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ENVIRONMENT

A drone view shows the cooling towers of the defunct Orlando Power Station, in Soweto, South Africa, on May 12, 2025. President Cyril Ramaphosa this month hailed the growth of data centers as essential for the country's security and its businesses.

ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability

South Africa’s data center ‘gold rush’ risks resource crunch

By Kate Bartlett

South Africa boasts advanced digital infrastructure, including connections with international sub-sea cables, helping to make it home to 70% of the continent’s data centers.

Residents look at the sky illuminated by wildfires in Le Porge in southwestern France, early on Thursday.

ENVIRONMENT / Climate change

Spain and France continue to battle wildfires as intense heat grips Southern Europe

Wildfires have burned more land in Europe this year than the annual average in the past two decades, as the continent has ?endured three virtually back-to-back heat waves.

Amid the heat and humidity in Japan, a good night’s sleep is growing increasingly elusive without the heavy use of air conditioning.

ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET

Summer has arrived in Japan and so have hot sleepless nights

By Tomoko Otake

Around the world, human-induced climate change is at least partly to blame for a growing sleep deficit.

ENVIRONMENT

Investors see pollution plan silver lining in EU carbon overhaul

ENVIRONMENT

Wildfire haze hangs over eastern U.S. — and World Cup final

ENVIRONMENT

South Korea issues first emergency heatwave warning under new rating system

By Kang Jin-kyu

ENVIRONMENT

NATO project tests perennial grass to clean Ukraine’s war-hit soil

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung delivers a speech during the opening ceremony of the 48th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Busan, South Korea, on Sunday.

Climate change

U.N. to list more sites as ‘in danger’ from conflict or climate change

Among them are a biblical site, Lebanese castles, an antelope migration path and the world’s deepest lake.

Climate change

To stay cool, wear flowing robes and throw water around? Yes, says science.

By Hiroko Tabuchi

Climate change

Heat and wildfire smoke become a dangerous new climate reality

By Emma Court

Climate change

Drones, AI and white paint: Europe races to protect infrastructure from heat

By Giulia Segreti and Sam Tabahriti

Climate change

Wildfires ravage over 1,300 hectares of historic forest near Paris

Climate change

Extreme heat threatens Italy’s Parmigiano-Reggiano heartland

By Sara Rossi

Climate change

Europe recorded 10,000 excess deaths during late-June heat wave, data shows

By Kate Abnett

Yuji Suzuki (background) and others set up "green curtains" at temporary housing for people affected by the Noto Peninsula earthquake, in the city of Nanao, Ishikawa Prefecture, in August last year.

Sustainability

‘Green curtains’ take root as communities seek out eco-friendly sun protection

Such curtains — which involve growing vines such as bitter melon and morning glory near windows — leverage on plant physiology to cool down homes.

Sustainability

Study warns biodiversity loss could trigger wave of debt crises

By Marc Jones

Sustainability / OUR PLANET

How carbon finance could give a boost to Japan’s ailing forestry industry

By Annelise Giseburt

Sustainability

New gold rush threatens indigenous havens in Brazil’s Amazon

By Fran BLANDY

Sustainability

Trees taking drastic measures to survive climate-driven heat

By Sofia BOUDERBALA

Sustainability / OUR PLANET

Japan’s automotive industry is driving — slowly — toward a greener future

By Eric Margolis

Sustainability

51吃瓜网 promises green edge for Asia as plastic packaging runs short

By Minwoo Park, Kaori Kaneko and John Geddie

Open-pit coal mine emissions are trickier to measure than emissions from underground mines.

Energy

Europe’s coal mines say they slashed emissions. Experts don’t believe them.

By Petra Sorge

The dramatic falls in reported emissions have been traced to a small but fundamental change in the methodology for measuring them — one introduced by the EU.

Energy

U.K. grid issues another supply warning as heat tests network

By Eamon Akil Farhat

Energy

Fast-tracked power plants fuel AI boom, with little public scrutiny

By Valerie Volcovici

Energy

Italy pays the price of Meloni’s stalled green energy transition

By Giuseppe Fonte, Gavin Jones and Francesca Landini

Energy / OUR PLANET

Japan’s new emissions trading program: Key climate tool or paper tiger?

By Nithin Coca

Energy

Clean energy seen as ‘structurally immune’ to Hormuz-style shock

By Alastair Marsh

Energy

Solar power is so big in Europe that electricity is being wasted

By Eamon Farhat

An employee walks past cabinets containing different varieties of dried fish maws and shark fins (top left) in Hong Kong in March 2016.

Wildlife

‘Cruel, wasteful’: Senegal port a hot spot for illegal shark fins

By Marchio Gorbiano and Becca MILFELD

Finning, the practice of removing fins and casting the rest of the shark overboard, often alive, is largely prohibited across a variety of regulatory zones and countries.

Wildlife

Cambodia wants to bring back tigers, but should it?

Wildlife

Japan deploys bear cameras in mountains as attacks surge

Wildlife

Iceland kills first whales since 2023, resuming commercial hunt

Wildlife

EU nations want reduced protection for bears

Wildlife / OUR PLANET

Citizen science in Japan’s Ogasawara Islands spotlights ties between ships and birds

By Richard Pallardy

Wildlife

Greek fishers struggle to keep up with puffer fish invaders

By Will VASSILOPOULOS

Nearly half of Japan’s population suffers from hay fever, fueled by pollen from vast cedar and cypress plantations.

Earth science / Longform

The human-made roots of Japan’s hay fever crisis

By Alex K.T. Martin

Efforts to thin forests and breed low-pollen cedar advance, even as labor gaps and neglected land complicate the work.

Earth science / EXPLAINER

Why did such a powerful earthquake produce such a weak tsunami?

By Katrina Miller

Earth science

When Earth’s surface shifts, a new satellite will see it

By Kenneth Chang

Earth science

Restoring sea floor after mining may not be possible, researchers warn

By Amelie Bottollier-Depois

Earth science

How Switzerland’s Birch glacier collapsed

By Robin Millard

Earth science / Longform

Do Japan’s trees no longer occupy the sacred space they used to?

By Eric Margolis

Earth science / Longform

If the ‘Big One’ hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami

By Alex K.T. Martin

Read more ENVIRONMENT stories

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

For many people, utility poles and power lines have become such a familiar part of Japan’s landscape that they often go unnoticed.

Why Japan’s utility poles won’t be disappearing anytime soon

By Alex K.T. Martin

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