Tag - pollution

 
Menu
Search
 
March 24, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

POLLUTION

Bleached and dead coral around Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef, located 270 kilometers north of the city of Cairns, Australia, on April 5, 2024
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science
Mar 17, 2025
From oil spills to new species: How tech reveals the ocean
New technologies are helping to reveal hidden oil spills, speed up the discovery of new species and uncover the impact of light pollution.
An aerial view of Thames Water's Beddington Sewage Treatment Works near Croydon, south London on Friday. Thames Water — and other British water companies privatized since 1989 — are under fire for allowing the discharge of large quantities of sewage into rivers and the sea.
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 17, 2025
A stain on Britain: Sewage contaminates its waterways and seas
The pollution affects the seafood and tourism industries, while delaying construction projects and hampering the economy.
Thames Water's Beddington Sewage Treatment Works near Croydon, south London, on Friday. Thames Water, and other British water companies privatized since 1989, are under fire for allowing the discharge of large quantities of sewage into rivers and the sea.
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 15, 2025
A stain on Britain: Sewage contaminates its waterways and seas
Failings with the most basic services in British society, such as water and sewage, have been harming the broader U.K. economy.
Microchips are a major source of "forever chemicals” that are linked to cancer and other health problems.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 14, 2025
As chips race spews ‘forever chemicals,’ startups emerge to destroy them
A wave of companies are offering potential solutions that won’t cut the chemicals out of the supply chain but destroy them.
A layer of smog hangs over Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Mar 13, 2025
Mongolia's children choke in toxic pollution
The toxic smog that settles over the Mongolian capital every winter has been a suffocating problem for more than a decade.
A worker adjusts an anti-smog dust suppression sprayer installed at a construction site in Lahore on Feb. 17. Tens of millions of Pakistanis spent at least four months breathing toxic air pollution 20 times above safe levels, in the worst winter smog season for several years.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Mar 12, 2025
'Really suffocating': Pakistan emerges from record smog season
Pakistan regularly ranks among the world's most polluted countries, with Lahore often the most polluted megacity between November and February.
Fukushima Gov. Masao Uchibori says he wants the central government to clarify and accelerate the plan for disposing of soil from radiation decontamination work.
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2025
Governor urges contaminated soil be disposed of outside Fukushima by 2045
A law states all contaminated soil must be disposed of outside Fukushima by March 2045.
Smoke and flames rise from a collision between an oil tanker carrying fuel for the U.S. military and a cargo ship off the northeastern coast of England on Monday.
WORLD
Mar 11, 2025
Tanker hired by U.S. military ablaze off U.K. after hit by container ship
There has been no indication of any malicious activity or other actors involved in the incident, security sources say.
A new study analyzing organs from deceased individuals found plastic particles accumulating primarily in the brain, with the highest concentrations in recent autopsies, raising concerns about long-term exposure despite unclear health effects.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2025
You might have plastic in your brain. Don’t panic — yet.
It’s unsettling, but the amount of plastic in your brain is probably less than the plastic spoon’s worth grabbing the headlines.
Ancient trees and animals play crucial roles in ecosystems, carbon storage and even human health, yet their populations are dwindling due to deforestation, fishing and climate change.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 2025
Who will speak for the trees?
A slew of scientific discoveries shows why we should protect not just 1,000-year-old trees but also 200-year-old whales, 400-year-old fish and 10,000-year-old sea sponges.
Laborers at a shipyard on the outskirts of Dhaka. Worker deaths, injuries and exposure to hazardous substances are common in the ship-breaking industry, as is environmental harm with toxic chemicals seeping into the beach and water, harming marine life.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Feb 19, 2025
Shipyards of Bangladesh brace as heavy emitting ships near end of life
Worker deaths and environmental harm are common in yards where vessels that have supplied richer nations are dismantled for scraps that can be used in manufacturing.
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.
An Iranian couple sits in a park facing the Milad Tower in Tehran on Dec. 27.
