Search - environment

 
 
JAPAN
Aug 19, 1997

Coalition parties want strong environment ministry

As discussions on administrative reform continue within a government council, the Social Democratic Party and New Party Sakigake agreed Aug. 19 to call for creation of an environment ministry with stronger power to administer environmental issues such as waste, chemical pollution and global environmental...
JAPAN
Jun 27, 1997

Japan-Nordic summit ends with focus on environment, welfare

BERGEN, Norway -- The leaders of Japan and the Nordic countries ended their first-ever summit June 26 with a call to work together on the environment and share expertise on social welfare programs.
JAPAN
Jun 5, 1997

Japan to go to bat for environment at G-7 summit

Japan is ready to step to the plate at the upcoming G-7 meeting in Denver as the environment's cleanup hitter. Then again, it might not even take its bat off its shoulder.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 1997

Energy-environment turf war flares

Japan, the only industrialized nation without an environmental assessment law, is finally moving toward creating one, but an ongoing tug of war between the Environment Agency and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry is casting a shadow over such prospects.The dispute centers on whether power...
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 10, 2023

Pressure grows for world's militaries to report and reduce greenhouse emissions

As temperatures hit new highs, scientists and environmental groups are stepping up efforts to end a long-standing exemption that has kept some military climate pollution off the books.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 20, 2023

Out of Nile, into tile: Young Egyptians battle plastic plague

Entrepreneurial young Egyptians are helping combat their country's huge plastic waste problem by recycling garbage that usually ends up in landfills or the Nile.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 11, 2023

Turning a snowless ski resort into a national park is complicated

A dispute in Spain has become an example of the tensions that arise when efforts to restore nature clash with economic interests and even long-standing traditions.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 10, 2023

Restoration of the ozone layer is back on track, scientists say

In a report for the United Nations, scientists said Monday that China had largely eliminated rogue emissions of an ozone destroying chemical known as CFC-11.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jan 9, 2023

How researchers in disaster-prone Japan and the Pacific are rethinking city design

In the years following the 2011 megaquake and tsunami, seawalls have proliferated along northeastern Japan's Pacific coast. Some researchers are pushing for an alternative approach.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 23, 2022

Stories centered on climate change slowly make inroads in massive gaming industry

Activists and governments are hoping they can encourage behavioral change among gamers through green nudges, where points are awarded for protecting the environment in consumer games
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2022

Java without java? The crisis brewing in coffee

The Indonesian island is a byword for caffeine. The woes piling up for the coffee industry are on full display.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 23, 2022

Anchovies and sardines are a climate solution in a can

Tinned fish are among the lowest-carbon animal protein available, with potential to curb the world's enormous emissions from food.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 20, 2022

Nearly every country signs on to a sweeping deal to protect nature

The agreement comes as biodiversity is declining worldwide at rates never seen before in human history.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 6, 2022

U.N. says new biodiversity credits can succeed where carbon offsets failed

Studies on biodiversity offsetting programs in Canada, Australia and at a global level have found very few achieve their targets and most are unsuccessful.
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Nov 30, 2022

Restoring nature could depend on how countries help farmers

Around the world, government subsidies that harm nature amount to at least $1.8 trillion each year — equivalent to 2% of global GDP.
Journalists tour the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and the tanks that contain contaminated water on Aug. 27
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 6, 2023

We need to put low-dose radiation into perspective

Public fear of the effects of low-dose radiation isn’t backed by science. The Fukushima water release shows, once again, that better education is needed.
A health ministry worker fumigates a house to kill mosquitoes and curb the spread of dengue, chikungunya and Zika in Managua, Nicaragua.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Sep 13, 2023

What's in a mosquito bite? How warmer climates spread disease

Abundant water helps mosquitoes to breed, while more drought constrict the migratory birds' ecosystems, enabling some diseases to spread.
Women with portable electric fans in the Yurakucho district of Tokyo on Sept. 12. In Japan, Cool Biz became especially popular with women, who tended to wear lighter clothes and often complained about the cold temperatures needed to make business suits comfortable for their male colleagues.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 24, 2023

Where did all the dark-suited Japanese businessmen go?

