Top Stories - Environment

It glows from the neck, wrists and ears of fashionable women from Tokyo to Tonbridge, but coral is fast becoming as controversial as it is lustrous.

While it remains popular, jewellers as influential as Tiffany have been queueing up recently to say they do not sell real coral. And now Japan’s $100 million a year industry has come under attack for harvesting the endangered species.

Japan’s Cabinet has endorsed a climate change and environment draft bill that lays out the basic structure to shift to a more green economy. The Ministry of the Environment points out three main objectives of the bill: one is to establish a domestic cap-and-trade policy, to add an “environment tax,” and also to expand the feed-in tariff program to include all renewables.

Some reaction from the town of Taiji to yesterday's Oscar win for the documentary film, The Cove.

The Western Gray Whale is one of the most critically endangered whale populations on earth. Only about 120 individuals, and 25 breeding females, remain. These imperiled whales feed only in the summer and autumn, and almost exclusively near Piltun Bay in northeast Sakhalin.

Pet-owners in Japan are washing their dogs and cats in specially designed vending machines to save money in the recession.

More and more people are making use of machines such as one installed at a pet supermarket called Joyful Honda in the suburbs of Tokyo

This video tapestry documenting Hong Kongers’ opinions about air pollution, was a result of the efforts of Focus on Film, a non-profit organization, to teach over 200 students the technique of film making.

Sulabh International, a leading sanitation NGO, has decided to start its operation soon in Japan by constructing low cost toilets popularly known as "Sulabh Sauchalaya".

Called Paddling Home, the structure measures 1.2 metres in each direction and floats atop four barrels.

Global warming is apparently melting so much arctic ice that a project not thought possible only a few years ago is moving forward.

The telecom group Kodiak Kenai is in a partnership to lay underwater fiber optic cable connecting London with Tokyo by way of the Northwest Passage.

Snow and strong winds struck a wide area of Japan on Wednesday due to low pressure systems, shutting down an airport in Nagasaki Prefecture and blocking most of the highways in the Kyushu region.

An endangered Tsushima leopard cat is recovering at a wildlife center in Japan after being captured in Tsushima City, officials said.

Astronauts from Russia, Japan and the United States blast off to the International Space Station on Monday, bringing with them promises of ‘space sushi’ and ‘tweets’ from the cosmos.

With many of the world’s scientists and politicians converging on Copenhagen this week, this is an important time for the people of the world to carefully consider the issues related to ‘climate change’. Here are some of my own thoughts on the issue.

I look at Japan's green conscience vs. green action through data from Greendex and the Ministry of the Environment.

The Sea Shepherd folks have just announced a new boat to combat the scientific whaling ships in the Antarctic. The boat can speed up to 50 knots, and it is going to be used to disrupt Japan’s whaling ships by intervening the harpooning process. The design of the ship would make the creators of Dark Knight proud.