Tag - climate-change

 
 

CLIMATE CHANGE

A worker shovels soil next to irrigation channels and recently planted shoots of Xinjiang poplar at the Yangguan state-backed forest farm, on the edge of the Gobi desert on the outskirts of Dunhuang, China's Gansu province, in 2021.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 23, 2024
China's food security dream faces land, soil and water woes
With limited land and water, China will have to sharply increase farming productivity.
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.
Lee Dong-hyun and her son, 19-month-old Choi Hee-woo, pose at a playground on May 17, ahead of the final public hearing at the Constitutional Court on Tuesday of a climate lawsuit against the South Korean government, for which Hee-woo is the youngest plaintiff.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
May 22, 2024
Embryo activist: Baby's lawsuit takes on South Korea climate inaction
South Korea is the G20's second-highest carbon emitter per capita.
A drone view of fire and smoke from burning vegetation rising in a rainforest in Canta, state of Roraima, Brazil, on Feb. 29.
ENVIRONMENT
May 21, 2024
Brazil's Amazon fires off to record 2024 start as green union blames firefighting budget cut
A record drought, brought on by the El Nino climate phenomenon and global warming, is thought to be behind the fires.
While not the most outspoken politician on the issue, digital minister Taro Kono has a track record of being serious in his commitment to addressing the climate crisis.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
May 19, 2024
The politicians moving Japan forward on climate
In the halls of power, climate-friendly voices may be few and far between, but some in politics are pushing for more aggressive action on decarbonization.
U.S. President Joe Biden signs orders that increase tariffs on China during an event at the White House on Tuesday. The escalating trade tensions risk slowing the transition to green technologies by boosting production costs.
EDITORIALS
May 17, 2024
Looming U.S.-China 'trade war' bodes ill for green tech
China has denounced the new U.S. tariffs as bullying and warned of potential retaliation, arguing that they could harm global green economic transition efforts.
A slogan reads "Accelerate Industrial Transformation With AI" at the Microsoft booth at the Hannover Messe 2024 trade fair in Hannover, Germany, on April 22.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 16, 2024
Microsoft’s AI push imperils climate goal as carbon emissions jump
The company’s total planet-warming impact is about 30% higher today than it was in 2020.
Vendors protect themselves from the scorching heat and sun by using big shades and umbrellas in the Kalighat Temple area of Kolkata, India. The city is facing multiple extreme heat days this summer and citizens are trying to find ways to cope with the weather.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 16, 2024
Heat waves are testing India's ability to protect 1.4 billion people
Attempts to improve resilience to extreme heat have often been ill-conceived.
The year 2023 was the hottest in recorded history. The next warmest 25 have all occurred since 1996.
COMMENTARY / World
May 16, 2024
It’s officially hotter than anytime since the birth of Jesus
Tree rings hold records that can go back thousands of years, giving us the perspective we need to understand what’s happening today.
Projections consistently show that low-lying Bangkok risks being inundated by the ocean before the end of the century.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
May 16, 2024
Climate change could force Thailand to relocate its capital, official warns
Projections consistently show that low-lying Bangkok risks being inundated by the ocean before the end of the century.
A man uses a sheet of cardboard to shade from the sun during high temperatures in Bangkok on April 28. Thailand has been bracing for hotter-than-normal days due to the El Nino weather pattern that’s forecast to last until June.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 15, 2024
Asia’s killer April heat wave was made much worse by climate change
In countries such as Palestine and Israel, climate change made the heat wave five times more likely than it would have been in pre-industrial times.
An image provided by I.J. Glasspool shows a microscopic view of 200-million-year-old charcoal from Greenland. By digging into the geologic record, scientists are learning how wildfires shaped — and were shaped by — climate change long ago.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 14, 2024
From ancient charcoal, hints of wildfires to come
For more than 90% of the Earth's history, the planet’s atmosphere and continents lacked the oxygen and kindling required to sustain a flame.
Penny Sackett, a former director of the Australian National University’s Mount Stromlo Observatory, in the remains of the observatory, which was destroyed by a wildfire in 2003, just outside Canberra on May 6.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 14, 2024
Alarmed by climate change, astronomers train their sights on Earth
Seeing how climate change has impacted the earth, many astronomers have left science to become full-time activists.
A drone view shows a flooded street in downtown Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, on Monday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 14, 2024
Persistent Brazil floods raise specter of climate migration
The mayor of one town in southern Brazil said his office is planning to rebuild 40% of it elsewhere after the area flooded yet again.
J-Power's Takasago thermal power plant in Takasago, Hyogo Prefecture in 2022
BUSINESS / Companies
May 10, 2024
J-Power may close up to five coal power plants by fiscal 2030
The company's objective is to slash emissions by 46% from 2013 levels by 2030.
Rice is responsible for about 10% of global methane emissions, due to the way it’s grown.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
May 9, 2024
Rice has a methane problem that a startup is promising to fix
Rice is responsible for about 10% of global methane emissions, due to the way it’s grown.
A woman walks past air-conditioning units on a building in Seoul on April 30.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 8, 2024
World extends temperature streak to 11 months with hottest April ever
Including April, the world's average temperature was the highest on record for a 12-month period — 1.61 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial period.
A screencap of a performance of Hiroto Nagai's “String Quartet No. 1 ‘Polar Energy Budget’” by the PRT Quartet
CULTURE / Music / OUR PLANET
May 7, 2024
How a Japanese scientist is turning the climate crisis into music
Hiroto Nagai has sonified polar climate data, resulting in a string quartet piece that he thinks can get people to care more about what the data expresses.
A picture of the forest fire on Mt. Akiha near the city of Nanyo in Yamagata Prefecture, uploaded on social media platform X by the Nanyo municipal government on Saturday. Efforts to extinguish the flames continued for a third day on Monday.
JAPAN / Society
May 6, 2024
Efforts to extinguish forest fire in Yamagata continue
The fire, which began Saturday, has spread over 135 hectares, resulting in the closure of several roads and an evacuation order for two districts.
The widespread adoption of renewable energy sources and implementation of energy efficiency are key to reducing emissions and, in turn, fueling economic growth.
COMMENTARY / World
May 2, 2024
We need economic growth to avert a climate catastrophe
The degrowth movement doesn't offer solutions to tackle global warming. Not only are its proposals unrealistic, but they may not even be effective.

Longform

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