Reducing CO₂ emissions will require that we change our way of life and community-wide initiatives will be essential to achieve this. The City of Kitakyushu was one of the earliest municipalities to espouse the FutureCity Initiative and, in October 2020, declared itself a Zero Carbon City, vowing to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Various initiatives are being undertaken in communities throughout the city. However, establishing ways of life that contribute to achieving the zero-carbon goal seems likely to take some time.

Plastics made from petrochemicals generate CO₂ in their manufacture and incineration. They also cause various environmental problems because they do not readily decompose in the natural environment. In addition to concerns about their impact on marine organisms and ecosystems, there are fears about their effects on humans via the food chain. However, given that plastics are indispensable in our daily lives, eradicating them is impossible. It goes without saying that we need to reduce their use, so there is a pressing need to develop plastic alternatives that minimize the burden on the environment.

The government has announced that it aims to create a zero-carbon society by 2050, but the path to achieving this goal will be a rocky one. While the widespread use of renewable energy will be essential, there is disquiet about the ability of solar and wind power to provide a stable supply of electricity to support the Japanese economy, given that intermittency in supply will inevitably occur at times when they cannot generate power. It would be fair to say that thermal power generation is a practical option for making up for the intermittency. High-efficiency third-generation thermal power technology could hold one of the keys to bringing a zero-carbon future to fruition.

Countries worldwide are stepping up efforts to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and other greenhouse gases (GHGs). Japan has decided on a target of reducing GHG emissions by 46% from FY2013 levels by FY2030. However, achieving this massive target will require a great many challenges to be overcome, and it will be extremely difficult to do so within a socioeconomic structure bound by the conventions that have held sway until now. Not only technological innovation, but also a drastic transformation in the very fabric of society will be needed.

From abnormal weather conditions such as heat waves and huge typhoons to changes in the fish prices at supermarkets, global warming is becoming a compelling issue that also has a large impact on our lives. However, the earth seems to look somewhat different in the eye of an expert who calculates the “earth's future” based on massive data and computations detached from such human subjectivity and actual feelings, as if to calculate the parabola of a thrown ball.

If the air temperature rises due to climate change, the environment suitable for plants will shift northward. In that process, the most affected plants will be alpine plants that grow on high mountains in a low-temperature environment. If the air temperature continues to rise, alpine plants may eventually lose their habitat and almost disappear from Japan. There is also a prediction that the areas suitable for beech forest in Shirakami-Sanchi, a UNESCO World Heritage site, will decrease to around 20%. On the other hand, bamboo, which favors warm climate, seems to be expanding its power northward.

Climate change affects insect populations in various ways, such as north- or southward range expansion, changes in the number of annual generations, and asynchrony between the emergence season of insects and host plant phenology. We often try to simply attribute drastic changes in insect population density to global warming. However, causality does not seem to be that simple. Long-term field surveys are essential to explain causal relation between drastic changes and global warming. How will be insect life affected by global warming?

We have come to frequently experience unprecedented scales of meteorological disasters such as typhoons, torrential rains, and heat waves. Climate variability, which had seemed to be a nonurgent issue, is now growing into an actual threat. Various data are pointing to global warming. How does the air temperature rise, and what is the current state of the earth? What should we be prepared for in facing this phenomenon?