Under Cool Biz, salarymen and government workers don short-sleeved shirts in the summer as offices are kept above 28 degrees Celsius to save energy.
The Iriomote cat, native to the island of the same name in Okinawa Prefecture, is remarkable for its resilience: It occupies the smallest habitat of any wildcat on Earth.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife / OUR PLANET
Oct 15, 2023

The last of Japan's wildcats

Only about 100 animals of each species survive today, putting both on the brink of extinction along with more than 3,700 other species nationwide.
A bear waits for passing cars that might provide food, on a road in Covasna, Romania.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Oct 23, 2023

Keep or cull? Romania divided over its bear population

In Romania, bear attacks are on the rise as the creatures venture out looking for food, often brought by tourists or left in unsecured garbage cans.
Construction works at the site of the proposed Amazon regional headquarters development beyond the Liesbeek River in Cape Town, South Africa
WORLD / Society
Oct 23, 2023

How one river highlights South Africa's land inequality

The river has become emblematic of the myriad of sometimes conflicting land disputes in a country struggling to right the wrongs of the past.
Thon Soukhon, who has been a ranger in Virachey since the forest became one of Cambodia’s first national parks in 1993, holds a rope as he crosses a rain-swollen river within the protected area.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Oct 29, 2023

In the name of sustainability, Cambodia risks its ‘final frontier’ of biodiversity

Virachey National Park is a rare untouched wilderness in Southeast Asia, but potential hydropower plans threaten its future.
The most relevant measure to gauge plastic bag use isn’t how many carriers get used, but how much material is consumed and how much pollution is produced in their making.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 25, 2024

Plastic bag bans have failed in every way except one

Reusable plastic bags need to be used 52 times before its environmental impact drops below that of a disposable one, according to a 2018 Danish study.
A hiker walks toward Asahidake in Hokkaido. The health and environmental issues around PFAS could be a particular problem for Japan, which boasts a number of globally renowned outdoor brands and related suppliers.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
Mar 10, 2024

Japan’s revered outdoor brands face down PFAS challenge

Outdoor apparel consumers are generally more environmentally conscious, but are likely to be using products that have a big environmental footprint.
Black bears have been added to the list of "designated wildlife species for control" by the Environment Ministry.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 2024

Japan adds black and brown bears to subsidized hunting list

The government is stepping up the control measures as bear attacks on humans hit a record high in fiscal 2023 that ended in March.
A rickshaw driver drinks water as he rests during ongoing heat-wave in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 1, 2024

Islamic charitable giving may offer Bangladesh a route to climate adaptation

Global faith-based finance could support poor countries whose needs for funds are 10 to 18 times greater than the financing they currently receive.
Ecuador has sought funding to fight the effects of climate change, including a June 2023 flood that followed heavy rains in Esmeraldas. So far, the developed world has offered the debt-strapped nation more loans than grants.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 23, 2024

Rich nations reap climate finance dividend, benefiting from rates and terms

Developed nations have pledged to send $100 billion a year to poorer countries to aid adaptation, but money from the deals is being funneled back into rich economies.
Flaring at the Cameron LNG export terminal in Hackberry, Louisiana. Flaring, a common sight at LNG plants, is a controlled burning of gas for reasons ranging from depressurizing equipment to disposing of gas that can’t be used. The practice is a "waste of money" and negatively impacts climate change and human health, says the International Energy Agency.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET
Aug 11, 2024

Japan fuels U.S. LNG boom even as climate targets and impacts loom

For over half a century, Japan has been a sizable buyer of LNG, and its government, banks and energy companies have played a key role in continued investment.
The Tomakomai carbon, capture and storage test site in Tomakomai, Hokkaido, in March 2018. The true benefits of carbon removal won’t be realized until we get close to net zero emissions.
COMMENTARY
Oct 10, 2024

Geoengineering can save the planet — if we demystify it

The percentage of Americans who say they trust scientists on the environment has declined to 67% this year from 75% in 2020.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?