 2020
Coronavirus lockdowns give Europe's cities cleaner air
Air pollution has decreased in urban areas across Europe during lockdowns to combat the coronavirus, new satellite images showed on Monday, but campaigners warned city-dwellers were still more vulnerable to the epidemic.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Mar 2, 2020
Air pollution vanishes across China's industrial heartland amid virus lockdown
China's lockdown measures to minimize further coronavirus infections have created one unexpected benefit — a dramatic improvement to the nation's air quality.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 9, 2020
Italy slaps curbs on cars as pollution chokes cities
More than a dozen cities and towns across Italy introduced traffic curbs on Wednesday in a bid to cut harmful emissions following a spike in pollution.

Longform

High-end tourism is becoming more about the kinds of experiences that Japan's lesser-known places can provide.
Can Japan lure the jet-set class off the beaten path?