Just yesterday we heard about how proud the Japanese people are of their unique fine-tuned sense of the four seasons. Now the word out of Sapporo is that “indigenous peoples” are experiencing “unique fear” over the impacts of changes in the climate.

SAPPORO — Indigenous peoples will be the hardest hit by climate change because of their dependence on “Mother Earth,” Ben Powless, a native Mohawk from Canada, told a convention of nongovernmental organizations Monday.

In one of the subcommittees at the People’s Summit 2008, also called the Alternative Summit, Powless said climate change will harm indigenous peoples all over the world with food insecurity, decreased water resources and loss of cultural sites and traditions.

Damn it’s a drag being a sensory-deprived non-indigenous non-Japanese. . . I feel a unique sense of ennui coming on. . .

The New York Times has an interesting article on Japanese energy technology. What always leaves me scratching my head is how this environmentally-minded country has such lousy windows and insulation which leads to more heating in the winter and air conditioning in the summer (and thus more energy consumed and greater expense). I’d also love to see an accounting for all of the energy consumed by the millions of ubiquitous vending machines!

Now, with oil prices hitting dizzying levels and the world struggling with global warming, [Japan] is hoping to use its conservation record to take a rare leadership role on a pressing global issue. It will showcase its efforts to export its conservation ethic — and its expensive power-saving technology — at next week’s meeting in Japan of the Group of 8 industrial leaders.

“Superior technology and a national spirit of avoiding waste give Japan the world’s most energy-efficient structure,” Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said. Japan “wants to contribute to the world,” he said.

Japan is by many measures the world’s most energy-frugal developed nation. After the energy crises of the 1970s, the country forced itself to conserve with government-mandated energy-efficiency targets and steep taxes on petroleum. Energy experts also credit a national consensus on the need to consume less. It is also the only industrial country that sustained government investment in energy research even when energy became cheap again.

Japan consumed half as much energy per dollar worth of economic activity as the European Union or the United States, and one-eighth as much as China and India in 2005. While the country is known for green products like hybrid cars, most of its efficiency gains have been in less eye-catching areas, for example, in manufacturing.

Corporate Japan has managed to keep its overall annual energy consumption unchanged at the equivalent of a little more than a billion barrels of oil since the early 1970s, according to Economy Ministry data. It was able to maintain that level even as the economy doubled in size during the country’s boom years of the 1970s and ’80s.

MSNBC has still another story about the high-tech toilets of Japan.

Japanese toilets can warm and wash one’s bottom, whisk away odors with built-in fans and play water noises that drown out potty sounds. They play relaxation music, too. “Ave Maria” is a favorite.

High-end toilets can also sense when someone enters or leaves the bathroom, raising or lowering their lids accordingly. Many models have a “learning mode,” which allows them to memorize the lavatory schedules of household members.

But this story tries to put a whole new twist on the whole thing by saying Japanese toilets are consuming too much energy.

These always-on electricity-guzzlers (keeping water warm for bottom-washing devours power) barely existed in Japan before 1980. Now, they are in 68 percent of homes, accounting for about 4 percent of household energy consumption. They use more power than dishwashers or clothes dryers.

“For hygiene-conscious Japanese, the romance with these toilets is equivalent to the American romance with the Hummer,” said Philip Clapp, deputy managing director of the environmental group at the Pew Charitable Trusts in Washington.

Proof positive that there are people in the world wanting to micro manage your entire life, including how you take a s**t.

Thanks to bjair for the tip on the story.

Toyota recently became the world’s leading car maker and the Associated Press is reporting that last month it surpassed 1,000,000 gas-electric hybrid Prius sold (I looked it up, Toyota says the plural of Prius is Prius).

• The Prius first went on sale in 1997.
• It’s sold in 40 countries and regions.
• 592,000 were sold in North America and 315,000 in Japan.
• The latest model gets 48 miles per gallon (20 km per liter) in city driving and 45 miles per gallon (19 km per liter) in highway driving.

