WASHINGTON - The bipartisan climate bill up for debate in the Senate this week aims to curb carbon emissions in the U.S. and throughout the world, mostly through economic incentives and funding for technology development and research.

The Warner-Lieberman bill is not expected to get very far in this Congress, but is more of a dress rehearsal for future climate change legislation introduced in a more favorable political climate. Opponents of the bill say more time needs to be spent looking into the causes and effects of global warming to determine the best path to take.

But for some Americans, climate change is not an abstract concept that could conceivably affect them in the future; it is a phenomenon they say is already having an impact on their lives.

Japan’s gorgeous cultural emblem has taken on a new level of meaning. It will help the resource-poor island nation generate more of its own energy.

By Eric Kroh

Every year in Japan, the blossoming of the sakura, or flowering cherry tree, is an occasion for rejoicing. The reveling begins in late March, when the sakura trees in the southern island of Kyushu put forth their buds. The celebration then spreads north with the flowering of the trees until the last cherry trees bloom on the island of Hokkaido in May.

The flowering period for sakura trees is brief. Mere days after opening, the flowers fall to the ground, carpeting the earth with delicate pink petals. Yet the short-lived display is so spectacular that, upon sight of the first buds, the Japanese have been known to drop everything and head to the best viewing locations to eat, drink and play music.

Moreover, wood from the cherry, a national symbol, is used for woodblock prints and magnificent furniture. This year, the sakura trees bear an additional gift for the Japanese—that of renewable electricity and heat.

As the cherries blossomed in March, Japan’s largest wood-gas-to-energy power plant began operations in the Yamagata prefecture, about 250 miles north of Tokyo. Located in the city of Murayama, the plant runs exclusively on gasified wood chips and tree trimmings culled from nearby forests that include tens of thousands of cherry trees.