Written by Hiroko Tabuchi, an award-winning investigative climate reporter for the New York Times, this article dives into the resurgence of coal in Japan, an anomaly among the developed countries of the world.
As effects of rising temperatures continue to appear in heat-wave deaths and marine life depletion, and as agreements on coal reduction are being made across the globe, the decision to open 22 new power plants that would “emit almost as much carbon dioxide annually as all the passenger cars sold each year in the United States” calls for explanations.
Tabuchi helps put this move into context, discussing the effects of the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the struggle of Japan, an energy-poor country, to maintain independence from reliance on foreign oil — all while facing criticism from climate experts, activists, and local residents where the power plants will be operated.
