Tag - global-warming

 
 

GLOBAL WARMING

Tokyo’s push for cooler office attire has sparked backlash in Japan, where conservative workplace norms still shape office culture and critics say shorts and sandals do not belong in the workplace.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 1, 2026
Tokyo wants you to wear shorts to work. Say no.
While the image of the suit-and-tie salaryman endures, in recent years summer office fashions have become much more casual.
While climate-change skeptics downplay the issue, earlier blooming cherry trees in Washington and Kyoto serve as visible indicators of the climate crisis, driven by global warming.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2026
Cherry blossoms are proof of a planet going awry
It was the seventh consecutive year in which the trees flowered earlier than their 20-year average.
Solar geoengineering aimed at mitigating climate change is gaining private money and momentum despite huge risks and weak governmental oversight.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 25, 2025
Dimming the sun is a terrifying new industry
Although the idea of solar geoengineering was once on the scientific fringes, it’s gaining traction among tech bros.
A climate-displaced woman stands along the Kholpetua River on April 26 in Bangladesh’s Satkhira district, where rising sea levels threaten coastal communities.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 25, 2025
The real failure on climate didn’t happen in Brazil
Of the 10 biggest polluters accounting for three-quarters of carbon emissions, just two — the European Union and Japan — have submitted documents with any hope of being enacted.
In developing Asia, where coal dominates and imported liquefied natural gas is expensive, natural gas remains limited in electricity grids.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 24, 2024
Gas got America off coal. Now, it’s coming for Asia’s oil.
It can work in concert with carbon-free energy to break the hold of the dirtiest sources of power.
Green products must meet customer needs at competitive prices to succeed. If such technologies gain traction, both the planet and consumers will benefit.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 23, 2024
Going green doesn’t have to be a giant money suck
Green products must meet customer needs at competitive prices to succeed. If such technologies gain traction, both the planet and consumers will benefit.
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.
In Australia, past El Nino events have led to destructive fire seasons, including the catastrophic Black Summer of 2019-2020.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2023
Australia hoped to dodge wildfires. El Nino has other plans.
The 1983, 2003, 2007, 2010 and 2015 fire seasons, some of the most damaging in the country’s history, all occurred during El Nino.
A ceremony marking the opening of the carbon credit market at the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo on Oct. 11
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2023
Why all carbon credits aren’t created equal
Because the carbon credit market is unregulated and completely voluntary, it’s been able to get away with a lack of scrutiny.
Researchers have developed a new method to analyze climate history and their findings align with current climate models.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 6, 2023
Science offers closer look at the Medieval Warming Period
Medieval Warming Period saw a population boom in Europe and the collapse of civilizations in the Americas
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2023
July in Japan saw second-highest number of days over 35 C for the month
Temperatures above 35 C were recorded at 2,435 locations, with climate change and El Nino contributing to scorching heat.
An extreme heat warning in Death Valley, California, on July 15
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 21, 2023
Our civilization was built for a climate that’s vanishing
Weather disasters linked to climate change like those unfolding across the northern hemisphere will affect more and more of us.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 14, 2023
Singapore’s temperature soars to 37 Celsius, highest in four decades
The temperature at Ang Mo Kio in central Singapore tied with a record in nearby Tengah in April 1983, according to a statement by the National Environment Agency.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 14, 2022
Companies need to get real about climate risk
To ensure the planet’s future, the SEC is looking at the idea of having businesses calculate and disclosure climate-related costs and risks.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 4, 2022
Escaping a confusing global energy maze
There are many contradictions affecting the oil and gas markets, such as governments trying to phase out fossil fuels while also demanding increased production.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 6, 2022
India’s heatwaves are testing the limits of human survival
Each summer in India is a fresh roll of the dice on whether a freak event will occur that leads to a vast number of deaths.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 3, 2021
If COVID-19 wasn’t worry enough, the climate crisis comes roaring back
The most eye-opening development of the past three months has not been the COVID-19 pandemic, but the dramatic increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 4, 2021
Heat domes are a red-hot warning on climate costs
The true cost of global warming should include weather problems that we haven’t even thought about yet — ‘unknown unknowns,” in the parlance of the late Donald Rumsfeld.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 9, 2021
Rising sea levels inundating coastal economies four times faster
The extraction of groundwater and other resources from beneath cities including Jakarta, New Orleans and Shanghai is causing them to slowly sink.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 16, 2020
Should we let algorithms make life-and-death decisions?
Nature does not optimize; it co-evolves. It performs much better than human society in terms of sustainability and circular supply networks.

Longform

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival