November 21, 2024

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

ENVIRONMENT

Earth science

Collapsed homes in the town of Noto, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 12. Ever since breaking off from the Eurasian continent 20 million years ago and opening the Sea of Japan, the archipelago has always been at the mercy of nature’s seismic whims, its landscape and ecology undergoing perpetual transfiguration.

ENVIRONMENT / Earth science / OUR PLANET

Feb 4, 2024

For Japan, earthquakes are an existential matter

By Alex K.T. Martin

The New Year's Day quake was a stark reminder of how Japan has been shaped by rumbling, grinding and often deadly convulsions and volcanic activity.

Cooling towers at a coal-fired power plant in Germany. While surface temperatures might stabilize quickly after reaching net-zero, other shifting parts of the climate are harder to slow once set in motion.

ENVIRONMENT / Earth science

Nov 17, 2023

Amid climate efforts, will net-zero emissions be enough?

By Sana Pashankar and Eric Roston

A new study suggests uncertainty about how climate systems will respond after emissions stabilize is an argument for reducing them as quickly as possible.

It’s hard to talk about space-based solar — that is, transmitting the energy — without conjuring images of a death ray. But the team at the California Institute of Technology says the power density of the beam would be comparable to the power density of sunlight.

ENVIRONMENT / Earth science

Oct 27, 2023

Beam solar energy from space? These scientists say yes

By David R Baker

The hurdles that have grounded space-based solar in the past aren’t merely technical, they’re also financial.

A report by the Climate Overshoot Commission said that potentially dangerous experimental geoengineering methods — including controversial "solar radiation modification" — need to be halted until they have been researched thoroughly.

ENVIRONMENT / Earth science

Sep 15, 2023

Risky geoengineering should be banned, climate group says

Cutting CO2 emissions is vital, but potentially dangerous geoengineering methods need to be halted until they have been researched thoroughly.

Many scientists say more research into volcanoes is vital to gauge how far eruptions can briefly affect the long-term trend of global warming, which is primarily driven by burning fossil fuels.

ENVIRONMENT / Earth science / ANALYSIS

Sep 15, 2023

Why is 2023 so hot? A rare Pacific volcano is among the suspects

By Alister Doyle

Greenhouse gas emissions are overwhelmingly to blame, scientists say, but water vapor from the Tonga eruption last year may have played a role too.

Commercial fishermen form the word "SOS" to spread the message about ocean acidification caused by fossil fuel emissions, in Homer, Alaska, in 2009. Ocean acidification is one of nine planetary boundaries that determine life on Earth.

ENVIRONMENT / Earth science

Sep 14, 2023

Humanity pushing Earth far beyond 'safe operating space': study

By Marlowe Hood

Six of nine planetary boundaries — within which the world is livable for most species, including our own — are already deep in the red zone.

Residents clean up debris in the aftermath of Typhoon Hagibis in Date, Fukushima Prefecture, in October 2019.

ENVIRONMENT / Earth science / OUR PLANET

Aug 20, 2023

A Japan research team dares to ask: Can typhoons be controlled?

By Daniel Traylor

Researchers in Yokohama are probing whether tropical cyclones can be weakened or diverted, with energy they produce also tapped to generate power.

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.

A boom for business tourism in Japan?

By Kathryn Wortley

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’

Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports