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Peter Singer
A Kamala Harris supporter listens as the Democratic presidential nominee concedes the 2024 U.S. presidential election to President-elect Donald Trump at Howard University in Washington on Nov 6. 2024.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 19, 2024
What progressives must learn from Trump’s campaign
Progressives face a dilemma: prioritize every cause they deem right or adopt centrist positions on less critical issues to win over key voters.
Existential risks like bioterrorism or climate change, created by humans, are not being treated by governments with anything like the seriousness or urgency they deserve.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 21, 2024
Will we survive the next 100 years?
Existential risks like bioterrorism or climate change, created by humans, are not being treated by governments with anything like the seriousness or urgency they deserve.
If Joe Biden doesn’t let another, better suited candidate run against Donald Trump, he will undo decades of public service.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 3, 2024
Will Joe Biden go and spoil it all?
Like former presidential candidate Ralph Nader before him, Biden shouldn't stand in the way of the Democrats winning the election and should let another candidate run.
At the New England Organ Bank in Massachusetts. A U.S. sex offender donated an organ in 2022 to help a sick child and redeem himself.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2024
Giving organs can save donors’ lives, too
A U.S. sex offender donated an organ to save a sick child, showing others like him that a path to redemption exists — and multiplying the good of his action.
A Cambridge research fellow's dismissal is sparking outcry amid a freedom of speech debate about the university's diversity, equality and inclusion policies.
COMMENTARY
May 7, 2024
Will Cambridge support free speech?
Cambridge research fellow's dismissal sparks outcry amid a freedom of speech debate at the university and its diversity, equality and inclusion policies.
 A cow is prepared for slaughter at a facility in Corbas, France.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2024
Does religious freedom trump animal welfare?
The European Court of Human Rights found that protecting the welfare of animals is part of the legitimate government objective of protecting public morals.
Since September 2022, Patagonia has allocated profits amounting to $71 million to environmental initiatives that include stopping a proposed mine in Alaska and conserving land in South America, as well as helping to elect pro-environment U.S. Democrats.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2024
The competitive edge of doing good in business
Are companies that give all profits to charity also doing good for their business? Some examples show they are, and that this model is worth pursuing.
International rules governing the ethical conduct of war prohibit the direct targeting of civilians but permit striking military targets, even when it is known that the strikes will kill some civilians.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 25, 2024
The killing of innocents in the Israel-Gaza conflict
Unmasking the true horrors in Hamas' raid into Southern Israel and the Israeli response in Gaza.
The question of when a person dies is a scientific and moral issue with far-reaching implications in the area of organ transplants, among others.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 16, 2023
When does science say we die?
Debates about when a human being dies are yet unresolved, with profound implications for the medical profession and areas such as organ transplants.
Palestinians in Gaza City evacuate after an Israeli airstrike on Oct 9.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 13, 2023
The spiral of violence that led to Hamas
If Palestinians are ever to regain the moral high ground, they must hope for the destruction of Hamas.
A self-driving Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle in San Francisco in 2017
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 17, 2023
With self-driving cars, it's the ethics we have to navigate
Do accidents involving self-driving cars today save lives tomorrow? When it comes to self-driving cars, the challenges aren't just technical, but ethical.
A harvesting combine burns after hitting an anti-tank mine in a wheat field near the village of Vilkhivka, in Ukraine's Kharkiv Region, in July 2022.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2023
Feed the people, not the factory farms
There can be no excuse for Russia, in pursuit of its war of aggression against Ukraine, to target that country’s grain exports.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 21, 2023
The coming disruption of animal food production is almost here
It will be easier to persuade people to avoid meat from animals if they can eat meat and other animal products that taste like those they know but do not require raising animals.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 18, 2023
Can we compare pain across species?
It is increasingly accepted among the general public and ethicists that preventing suffering is morally important regardless of the species of the individual who is suffering.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2023
Half a century of animal liberation is not enough
Because of the growth and further intensification of animal production, humans inflict more suffering on animals now than they did in 1975.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 26, 2023
Should we research geoengineering?
Combating climate change by intervening in planetary systems once had no support. That is no longer the case.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 15, 2023
Will the Catholic Church rethink contraception?
A break with a view of sex and procreation rooted in medieval ideas of natural law is long overdue for the Catholic Church.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 8, 2023
In defense of the art-targeting climate activists
The eco-activists targeting masterpieces can claim that civil disobedience is justified by the failure of our democracies to show sufficient concern about future generations.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 24, 2022
Free speech for whom?
Elon Musk may be a “free speech absolutist,” but Twitter's new owner may already be recognizing the need to distinguish between speech that appeals to reason or that which stirs up hatred.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 26, 2022
World can remain a bystander no more
A disturbing trend is becoming evident: Governments of affluent countries are giving less foreign aid to help the world's poor and hungry.

Longform

Yasuyuki Yoshida stirs a brew in a fermentation tank at his brewery in Hakusan.
The quake that shook Noto's sake brewing tradition