ifd66 comments

And there are still some total idiots (well, one in particular) who plan to waste unmeasurable amounts of resources sending people to Mars.

This was a FASHION show?

How ironic.

There's a ton of rain coming Monday thru Wednesday, so that might help.

No rain up there until at least Wednesday according to the forecast and unfortunately, winds look to be getting stronger from Sunday night.

And in a scenario where this transmutes to affect humans in the same way?

Good news for the planet.

If overcrowded Japan focused on quality of life and not just consuming and pointlessly trying to force the economy to grow, falling population would be seen as the opportunity it is.

In places like the med, California, Canada they have fleets of planes to drop water and fire retardants.

Because forest fires in Japan are so rare, I've often wondered what they would do to control one if/when it occurred.

remove, block or hide climate data and science

A very close parallel to burning books in Europe during the 1930"s

efforts to dismantle science agencies and the data and websites they use to communicate with the public. The targets range from public health and demographics to climate science.

How can this kind of behaviour be justified or supported, by any sane person, in any universe?

And this is one of the coldest winters I’ve experienced in decades in Japan.

This highlights more than ever, either a total understanding or lack of knowledge of climate change and its consequences.

Sorry JT. Very poor photos given the five meter accumulations of snow.

Farmer and permaculturist.

there is the possibility that the true extent of pesticide harm is even greater than reported.

This should be the focus of the headline.

Seems to be more evidence for what is termed "global dimming".

Osaka Expo? ..... What's that?

aerial distribution of snow-melting agents

more chemicals in the system

Hansen has been warning 'leaders' since the 80's about the climate crisis. And still they aren't listening.

Define pre-industrial times on the graph here:

The graph above highlights how extreme climate can be as the world's natural systems react to big changes - snowball earth, mass CO2 drawdown when continents and plants evolved etc. And the speed of the current climate changes are VERY fast in terms of geological time and give us and much of nature little chance of adapting.

Temperatures at north pole 20C above average and beyond ice melting point

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/feb/04/temperatures-at-north-pole-20c-above-average-and-beyond-ice-melting-point

with temperatures as much as eight degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) above average for the month.

Temperatures are currently 20C above average according to another news story. Very worrying.

30% are affected, including those in airports

From what I gather, prices at airport Starbucks have always been much higher than regular Starbucks.

I was lucky enough to visit there in the 80's. Was an amazing experience and vey sad that it, as with many other inland body of waters are being destroyed by our unsustainable 'development'.

And I know I will be down thumbed but food prices are too cheap.

Better quality food fresh, local etc at higher prices will be healthier, lead to less food waste, and give farmers a fairer return.

There is no price savings growing yourself.

Completely untrue.

We produce much of our own food, (veg, salad, fruit, eggs, goat milk...) and for easy grow salads (lettuce, rocket, spinach, kale etc) a 250~350 yen packet of seeds, can give you a lot of food.

That's a seriously depressing looking group of men.

Amazing. And in one photo, the craft resembles an early USS Enterprise (Star Trek)

generative artificial intelligence 

Sounds dodgy to me.

I'll stick to my 1995 Toyota Hilux Surf that we run on WVO (Waste Vegetable Oil).

Very dependable.

Why are those push/pull suitcases so popular?

They always look so difficult to manhandle.

For very old people I can understand their usefulness, but otherwise why would anyone not opt for a good quality rucksack?

We just got back from Nagano.

It was still snowing when we left, and it had already been snowing non-stop for 3 days.

And as mentioned, all cars are being checked for snow tyres before being allowed on the highways.

as electricity demand grows

So with falling population, has anyone in charge wondered why energy consumption is growing?

Effective energy policies need to consider efficiency and energy reduction.

Energy is being wasted wherever you look.

So KFC has become too expensive for people in one of the most 'developed' economies.

what has the world come too.