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David Fickling
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 Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 7, 2022
China can have cheap coal or common prosperity. Not both.
Operating 24 hours a day, the only way coal mines can increase output in a hurry is to skimp on maintenance, making for a dangerous situation.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2021
A gas pipeline won’t turn Russia and China into buddies
The Power of Siberia 2 pipeline is presented as something akin to a marriage proposal between Russian and China, bringing two leading authoritarian states closer together.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 15, 2021
Forget the words of this COP26 deal. Follow the money.
The costs of subsidizing fossil fuels go up with each passing year, making it harder to abandon them even as their damage accumulates.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 27, 2021
Why 25 previous conferences have failed to stop climate change
Climate talks are at a disadvantage from the start as their intent is stunningly broad: remaking the energy systems that have powered the planet since the Industrial Revolution.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 18, 2021
China’s power crisis will affect industries worldwide
The world has become hooked on cheap Chinese power for making a host of its goods. About half of all metal is produced in China and nearly a fifth of all oil is refined there.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 8, 2021
Pandora Papers show the rich will always find a way
For all the revelations about the shadow global financial system for the wealthy since the ICIJ's first revelations in 2013, it's striking how little has changed.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 19, 2021
Starvation is as much a threat to Afghan women as the Taliban
In an aid-dependent economy already in deep trouble, the removal of tens of thousands female workers, many supporting large families, will only add to those facing hunger.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 2, 2021
COVID-19 vaccines may become a viable business. That’s a problem.
Inoculations have been distributed to almost every person on the planet. But, traditionally, they been unprofitable for the pharmaceutical industry.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 23, 2021
What 16th-century Venice teaches us about crypto
If Bitcoin and its ilk are to survive, they will need to find a way to betray their libertarian roots and cut their own deals with the state.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 2021
Indonesia can’t afford the luxury of Australia’s carbon habit
A business based on mining, hauling and burning heavy rocks to spit out electrons struggles to survive everywhere that fuel-free renewables manage to take root.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 9, 2021
Climate targets must 'be realistic and demand the impossible'
About a third of all human greenhouse emissions in history have happened since 1997, when world leaders adopted the Kyoto Protocol with an ambition of limiting such pollution.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 26, 2021
The pandemic will be more deadly this year — particularly for India
The more people infected in emerging countries, the more opportunities COVID-19 will have to develop into fresh strains and prolong this death and misery.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 21, 2021
Florida toxic waste crisis could be key to China rare earths fight
Concerns about China's control over rare earths are probably overblown given how abundant they are.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 2021
COVID-19 isn’t over, and the next wave may be worse
While we're increasingly talking about the coronavirus in the past tense, the worst may still be ahead of us. Infections worldwide rose 47% during March from a lull in late February.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 21, 2021
Gas won’t save a nation that can’t fill up its tank
Despite its world-beating exports of coal and liquefied natural gas, Australia is seriously short of oil.

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