A 7.6-magnitude earthquake that struck Japan’s Noto Peninsula on New Year’s Day has killed at least 55 people, reported Reuters. Freezing temperatures were making the efforts of approximately 3,000 rescuers to reach people trapped beneath demolished buildings in isolated coastal areas more difficult. Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said access to the secluded northern portion […]
By Brett Wilkins In what Japanese regulators on Wednesday called an “extremely serious” development, lethal levels of radiation have been recorded inside the damaged reactor building at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, threatening the shutdown and decommissioning of the site of the second-worst peacetime nuclear disaster in history. According to The Asahi Shimbun, […]
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced that Japan will become country carbon neutral by 2050, Bloomberg reported. As the world’s third-largest economy, this will require a “fundamental shift” away from coal, The Washington Post reported. Suga replaced former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last month, after he resigned due to health issues. This was Suga’s first […]
By Roshan Rajroop, Melita Steele and Hisayo Takada Oil spills make visible the huge price being paid by the environment, wildlife and human communities for our reliance on fossil fuels. They are a harsh demonstration of the fragility of our oceans. They are a sad reminder of how urgent it is that we end our […]
The Japanese cargo ship that hit a coral reef near Mauritius and spilled thousands of metric tons of fuel into the island nation’s turquoise waters split in two over the weekend, The Guardian reported. “At around 4.30 p.m., a major detachment of the vessel’s forward section was observed,” the Mauritius National Crisis Committee said in […]
By Olivia Sullivan One of the many unfortunate outcomes of the coronavirus pandemic has been the quick and obvious increase in single-use plastic products. After COVID-19 arrived in the United States, many grocery stores prohibited customers from using reusable bags, coffee shops banned reusable mugs, and takeout food with plastic forks and knives became the […]
Efforts to contain the Wuhan coronavirus and fears that it can spread and form a global pandemic have slowed industries around the world. Shipping is delayed, cars and electronics are stalled on the assembly line, and commodity markets around the world are predicting losses because of the virus. Fears around the virus even have Olympic […]
Japan is planning to build as many as 22 new coal plants at 17 different sites over the next five years, The New York Times reports, a sharp uptick in coal-fired power as the rest of the world eases off coal and looks to cut emissions. The projects would collectively emit as much carbon dioxide […]
Scientists announced today that pesticide use on rice fields led to the collapse of a nearby fishery in Lake Shinji, Japan, according to a new study published in the journal Science. The long-term study seems to have borne out the prophecy of Rachel Carson’s seminal 1962 book Silent Spring, in which the author describes the […]