Environmental Ethics in Japan

527 Words2 Pages

It has been suggested that Japan may not be effective in negotiating with the international community. I am here to put that assertion to rest. Japan, facing increasing incidences of daily maximum temperatures greater than 35C and a decrease in extremely low temperatures, recognizes that climate change affects all nations of the world, and that everyone has the duty to decrease the rate of climate change, if not counteract the effects altogether.
In Japan, various birds and mammals have exhibited trends towards larger body size due to increasing food availability with regionally increasing temperatures. However, the major concern dealing with climate change is rice yields; they are projected to decrease up to 40% in irrigated lowland areas of central and southern Japan. The impact of rising temperatures on the world’s food supplies was a key issue for climate experts that met in Japan because a changing climate is one of a number of issues pushing Japan towards a food crisis. Dr. Raquel Moreno Panaranda, from the United Nations University in Yokohama said, “The whole food system is not secure at all.” Japan is working to counteract the effects of climate change, not only regionally, but also worldwide to ensure that a food crisis does not occur in the immediate future. With Climate change on the rise, the time in which the Japanese spring event of Hanami—waiting for the first signs of Cherry Blossoms in the historic Ueno Park in the middle of Tokyo—is becoming more difficult to predict. Because of their cultural significance, the appearance of the blossoms has been recorded in some parts of Japan for over a thousand years; however, climate change is causing irregularity for when the trees bloom. The people of Japan not only ...

... middle of paper ...

... WWF GLOBAL. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2014. .
"Climate Change: Impacts on Japan." Nature Asia. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2014. .
"Japan Meteorological Agency." Japan Meteorological Agency. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2014. .
"Japan to Suffer Huge Climate Costs - Our World." Our World. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2014. .
McGrath, Matt. "Hunger Games with Climate Change." BBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2014. .
"MOFA: Climate Change." MOFA: Climate Change. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2014. .

Open Document