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3 Cases of Global Warming in Japan
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Attention Photojournalists who are based in Japan and/or who want to shoot in Japan! I am posting below three cases of global warming in Japan some of you might be interested in taking up. Since two of them have to do with the color, I think color photography is appropriate.
I have googled in Japanese to look for cases of global warming in Japan which I probably first saw on TV when I was in Tokyo.
Case No. 1 Orange Production in Ehime Prefecture
Due to a temperature rise, particularly in fall-winter, Mikan (Japanese orange) farmers in Ehime Prefecture have experienced a drop in the quality of their Mikan. The Japanese are particular about the quality of produce and they won`t buy unless the quality is there. (not like some country where the price is everything) I have two references on the Internet regarding their switch to Blood Orange which is grown in Italy. The farmers are working on creating their new orange brand, Tarokko, based on the Sicilian Blood Orange.
Article in Japanese with a couple of photos
Another article in Japanese on the subject, referring to the drop in quality due to global warming
Case 2. Fall Colors in Kyoto
According to this article in Kyoto Shimbun, the date of the best fall colors in Kyoto has shifted over the years. Between 75 and 89, Nov. 30 was the best day on the average, while between 90-05, Dec. 2 was the best day on the average.
Case No. 3 Global Warming in Hokkaido
There has been an average temperature rise of 4 degrees Celcius in Hokkaido. Increased population of Ezoshika (Hokkaido deer) has caused numerous problems in agricultural crops eaten by deer. Tourists coming to watch drift ice along the coast of Hokkaido are dissapointed to see little drift ice. I`ll post later when I find a credible reference or two giving numbers. So far what I find are lot of chatter in Japanese blogs on the subject.
If any of you have seen the coverage of the above cases in English or other languages outside of Japan, please post them.
I understand that there was a NHK special on global warming only last Saturday, June 7. Those of you in Japan might have seen that, and might be able to get a video of the coverage.
You are welcome to PM or e-mail me at tomokohondayamamoto@gmail.com if you would like to discuss your interest in shooting one of the three above or other global warming topic in Japan. I am not based in Japan for one thing and I am not a photojournalist. I joined LS because of my travel. I go to Japan reqularly to visit my family and to shoot my personal project for my multimedia show involving my own musical composition, but I am interested in the topic of global warming.
by
Tomoko Yamamoto
at
Wed Jun 11 21:06:46 UTC 2008
(ed. Jun 19 2008)
Baltimore, MD,
United States
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I found a more credible reference than somebody`s blog entry regarding a temperature rise in Hokkaido.
Here is the reference in Japanese.
The above is a talk given by a meterologist in Hokkaido.
Temperature change in the past 100 years worldwide: 0.7 C
Japan:1 C
Hokkaido: 1.5 C in winter, spring 1.5 C, autumn 1.6 C (little change in summer)
Temperature rise in the next 100 years Hokkaido: 3~4 C winter; 2-3 C summer >5 C in the Sea of Okhotsk
The temperature rise mentioned in the blog must have been affected by the talk of future rise and not the past rise.
The prediction given has a 40% certainty according to the meterologist. Temperature rises in cities have been influenced by urbanization as well as ongoing greenhouse effects since the industrial revolution.
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It turns out that one page summary of the impact of global warming on Japan exists in English from Osaka Prefecture. I quote the opening paragraph which talks about global warming in atmosphere.
“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in which more than 1,000 scientists participate from countries around the world, compiled its second report in 1995. The report states that the average temperature on the earth increased by about 0.3 – 0.6 C over the past 100 years, and that global warming will further advance if no new measure is taken, raising the average temperature at the end of the 21st century by about 2 C (minimum: about 1 C; maximum: about 3.5 C, and further in the future. An increase of 2 C is not to be dismissed as “only” 2 C; the scorching heat wave in Japan in 1994 was, in fact, an increase of “only” 1 C from the average year.
Even during the ice age, the average temperature was only 3 – 6 C lower than today, which underlines the seriousness of a 2 C increase in average temperature. “
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Greenhouse effects are produced by Carbon Dioxide emission. Here is per capita ranking of emission by countries. 
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It would be fair to compare the total emission per country as well. 
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Here is a graphical illustration of global warming. 
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Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics. -Autobiography of Mark Twain
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I skimmed the quoted article by a Russian scientist. “Soon” in the quote above is 100,000 years.
“It will come in 100,000 years, at the earliest, and will be much worse than the previous. Europe will be ice-bound, with glaciers reaching south of Moscow.”
I don`t care what happens in 100,000 years. What I care is what will happen in my lifetime and a few generations afterward.
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To an outsider, the most significant innovation in the global warming controversy is the overt reliance that is being placed on models. Back in the days of nuclear winter, computer models were invoked to add weight to a conclusion: “These results are derived with the help of a computer model.” But now large-scale computer models are seen as generating data in themselves. No longer are models judged by how well they reproduce data from the real world-increasingly, models provide the data. As if they were themselves a reality. And indeed they are, when we are projecting forward. There can be no observational data about the year 2100. There are only model runs. Michael Crichton, Aliens Cause Global Warming
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I don’t care what happens in 100,000 years either. Neither does http://www.lomborg.com/ whose lecture I linked for you elsewhere on LS, though it must have whooshed by you, ignored. No, not gonna post it again.
Unseasonably cold where I sit, by the way. Three layers on, shoes, when I “should have been” in bare feet and shorts, sweating my stupid rear end off, a month ago. According to computer generated weather forecast models that is.
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Rather than trying to change weather with fictional computer models, my suggestion is to concentrate on bringing down-to-earth sanitation to every human, health care from cradle to grave to all of us, and fair distribution of wealth, instead of its concentration in the hands of the top three stupid percent.
No matter how the Union of Concerned Computer Projection Model Writers interpret their machine-made models of weather.
Weather forecasts. Please. Less reliable than political polls.
Getting off this thread. Bye.
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I found an English story on the switch of Japanese mikan (orange) to the Blood Orange of Sicily adopted in Ehime Prefecture.
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