Tag - environment

 
 

ENVIRONMENT

Visitors walk past an Amazon exhibition booth during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on Friday.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jul 6, 2024
Is AI a major drain on the world's energy supply?
The spread of data centers across the globe is throwing a spotlight on the amount of energy the technology uses as well as its impact on the environment.
You can often see generations of families enjoying performances together at Fuji Rock Festival.
PODCAST / deep dive
Jul 4, 2024
Japan’s summer music festivals are feeling the heat in more ways than one
Summer music festivals are back, but for how long? Climate change is putting the heat on our favorite outdoor entertainment.
Workers collect detritus after the Britain's Glastonbury Festival on Monday.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jul 4, 2024
Music festivals seek greener footprint
The world's top 1,000 DJs took 51,000 flights in 2019, equivalent to 35,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions, according to climate group Clean Scene.
If Joe Biden doesn’t let another, better suited candidate run against Donald Trump, he will undo decades of public service.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 3, 2024
Will Joe Biden go and spoil it all?
Like former presidential candidate Ralph Nader before him, Biden shouldn't stand in the way of the Democrats winning the election and should let another candidate run.
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo last Friday ended what was known as Chevron deference, a legal doctrine holding that courts should defer to the technical expertise of agency staff in interpreting unclear laws.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jul 3, 2024
Supreme Court gives Trump ‘sword’ to slash Biden’s climate rules
Its ruling last Friday ended a legal doctrine holding that courts should defer to the technical expertise of federal agency staff in interpreting unclear laws.
Environmental activist Phuon Keoraksmey is arrested after a verdict in Phnom Penh on Tuesday, where a Cambodian court sentenced 10 environmentalists to between six and eight years in jail for plotting to commit crimes in their activism.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 3, 2024
Cambodia sentences green campaigners over their environmental activism
A lawyer for the activists in Cambodia condemned the sentences, saying he would consult with his clients on whether to appeal against the ruling.
Under the light of a moon partially obscured by clouds, the eyes of a dozen deer glow uncannily in the dark on South Korea's island of Anma.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 2, 2024
Swelling deer herd overwhelms South Korean islanders
The government is weighing a petition to designate the deer as "harmful wildlife" to clear the way for hunting and other measures.
Muslim pilgrims use umbrellas to shade themselves from the sun as they arrive at the base of Mount Arafat, also known as Jabal al-Rahma or Mount of Mercy, during the annual hajj pilgrimage, on June 15.
WORLD
Jun 28, 2024
Climate change boosted deadly Saudi Hajj heat by 2.5 degrees, scientists say
The heat would have been approximately 2.5 degrees Celsius cooler without the influence of human-caused climate change, according to a team of European scientists.
Nannalin "Fleur" Pornprasertsom, 14, surveys bleached corals during her coral conservation and citizen science course at Black Turtle Dive, around Koh Tao island in the southern Thai province of Surat Thani, on June 14.
ENVIRONMENT
Jun 27, 2024
Divers become conservationists as corals bleach all over the world
Coral bleaching has been recorded in more than 60 countries since early 2023.
Expedition tents at Everest Base Camp, 140 kilometers northeast of Kathmandu, in May 2021
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 27, 2024
As ice melts, Everest's 'death zone' gives up its ghosts
Among those scaling the soaring Himalayan mountain this year was a team aiming to bring corpses down.
An ingot of a rare earth metal used to make components for technology products at a factory in China. The country is the world’s top exporter of rare earth elements, but that may change if deep-sea mining gains traction in nations like Japan.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 25, 2024
We’ve got to get deep-sea mining right
Seabed mining could muddy the waters of critical minerals' supply chains by tapping into new sources. But will environmental and legal concerns sink the project?
A potato field in summer in Hokkaido. The prefecture is a significant source of food and produced 81% of Japan's potatoes in 2022.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Jun 24, 2024
Hokkaido's farmers look for a silver lining to climate change disruption
As the prefecture becomes warmer, it could produce more apples and sweet potatoes, agricultural cooperative officials say.
A wind farm in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture. For Japan's future energy roadmap to center on clean sources, the government should reform the institutions overseeing energy policy to avoid vested interests from slowing the transition down.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 24, 2024
It’s time for Japan to set up a climate change agency
The government is currently reviewing Japan's Strategic Energy Plan. But who's shaping this key document for the future? It's mostly older men with vested interests.
Seaweed in the ocean off Hayama, Kanagawa Prefecture. Local residents aim to restore seagrass and seaweed beds suffering from marine desertification, and their project has also been certified to receive "blue carbon" credits.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET
Jun 23, 2024
Japan looks to 'blue carbon' to cut emissions — and restore its coasts
The nation's net zero goal has driven interest in these ecosystems, but verifying the amount of carbon stored by seaweed presents a challenge.
An electronic shelf tag at a supermarket in Tokyo's Sumida Ward shows a product is sold at different prices according to the expiration date and inventory status.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 21, 2024
Japan's food loss hits a record low in fiscal 2022
With the goal met for businesses to reduce food waste, the government will consider setting a new reduction target.
For hundreds of thousands of people around the world every year, heat is deadly. In the U.S., it takes more lives than hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes or floods.
COMMENTARY
Jun 20, 2024
Heat waves are deadlier than hurricanes. Make them ‘disasters.’
For hundreds of thousands of people around the world every year, heat is deadly. In the U.S., it takes more lives than hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes or floods.
Two Javan rhinos in Ujung Kulon national park in Indonesia's Banten province. In 2023, a newborn Javan rhino in Indonesia raised hopes for the highly endangered species.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Jun 19, 2024
Javan rhino clings to survival after Indonesia poaching wave
Conservationists fear poachers have killed up to a third of the surviving population, possibly with inside help.
Hjelmer Hammeken, Greenland's greatest polar bear hunter, rides his dog sled to look for seals on the sea ice outside Ittoqqortoormiit, on the frozen Scoresbysund Fjord.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jun 19, 2024
On thin ice: Greenland's last Inuit polar bear hunters
Climate change and hunting quotas have been threatening the livelihood on which Inuit families have long survived.
Shibuya Mayor Ken Hasebe (second from right) and Aikasa founder Shoji Marukawa (second from left) hold rental umbrellas during a media briefing on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 19, 2024
Shibuya launches initiative to set up 150 new umbrella-sharing stands
The initiative envisions a reduction of 76.1 tons in carbon dioxide emissions and 29.1 tons in waste per year.
An Israeli tank maneuvers inside the Gaza Strip on Thursday. Gaza's environment was already suffering from recurring conflicts, rapid urban growth, and high population density, before the most recent conflict began on Oct. 7.
WORLD / Society
Jun 18, 2024
Gaza conflict has caused major environmental damage, U.N. says
Water, sanitation, and hygiene systems are now almost entirely defunct, the report found, with Gaza's five wastewater treatment plants shut down.

Longform

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