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 3, 2025
Vanishing mountains: Winter air pollution smothers Iran
Iran's capital Tehran frequently ranks among the world's most polluted cities, says Swiss-based air quality monitoring company IQAir.
Smoke from the Palisades Fire rises over the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, California, on Jan. 7.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 29, 2025
Scientists race to gauge Los Angeles fires’ impact on ocean life
The more than 15,000 structures that burned in the Los Angeles fires released carcinogenic clouds of ash that blew far out to sea.
Mayor Masanori Yamamoto of Kibichuo, Okayama Prefecture, announces the results of PFAS blood concentration tests on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2025
PFAS blood test results in Okayama Prefecture town exceed U.S. standards
The Kibichuo town government announced the results of its first blood tests after PFAS were detected at a water purification plant in the town.
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.
Vehicles drive over a road made using recycled plastic waste in Pokhara, Nepal, on Dec. 26.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jan 27, 2025
Rubbish roads: Nepal explores paving with plastic
Studies show that roads paved with plastic waste can be twice as durable as normal roads.
Smoke rises as the Border 2 Fire burns in Chula Vista, California, on Friday in this screen grab obtained from a social media video.
WORLD
Jan 27, 2025
Fire-ravaged Los Angeles braces for toxic rain runoff
The rain will also bring cleaner air and improve fire-fighting conditions, but overall, it will make things worse.
The Hollywood sign shrouded in smoke from an overnight blaze in the Hollywood Hills on Jan. 9
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 14, 2025
The Hollywood fires will cause harm long after they burn out
We’re not going to be able to turn the clock back on this creeping disaster. It will be many centuries before our atmosphere recovers from the damage.
Smoke from the Pacific Palisades fire blankets the area in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Researchers see a growing health danger from the vast plumes of pollution spawned by wildfires like the ones devastating Los Angeles.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 12, 2025
Far from the Los Angeles fires, the deadly risks of smoke are intensifying
By some estimates, wildfire smoke causes as many as 675,000 premature deaths a year worldwide, as well as a range of serious health problems.
Trump plans his tariff ‘Liberation Day’ with more targeted push
U.S. President Donald Trump walks toward Air Force One in Morristown, New Jersey, on Saturday.
OpenAI study finds links between ChatGPT use and loneliness
San Francisco-based OpenAI sees the new studies as a way to get a better sense of how people interact with, and are affected by, its popular chatbot.
Stay at home if Mount Fuji erupts, government panel says
Mount Fuji in November. For the first time, the government has released specific guidelines on how residents should act in the event that Mount Fuji erupts.
China's restaurants race to the bottom in deflation-hit economy
A kitchenware recycling team collects equipment at a closed hotpot restaurant in Beijing last month.
Japan, China and South Korea agree to promote peace and cooperation
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (left), Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya (center) and South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul pose for the cameras during a trilateral meeting in Tokyo on Saturday.
Japanese wages likely to rise more than 5% again this year
Wages are set for another big increase this year as annual negotiations secure generous agreements.
Stay at home if Mount Fuji erupts, government panel says
Mount Fuji in November. For the first time, the government has released specific guidelines on how residents should act in the event that Mount Fuji erupts.
In pictures: Tokyo's weeklong celebration of baseball's best
Shohei Ohtani belts a home run in the fifth inning of the second game of the Tokyo Series between the Dodgers and Cubs.
What's the fuss over Ishiba's gift vouchers?
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba waits for a session of the House of Councillors Budget Committee to begin in Tokyo on Friday.
At Tokyo Dome, a stage so big that even Shohei Ohtani felt nervous
Shohei Ohtani tips his batting helmet during the opening game of the MLB season between the Dodgers and Cubs on Tuesday at Tokyo Dome

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

The sun shines from behind a waving Philippine flag at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.
Eighty years after the Battle of Manila, old foes forge new ties
By Anton L. Delgado

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Cainz enriches lives and communities through DIY
Cainz enriches lives and communities through DIY

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER