Tag - environment

 
 

ENVIRONMENT

A structure burns during the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, on Jan. 7.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Feb 11, 2025
It’s ‘virtually certain’ the world has already breached 1.5 C
"Every increment of warming above 1.5 degrees Celsius means worse extremes,” said a research scientist.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) headquarters in Washington in 2023. Groups with EPA grants say they have been unable to access funds from the agency.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Feb 5, 2025
Trump’s freeze on climate money sows fear and confusion
A federal judge temporarily blocked the spending pause days later but uncertainty persists, with the full impact of the disruption still coming into view.
A climate change demonstrator takes part in a protest to denounce the impact of U.S. politics on climate change, outside the U.S. Embassy in London on Jan. 11.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Feb 5, 2025
Top climate scientist declares 2 degrees Celsius climate goal 'dead'
A stark new analysis concludes that Earth's climate is more sensitive to rising greenhouse gas emissions than previously thought.
Sea turtles in Amami Oshima, Kagoshima Prefecture. Their nesting activity has continued to decline in recent years.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jan 30, 2025
Amami Oshima sea turtle nesting declines to second-lowest level
Scientists believe declining populations may be a key factor and have warned that a long-term analysis is needed to assess the situation.
The findings on the alarming acceleration of warming have enormous ramifications for ocean health, as rising temperatures impact everything from coral reefs to fisheries.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 28, 2025
Oceans are warming faster and faster as the Earth traps more energy
The alarming acceleration helps explain why 2023 and 2024 saw unprecedented ocean temperatures — and more extreme storms.
A solar farm in Lennon, Michigan, in 2021. In an executive order, President Donald Trump pointedly excluded green technology like solar panels from his definition of energy.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 28, 2025
Citi analysts say Trump can’t reverse energy transition
Despite the Trump administration’s determination to shred Biden-era climate protections, there remains a "sense of optimism” that the energy transition will prevail.
U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, via videoconference on Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2025
The Davos ‘vibe shift’ is no surprise
This year, Davos was different. Significant slices of corporate America have been divesting themselves of the world-saving ideals that Davos is built on.
Thailand's Royal Rainmaking department takes part in an atmospheric modification mission to displace pollution by spraying icy water in the air over the outskirts of Bangkok.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Jan 27, 2025
Ice in the sky: Thailand's fight against air pollution
The new technique of spraying dry ice or cold water into the air was first used last year and is still in its testing stages.
An oil drilling rig in Midland, Texas, on March 2, 2023
WORLD / Politics
Jan 27, 2025
Trump seizes wartime powers in battle for more fossil fuels
By invoking the country’s national and economic security, the plan lays the foundation for energy projects to move forward with unprecedented speed.
Katsumi Shinagawa prepares to shred cabbage to serve with pork cutlet dishes at the restaurant Katsukichi in Tokyo on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 24, 2025
Climate change cooks up Japanese 'cabbage shock'
It is the latest pain point for shoppers and eateries in Japan already squeezed by inflation.
Strong waves from the Pasig River pummel the shoreline in Manila on Nov. 17 as Super Typhoon Man-yi hits the Philippines.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Jan 24, 2025
Disaster fatigue: When storms drown out compassion
Natural disasters in the Philippines are taking a toll not only on the most vulnerable but also on those whose very job it is to help to them.
Schoolchildren in El Bosque, Mexico. Education is one of the services most frequently disrupted by climate hazards, UNICEF's executive director Catherine Russell said.
WORLD / Society
Jan 24, 2025
Climate shocks in 2024 disrupted 242 million children's schooling: UNICEF
Heat waves had the biggest impact, with at least 171 million children affected by them last year.
On Hiroshima Prefecture's Okunoshima island where more than 1,000 rabbits roam freely, 77 carcasses of the animal have been discovered since late November.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 23, 2025
On Japan's 'rabbit island,' bunnies are mysteriously dying one by one
Police have arrested a man for kicking a rabbit, which later died, as a probe continues over the deaths of more than 70 bunnies on Okunoshima island in Hiroshima Prefecture.
An oil pump jack. Big U.S. oil companies believe withdrawing from the Paris Agreement only limits Washington's ability to influence an ongoing global energy transition and exposes them to an uneven regulatory environment.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 23, 2025
Trump's climate withdrawal creates rare discord with Big Oil
A shift in the U.S. power industry away from coal has contributed to a roughly 17% decline in U.S. carbon dioxide emissions since 2007.
Asia is home to several sustainable investment taxonomies. Among them, the Singapore-Asia taxonomy is a regional framework for classifying sustainable investments across eight sectors that represent 90% of the continent's greenhouse gas emissions.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 22, 2025
Sustainable finance taxonomies light up Asia’s net-zero path
With its burgeoning economies and population, Asia is key to decarbonizing the planet. The continent's sustainable taxonomies are helping direct finance toward climate solutions.
Donald Trump has vowed to slash U.S. energy costs by bolstering fossil fuels while potentially hobbling domestic wind power generation.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 21, 2025
Trump starts reshaping U.S. energy with deep focus on oil and gas
Trump initiated the shift in a series of orders and memoranda directing action by the federal government, with implications that reach across the entire energy landscape.
U.S. President Donald Trump holds up a letter to the United Nations stating the U.S.'s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement in Washington on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 21, 2025
The global treaties that live on without the U.S.
Many international agreements continue to exert strong influence on global policy without the world's most powerful nation.
Susumu Hyodo, director of the University of Tokyo's Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute (right), and others announce a project to analyze seawater temperatures during an event in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jan 21, 2025
Japan to study sea changes using fishers' data
Japanese catches of major fish species such as salmon and saury have been slumping since around 2010, according to a national fishing industry group.
Climate change and urbanization are believed to have contributed to the earliest ever observation of cedar pollen in Tokyo, on Jan. 8, an expert says.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jan 20, 2025
Cedar pollen is already in the air in Tokyo
Tokyo officials are urging people to take steps to prevent and mitigate hay fever symptoms, as pollen counts are expected to rise in the coming weeks.
Hino Motors was charged with fraud in the U.S. District Court in Detroit for unlawfully selling 105,000 heavy-duty diesel engines in the United States from 2010 through 2022 that did not meet emissions standards.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 16, 2025
Hino Motors reaches $1.6 billion U.S. diesel emissions settlement
Hino said it booked an extraordinary loss of ¥230 billion in its second quarter results in October to cover the expected costs of resolving the litigation.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone. 
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan