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July 27, 2024
 

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David Fickling
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 16, 2023
What a smoky U.S. can learn from past climate denialism in Australia
National disasters, such as the bush fires in Australia and now Canada and the U.S., can sway voters — but the shift is often only slight.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 31, 2023
Just how safe is Fukushima’s ‘contaminated’ water?
To build the clean energy sector the world needs, nuclear power advocates must sway public opinion their way. Just crashing through won’t cut it.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 19, 2023
Why natural disasters seem worse than our most dire predictions
It’s human nature to latch on to the most easily available snippets of information, particularly when it comes to understanding climate change.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 16, 2023
A torrid summer risks stalling Asia’s climate goals
Predictions of a season of heatwaves have sent coal stockpiles soaring. Eventually, all that carbon will be burned.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 4, 2023
OPEC+’s shock production cut is a capitulation to oil’s decline
Oil producers want more cash from the market. Choosing not to expand output is good for prices, but signals little confidence in demand.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2023
Peak emissions are just the start of the climate battle
Fossil-fuel pollution may be declining faster than anyone anticipated, but most of the world's carbon is locked up in places you'd least expect.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 14, 2023
We’re not even close to running out of green minerals
A U.S. Geological Survey suggests concerns over the securing of materials needed to shift to cleaner energy such as lithium, cobalt, copper and others may be overblown.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 25, 2022
Shipping’s oil era is coming to an end
It's a good start, but reducing shipping's carbon footprint it's not the holy grail of decarbonization. That would entail plugging the industry into the emerging hydrogen economy.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 5, 2022
Climate change costs are eating up the money needed to avert it
Rich countries need to meet their ODA commitments, which would more than double the money available to avert the effects of climate change.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 5, 2022
Peak oil has finally arrived. No, really.
With the U.S. Fed's willingness to send the U.S. economy into a recession to bring inflation back on target, oil production may soon enter terminal decline as a result.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 25, 2022
Pakistan could have averted its climate catastrophe
Decades of corruption and underinvestment have led to massive flooding in Pakistan. Only significant expenditure can avoid another disaster.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 24, 2022
The rich-poor divide on clean power is getting wider
Rich nations can green their own economies all they want. If they don't provide the funds to repeat the trick around the world, it will all be in vain.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 24, 2022
Climate won Australia's election. Wielding power will be harder.
Voters have identified their issue. Whether new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese can deliver is an open question.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2022
The global safety net against hunger is frailer than you think
Political upheaval can accelerate food insecurity, particularly when the system is based on shaky foundations.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 18, 2022
Obesity is stalking poor countries where hunger once reigned
Low-cost calories are at the heart of the next big health crisis — and we have no systems in place to deal with the fallout.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 6, 2022
India’s heatwaves are testing the limits of human survival
Each summer in India is a fresh roll of the dice on whether a freak event will occur that leads to a vast number of deaths.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 25, 2022
Only in America can gas prices be turned into a political time bomb
Other countries use tax cuts and subsidies to soften the impact of higher fuel costs on consumers. Congress should bite the bullet and do the same.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2022
Saudi Arabia’s oil-for-yuan bid won’t threaten the dollar
In an increasingly divided world, it makes sense to look for a good alternative to the greenback. Now is not that time.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 20, 2022
How China’s 'COVID zero' policy is giving a polish to gold
Gold has mostly traded sideways since the start of the year, and the usual negative correlation between higher U.S. Treasury yields and lower gold prices — and vice versa — has disappeared.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 9, 2022
America’s frackers are back, and they’re looking leaner
Oil production this month will rise to 8.54 million barrels a day — just 730,000 barrels below the record in November 2019.
Japan's population continues to fall even as foreign resident count rises
The number of residents in Tokyo as of Jan. 1 rose by 0.03% from a year before, data shows, marking a year-on-year increase for the first time in three years, while the country's other 46 prefectures saw their populations continue to decline.
Ahead of the Olympics, Japan is still talking about the gymnast who won't be there
Japan's Shoko Miyata withdrew from the gymnastics team herself over her drinking and smoking, although it had already appeared as though the association was prepared to send her home from the team’s training camp in Monaco.
Japan’s minimum wage set for record ¥50 hike in major boost
Demonstrators rally to demand a big hike in minimum wages in Tokyo last week.
One dead, three missing as heavy rain batters Tohoku
Camera footage shows the Mogami River bursting its banks in Tozawa, Yamagata Prefecture, on Friday morning.
Brazil issues apology for persecuting Japan immigrants during WWII
Enea Almeida (right), chair of the Brazilian amnesty commission, shakes hands with the representative for Japanese immigrants on Thursday in Brasilia.
When did summer in Japan stop being fun?
Summer in Japan is now consistently brutal enough to drive you indoors and keep you there until autumn.
Japan’s minimum wage set for record ¥50 hike in major boost
Demonstrators rally to demand a big hike in minimum wages in Tokyo last week.
Japan loses top spot on strongest passport list to Singapore
Japan had the strongest passport for six years running from 2018, before being dethroned by Singapore on the 2024 list.
Why Japan's mysterious stash of classified funds escapes scrutiny
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi (right) during a meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Japan eyes gold — and the future — as Olympic men's soccer campaign begins
Japan midfielder Yu Hirakawa controls the ball during a match against the United States in Kansas City, Kansas, on June 11.

Podcast

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

Longform

Traditional folk rituals like Mizudome-no-mai (dance to stop the rain) provide a sense of agency to a population that feels largely powerless in the face of the climate crisis.
As climate extremes intensify, Japan embraces ancient weather rituals
By Alex K.T. Martin

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mission sustainability vol.8: Omron Corp.Omron helping firms achieve carbon neutrality

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