Japan
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Critical List: E.U. could ban tar-sands oil; solar industry ‘a real mess’
Yesterday, an E.U. commission got behind environmental standards that could keep tar-sands oil from being used in Europe.
Another nuclear reactor in Japan shut down.
Clean energy investments can only go so far in keeping China's emissions down. The country will meet its environmental goals in the short term, researchers say, but it’s growing too fast for its emissions to stay manageable for long.
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Beautiful short film imagines a radioactive Japan
This short film, called "Blind," imagines what would happen if the gas masks that so many Japanese bought after Fukushima had ended up being necessary in Tokyo. It shows the mundane realities of a radioactive life — the blinged-out schoolgirl respirators are a particularly nice touch — but also touches on the bigger issues of […]
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Fukushima farmers keep calm and carry on [VIDEO]
It's harvest time in Fukushima, Japan, and many farmers in the area are still working the land despite worries of radioactive contamination.
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Critical List: Earthquake shook nuclear plant too hard; new Energy Star labels for more efficiency
Last week's earthquake may have shaken a Virginia nuclear plant more than the plant was designed to withstand. There wasn’t much damage, but, uh, maybe it’s time to retrofit these older East Coast plants, just in case.
Since Energy Star labels have come to mean next to nothing, there are new ones. Look for "most efficient" Energy Star labels to find appliances that meet the highest standards for energy saving.
Japan passed a bill promising incentives for renewable energy, but companies are waiting for the government to hash out the details before they jump in. -
Critical List: East Coast prepares for Irene; Inhofe gets on Romney’s case
With Hurricane Irene on its way, New Yorkers head to Trader Joe's and make jokes (I think they're jokes?) about the proper amount to tip delivery guys who come out during a hurricane.
Why does a super-walkable condo building in Denver include eight floors of parking spaces? (Answer: There's no good answer.)
So weird: Even Sen. Jim Inhofe wants Mitt Romney to stop waffling on climate change. This may be the only issue Inhofe and environmentalists have ever agreed on. -
Japan’s government allowed evacuations into radiation plume’s path
In the aftermath of Fukushima, Japanese people are registering less trust in their government, and stories like this one are the reason why. The entire community of Namie evacuated out of the area surrounding Fukushima to a safe haven, only to find later that they were still in the path of radiation, and the government had tools that indicated as much.
When a large plume of something nasty — chemicals, biological hazards, or radiation — is released into the air, it doesn't stay in one place. It's not always obvious where it will go, though. Winds and air pressure systems shift. Obstacles like tall buildings, forests, and mountains can have an impact. Predicting a plume's path is sort of like predicting the path of a nasty storm, only the consequences of being wrong are a little more dire than a few wet people who didn't bring an umbrella to the office. -
What life is like inside the Fukushima evacuation zone
Photographer Max Hodges has a photo essay on Google+ about his travels in the Fukushima evacuation zone. This mysterious ninja, Shoji Kobayashi, had been living there since the nuclear disaster began, gardening and trying to salvage tsunami-damaged keepsakes.
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Here come Japan's post-nuclear model solar communities
If you thought Abu Dhabi's uber-green Masdar city was ambitious and/or doomed, just wait until you see what Japan's cooking up. In a pair of nearby cities in Hiroshima prefecture, Fukuyama and Onomichi, a coalition is going to power as much of their grid as possible with solar energy.
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Tokyo is cutting electricity use by 15 percent
Japanese people are already kicking Americans' butts when it comes to energy efficiency: they use half as much energy as we do already, despite their proclivity for gadgets like automatic toilets. But since the Fukushima meltdown, they've gotten even more hyper-aware of the need to save energy.
In Tokyo, the government is hoping to cut electricity use during work hours by 15 percent compared to last year, and they're on track to do it.