As celebrities become increasingly vocal about their social activism and the fight against climate change, it is disappointing–though not at all surprising–to see how some of the most applauded idols of the Western world appear reluctant to practice what they preach.
As the United Nations asked the world for US$160 million in response to catastrophic flooding in Pakistan, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also issued a broader warning about the human-caused climate emergency: “Let’s stop sleepwalking toward the destruction of our planet by climate change. Today, it’s Pakistan. Tomorrow, it could be your country.”
Cheetahs are returning to India for the first time in seventy years, arriving from South Africa and Namibia. Never before have these striking big cats been allowed to repopulate a region from which they had once disappeared.
The United Kingdom’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has assured the public that its temporary authorization of a controversial pesticide called thiamethoxam will follow strict guidelines to protect the environment from harm, but evidence is mounting that serious damage is being done.
Air conditioning has long been viewed as a luxury which makes people’s lives more comfortable in the hot summer months, but increasingly in the era of the climate crisis, analysts are pointing out that it has become a matter of life-and-death, and thus access to air conditioning should be regarded as a human right in the late 21st century.
In spite of growing awareness regarding the global problem of plastic pollution, Japan has experienced difficulty reducing its plastic consumption since the arrival of the Covid pandemic in early 2020.
Fuel is “the blood of the military,” according to the US Army Quartermaster Corps, and this is a fitting motto for an armed organization that produces more carbon dioxide emissions than most nations of the world.
The government remains on track to dump treated radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean in spite of fierce foreign and domestic criticism.
Police have opened investigations into dolphin and whale meat being sold in Wakayama Prefecture after accepting a criminal complaint regarding illegal levels of dangerous toxins.
Although more than ten years have passed, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster still haunts Taiwan’s debate on activating nuclear power plants.