Before I started riding the trains here, I drove a Honda Insight in the U.S. and loved it. Unfortunately, it was discontinued because the 2-seater was too small to be practical for most people. Nevertheless, I’m glad that Japanese automakers are taking the lead on greener cars since the U.S. surely isn’t.

The Daily Yomiuri is reporting that Japan has reached an ageement under which the Japanese government and domestic firms will purchase a part of China’s greenhouse gas emissions quotas in order to reach reduction levels dictated by the Kyoto Protocol

The envisaged scheme is part of the clean development Mechanism (CDM), under which industrialized countries are able to use their own technologies and funds for projects based in developing countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions and offset these reductions against their own output.

Under the agreement, Japan would receive the right in return for development projects that it bankrolls in China.

What a scam!

Air pollution is so bad in China that clear blue skies merit blog coverage, complete with a photo, so how is it they are able to “sell” some of their quotas?

Also, if the whole point of the Kyoto scheme is emissions reductions, what point does it make to simply shift around the rights to pollute?

Still another indication that Japan is seeking carbon emission reductions in all the wrong places comes in a news report on the debate over whether the nation’s trend towards a night owl lifestyle should be curbed by government fiat in order protect the environment.

The sense among the government’s Central Environment and Industrial Structure councils is that the night-oriented lifestyles of the Japanese must change, and that the government should enact restrictions on nighttime lighting and late night TV broadcasts.

Not everyone is in agreement, however. According to a report by the Japan Franchise Association, cutting convenience store operation down to 16 hours a day from the current 24 would reduce carbon dioxide emissions only 3 to 4 percent.

They also point out that cutting operating hours also would necessitate deliveries during the daylight hours, which would increase traffic congestion in major metropolitan areas.

This whole debate has come about as the government grapples with ways to whip and drive the country into meeting Kyoto Protocol targets for so-called “greenhouse gasses.” As is usually the case in Japan, Taro and Hanako Q. Public are the first to get it in the shorts when it becomes time to start dishing out pain, simply because they do not have the organized political clout that major industries do.

The Japanese government is reportedly taking actions that will effectively make incandescent lightbulbs illegal.

The government will propose putting an end to domestic production and sale of energy-consuming incandescent bulbs to support a shift to energy-saving fluorescent bulbs to cut electricity consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, government sources said Wednesday.

The government is trying to work out the details, including the designated transition period for a shift from incandescent to fluorescent bulbs, with some proposing the period to be within three years, the sources said.

The government claims that their moves will cut around two million tons of carbon dioxide emissions. However, consumers tend to favor the incandescent bulbs because they are cheaper

[A]nalysts say the shift may draw strong opposition from consumers as prices of fluorescent bulbs are 10 times higher than for incandescent bulbs, although fluorescent bulbs consume only one-fifth the electricity and last 10 times longer.

I wonder if this will give rise to an incandescent bulb black market, smuggling rings, and midnight raids by a government agents. . .

Here are two views on the the gathering of nations in Bali, Indonesia, for the United Nations meeting on climate change, which we reported on here yesterday.

First up is Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations who says the science is in, we are the problem, and if we don’t act now it’s all over.

We have read the science. Global warming is real, and we are a prime cause.

We have heard the warnings. Unless we act, now, we face serious consequences. Polar ice may melt. Sea levels will rise. A third of our plant and animal species could vanish. There will be famine around the world, particularly in Africa and Central Asia.

Next is a report (via Mr. Pink) suggests that someone may be just blowing a lot of hot air.

Government officials and activists flying to Bali, Indonesia, for the United Nations meeting on climate change will cause as much pollution as 20,000 cars in a year.

The delegates each will produce an average 4.07 metric tons of carbon dioxide, or CO2, to reach the resort island 950 kilometers (600 miles) from Jakarta, according to estimates e- mailed to Bloomberg by the UN agency holding the conference.

