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Japan

When Japan Embraces Pure Swedish Living


More than a handful of Japanese have taken the idea of cultural fusion to the next level.

Tucked in the hills about 30 kilometers from Sapporo City, Japan, and some 8,000 kilometers away from Stockholm, a small village called Sweden Hills is home to some 2,000 Japanese residents who live in Swedish-style houses, Svenska Dagbladetreports.

These Japanese locals have fully embraced Swedish culture — speaking the language, celebrating Midsummer, throwing crayfish parties, adorning the some 500 characteristic houses with the blue-and-yellow Swedish flags and dressing up in traditional Swedish clothing.

The town's construction began in 1984 after the then Swedish ambassador visited Tobetsu Town and remarked how similar the atmosphere and scenery were to his native country. Today, Sweden Hills has a sister city in northern Sweden, a relationship meant to promote cultural and commercial ties between the countries.

On its webpage, Sweden Hills is presented as the right place for those who seek "perfect life quality."

Similarly, in China, the "Swedish" city of Luodian is just 25 kilometers from downtown Shanghai. Luodian, or "Chinese Sigtuna," is one of six European-style towns that were built a decade ago to absorb Shanghai's growing population. Though these outposts still constitute an attractive destination for Chinese vacationers, China's slowing economy has left them otherwise deserted today.

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Green

The Problem With Always Blaming Climate Change For Natural Disasters

Climate change is real, but a closer look at the science shows there are many factors that contribute to weather-related disasters. It is important to raise awareness about the long-term impact of global warming, but there's a risk in overstating its role in the latest floods or fires.

People on foot, on bikes, motorcycles, scooters and cars navigate through a flooded street during the day time.

Karachi - People wade through flood water after heavy rain in a southern Pakistani city

Xinhua / ZUMA
Axel Bojanowski

-Analysis-

BERLIN — In September, thousands of people lost their lives when dams collapsed during flooding in Libya. Engineers had warned that the dams were structurally unsound.

Two years ago, dozens died in floods in western Germany, a region that had experienced a number of similar floods in earlier centuries, where thousands of houses had been built on the natural floodplain.

Last year saw more than 1,000 people lose their lives during monsoon floods in Pakistan. Studies showed that the impact of flooding in the region was exacerbated by the proximity of human settlements, the outdated river management system, high poverty rates and political instability in Pakistan.

There are many factors that contribute to weather-related disasters, but one dominates the headlines: climate change. That is because of so-called attribution studies, which are published very quickly after these disasters to highlight how human-caused climate change contributes to extreme weather events. After the flooding in Libya, German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung described climate change as a “serial offender," while the Tageszeitung wrote that “the climate crisis has exacerbated the extreme rainfall."

The World Weather Attribution initiative (WWA) has once again achieved its aim of using “real-time analysis” to draw attention to the issue: on its website, the institute says its goal is to “analyse and communicate the possible influence of climate change on extreme weather events." Frederike Otto, who works on attribution studies for the WWA, says these reports help to underscore the urgent need for climate action. They transform climate change from an “abstract threat into a concrete one."

In the immediate aftermath of a weather-related disaster, teams of researchers rush to put together attribution studies – “so that they are ready within the same news cycle," as the New York Times reported. However, these attribution studies do not meet normal scientific standards, as they are published without going through the peer-review process that would be undertaken before publication in a specialist scientific journal. And that creates problems.

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