Some of the 187 nations participating in the two-week forum promised to offset their so-called carbon footprint by planting trees or buying emission credits. The symbolic actions won’t help stop global warming, scientists say.

Environmental groups are up in arms over moves by Japan and Canada to eliminate binding emissions targets for rich nations at a gathering of 190 countries at a UN meeting in Bali. The purpose of the meeting is to negotiate new rules when the current phase of the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012.

Canada has suggested that if emission reductions are to be imposed, they should apply to all nations.

Both Japan and Canada were given “Fossil of the Day” awards on Tuesday, gongs given out by youth delegates from the Climate Action Network to highlight countries that have blocked progress at the talks.

“Emissions reduction targets are the heart of the Kyoto Protocol. Japan’s proposal would kill it,” the group said in a statement.

A Japanese government website was crashed earlier this week by people clicking in to take advantage of an offer of a half-price Big Mac in exchange for a personal pledge to combat global warming.

McDonald’s Japan promised to sell people a Big Mac for 150 yen if they would pledge to take steps to avoid behavior that supposedly contributes to climate change.

People were asked to check up to 39 boxes on a form they could download from the environment ministry’s website, each listing a way of reducing carbon dioxide emissions blamed for global warming.
“We started seeing a rise in access yesterday and it surged this morning. We are now trying to restore the system,” said Kenji Someno, who heads the ministry’s Lifestyle Policy Office.

It was the ministry’s first system crash following a corporate offer related to environmental efforts.
“McDonald’s is such a familiar name with people and they eat there often. The Big Mac discount gives them the strong impression that it’s a bargain,” Someno said.

The 39 measures included such practices as lowering the setting of your air conditioner, reducing shower time by one minute, and wiping water from the bottom of a kettle before heating it.

Of course, there is no way to monitor whether or not anyone actually lived up to their pledges, and so the response probably indicates more about Japan’s love of the Big Mac than anything to do with preventing global warming.

Japan’s Environment Ministry will establish an expert panel to study the feasibility of authorizing companies to get in on the global carbon offset boondoggle bandwagon.

The system allows individuals and corporations to fund wind generation, tree planting and other environmental projects to offset emissions that are unavoidable in their daily lives and economic activities.

In Europe, for example, air travelers contribute a certain amount of money to environmental programs to compensate for pollution from airplanes.

The ministry panel will compile guidelines for introducing the system in Japan, focusing on how to certify whether the collected funds are used efficiently and how to secure accountability for the contributors, the officials said.

Japan’s Economy, Trade and Industry Minister has said he is planning to demand an 80-billion-yen slice of the 2008 budget to be earmarked to finance projects aimed at preventing global warming.

Once of the projects the nation is considering calls for developing technology to make it possible to store carbon dioxide under the ocean floor.

A Japanese government panel has issued a report that concludes it will be extremely difficult for the nation to achieve emission targets set under the Kyoto Protocol.

Under the 1997 Kyoto pact, Japan is required to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 6 percent from 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012, but to the contrary, emissions increased in fiscal 2005 by as much as 7.8 percent.

One strategy suggested by the report is to set targets for sectors that exempt, including hospitals and schools, newspapers (I wonder if they were exempted to buy their silence), and those life-essential pachinko parlors?!?

The nation’s push to reduce emissions was stalled recently when a major earthquake in Niigata Prefecture damaged the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, causing radioactive matter to be leaked into the environment.

The report made no indication whether Japan is yet prepared throw in the towel and admit that the Kyoto Protocol is simply not worth it.

Hybrid automobiles are becoming more popular as people try to do their part to “save the Earth,” and no hybrid sells better than the Toyota Prius. According to a recent article by Chris Demorro, staff writer for the Central Connecticut State University Recorder, Prius owners might consider switching to a Hummer.

Demorro reports that much of the data making the Prius look like a super green car is based on outdated U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates.

[O]ld government EPA estimates, which netted the Prius an incredible 60 miles per gallon in the city and 51 miles per gallon on the highway. Unfortunately for Toyota, the government realized how unrealistic their EPA tests were, which consisted of highway speeds limited to 55mph and acceleration of only 3.3 mph per second. The new tests which affect all 2008 models give a much more realistic rating with highway speeds of 80mph and acceleration of 8mph per second. This has dropped the Prius’s EPA down by 25 percent to an average of 45mpg. This now puts the Toyota within spitting distance of cars like the Chevy Aveo, which costs less then half what the Prius costs.

Another problem is the pollution generated to produce the components that go into the Prius, especially its battery.

[T]he Prius is partly driven by a battery which contains nickel. The nickel is mined and smelted at a plant in Sudbury, Ontario. This plant has caused so much environmental damage to the surrounding environment that NASA has used the ‘dead zone’ around the plant to test moon rovers. The area around the plant is devoid of any life for miles.

The plant is the source of all the nickel found in a Prius’ battery and Toyota purchases 1,000 tons annually. Dubbed the Superstack, the plague-factory has spread sulfur dioxide across northern Ontario, becoming every environmentalist’s nightmare.

“The acid rain around Sudbury was so bad it destroyed all the plants and the soil slid down off the hillside,” said Canadian Greenpeace energy-coordinator David Martin during an interview with Mail, a British-based newspaper.

All of this would be bad enough in and of itself; however, the journey to make a hybrid doesn’t end there. The nickel produced by this disastrous plant is shipped via massive container ship to the largest nickel refinery in Europe. From there, the nickel hops over to China to produce ‘nickel foam.’ From there, it goes to Japan. Finally, the completed batteries are shipped to the United States, finalizing the around-the-world trip required to produce a single Prius battery.

In terms of average cost per mile over the expected lifetime of each vehicle, the Prius does not perform very well even when compared with a Hummer.

Through a study by CNW Marketing called “Dust to Dust,” the total combined energy is taken from all the electrical, fuel, transportation, materials (metal, plastic, etc) and hundreds of other factors over the expected lifetime of a vehicle. The Prius costs an average of $3.25 per mile driven over a lifetime of 100,000 miles - the expected lifespan of the Hybrid.

The Hummer, on the other hand, costs a more fiscal $1.95 per mile to put on the road over an expected lifetime of 300,000 miles. That means the Hummer will last three times longer than a Prius and use less combined energy doing it.

But the Prius still provides energy savings in terms of fuel economy, right? Well. . . Yes. . . If you are willing to wait long enough.

One last fun fact for you: it takes five years to offset the premium price of a Prius. Meaning, you have to wait 60 months to save any money over a non-hybrid car because of lower gas expenses.

A question that appears to occupy the minds of many Japanese a great deal is “How does the world see Japan?”

So what is Japan’s position within the global political community? How much influence can a Japanese PM hope to exert internationally?

Depends who you ask.

Ask Mr Abe himself, and you’ll get a picture of the Japanese Prime Minister as a globally influential statesman. Returning from the recent G8 summit -

Giving himself a pat on the back, a beaming Abe told a press conference that he was “very satisfied” that discussions at the summit for a consensus on emissions reduction “were centered on my proposal” and that Japan’s initiative was included in the summit declaration.

The press, in fact, say he went further than that…

Abe’s carefully scripted language, including the repeated use of “I,” which is rare in Japanese, reflects the premier’s eagerness to impress the Japanese public with his achievements at the summit in hopes of improving his ailing support ratings just a month ahead of a crucial House of Councillors election.

This sugary treat was of course cooked up for domestic consumption. Meanwhile one wonders whether the go-getting PM is having anywhere near the impact he’s claiming.

In Germany, the Schweriner Volkszeitung and two other regional papers, in profiles of G8 country leaders, printed this picture of Mr Abe.

Yes. Quite.

The gentleman pictured is actually Norihiko Akagi, the newly installed Agriculture Minister (who replaced Toshikatsu Matsuoka, who recently committed suicide).

Don’t worry, Mr Abe. Your country still loves you. Well, perhaps not ‘love’. ‘Recognise’, at least.

The Japan Times is reporting that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is planning to propose a global effort to halve propose ggreenhouse gas emissions by 2050 from current levels at the next month’s Group of Eight summit, and that George W. Bush has already pledged U.S. cooperation.

The sources, who are well versed in Japanese-U.S. relations, said Abe told Bush in their talks last month that Japan is set to unveil the proposal soon, and Bush agreed to cooperate closely in the course of Japan hosting the G-8 summit next year, saying “Fair enough.”

I may be proven wrong, but my instincts tell me this report may very well be based on a misunderstanding or fabrication.

Wen Jiabao this morning became the first Chinese Prime Minister ever to address the Japanese parliament during his visit aimed at further improving Sino-Japanese diplomatic ties.

Reciprocating PM Abe’s visit to China last year, it’s a significant move from China. Japan last received such a visitor 7 years ago, and the troubles of the intervening period have been well documented.

Both Wen and Abe seem keen to maintain the momentum of the thawing of the previously icy relationship. At a banquet thrown on Wednesday evening in honour of PM Wen, both Prime Ministers made noises about cementing friendships and focussing on a brighter future - Abe perhaps rather more urgently than his counterpart, who made several references to Japan’s need to “reflect on history”. Abe, for his part, urged a little more transparency in ’surging’ Chinese military spending.

And a whole raft of agreements have apparently been drawn up and signed. The main issues appear to be cooperation aimed at the denuclearisation of North Korea, finding ways to “jointly develop gas deposits in disputed waters”, as well as plans to collaborate on a successor to the Kyoto environmental protocol.

Well I suppose no surprise that the nation who fostered the Kyoto accord are now vowing to step up the pressure on other countries in an effort to reduce global warming.

The USA Today has an interesting article about it here.

Here is a snippet:

Japanese government ministers will “discuss proposals on a new framework that will ensure participation by the United States and China, the world’s largest greenhouse-gas emitters,” a foreign ministry official said.

The 168 countries that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol on cutting greenhouse gases will open talks in 2008 over the next round of pledges for tackling global warming, after the U.N. pact’s present commitment period expires.

Chances are you’ve heard it mentioned a hundred times on the news. The Kyoto Protocol. A treaty put forth in the United Nations to set standards to help with the problem of climate change.

The Asia Times Online has written an interesting article on the history of his historic protocol and why its named after a city in Japan. (In case you didn’t already know).

I think this year more then any year I can recall, climate change was very much on my mind. Now I’m not a tree hugging hippie and I think weather patterns fluctuate over time and that an record hot summer one year doesn’t mean the damn world is coming to an end. But I will admit that the weather has been extreme around the world to say the least and I fear that it will only get worse.

Under the terms of the Kyoto Protocol, industrialized countries must reduce their emissions of several greenhouse gases by an average of 5.2% from 1990 levels during 2008-12. The protocol sets separate gas-reduction targets for individual industrialized countries. In Japan’s case it must reduce emissions by 6%, to 1.185 billion tons carbon dioxide equivalent from 1.261 billion tons. Despite its firm commitment to the Kyoto Protocol, however, Japan’s emissions have actually risen from the 1990 levels. While those from the industrial sector -which account for about 40% of the nation’s total - may have declined slightly from the 1990 levels, those from household and transport sectors have risen strongly during the same period. Thus, in order to be in compliance Japan must now slash emissions by 14.1%.

As I have mentioned on the Japan Talk podcast a number of times, it is unseasonably warm in the Tokyo area this year.

Now we get a report that the cherry trees in Tokyo’s Ueno Part have already started to bloom – about a month earlier than normal.

[O]fficials said five trees had already blossomed and that four more trees were expected to blossom by next weekend.

More fuel to add heat to the global warming debate here.