Nithin Coca
@nithincoca.com
Asia-focused (🇯🇵🇲🇾🇮🇩 & Tibet) award winning global journalist covering environment, climate, Human Rights & supply chains. DM for Signal 🔑
📍Japan, sometimes California or Indonesia
Mastodon: https://social.coop/@ncoca
Contact: nithincoca.com
📍Japan, sometimes California or Indonesia
Mastodon: https://social.coop/@ncoca
Contact: nithincoca.com
Pinned
Nithin Coca
@nithincoca.com
· Nov 14
An intro post: I'm a Japan-based, Indian-American environment and human rights freelance journalist (for @vox.com @aljazeera.com @nikkei.com @mongabay.bsky.social @thenation.com and elsewhere).
Was quite active on Twitter & still active on Mastodon & looking forward to connecting with people here!
Was quite active on Twitter & still active on Mastodon & looking forward to connecting with people here!
Are we trading one environmental catastrophe for another under the disguise of #EnergySecurity? Why do #Japan’s biomass plants include dangerous explosions and heavy pollution?
For @mongabay.com, my latest piece unpacks the risks of wood pellets for power news.mongabay.com/2026/08/conc...
For @mongabay.com, my latest piece unpacks the risks of wood pellets for power news.mongabay.com/2026/08/conc...
Concerns grow over ‘green’ biomass power in Japan after spate of accidents
For the past decade, Japan has been expanding the use of woody biomass for power generation to replace or be mixed and burned with coal. The country is now the second-largest wood pellet consumer in t...
news.mongabay.com
September 17, 2026 at 3:08 PM
Are we trading one environmental catastrophe for another under the disguise of #EnergySecurity? Why do #Japan’s biomass plants include dangerous explosions and heavy pollution?
For @mongabay.com, my latest piece unpacks the risks of wood pellets for power news.mongabay.com/2026/08/conc...
For @mongabay.com, my latest piece unpacks the risks of wood pellets for power news.mongabay.com/2026/08/conc...
Reposted by Nithin Coca
More than a week after the deadly Nepal China floods, very little is known about the dead or missing in Tibet. China's control over media and digital censorship is in stark contrast to open reporting in Nepal. But it's not new. www.npr.org/2026/09/07/n...
As Nepal identifies those killed in the floods, questions grow over China's reporting
One week after the deadly floods, very little is known about China's dead or missing. China's control over media and digital censorship is in stark contrast to open reporting in Nepal.
www.npr.org
September 7, 2026 at 2:08 PM
More than a week after the deadly Nepal China floods, very little is known about the dead or missing in Tibet. China's control over media and digital censorship is in stark contrast to open reporting in Nepal. But it's not new. www.npr.org/2026/09/07/n...
As newsrooms obsess over the latest Trump blunders, what happens to the rest of the world? International journalists are being left behind.
For @objectivejournos.bsky.social my latest unpacks the hidden costs of shrinking foreign reporting budgets objectivejournalism.org/2026/08/u-s-...
For @objectivejournos.bsky.social my latest unpacks the hidden costs of shrinking foreign reporting budgets objectivejournalism.org/2026/08/u-s-...
International journalists' opportunities are shrinking
As Donald Trump wins more attention from U.S. news media, one loser has often been international reporting.
objectivejournalism.org
September 14, 2026 at 7:03 AM
As newsrooms obsess over the latest Trump blunders, what happens to the rest of the world? International journalists are being left behind.
For @objectivejournos.bsky.social my latest unpacks the hidden costs of shrinking foreign reporting budgets objectivejournalism.org/2026/08/u-s-...
For @objectivejournos.bsky.social my latest unpacks the hidden costs of shrinking foreign reporting budgets objectivejournalism.org/2026/08/u-s-...
Reposted by Nithin Coca
So, #google will no longer let you see even basic details - like hours - unless you login. Which, of course, I can't since I have no account.
#enshittification #bigtech #tech
#enshittification #bigtech #tech
September 14, 2026 at 3:10 AM
So, #google will no longer let you see even basic details - like hours - unless you login. Which, of course, I can't since I have no account.
#enshittification #bigtech #tech
#enshittification #bigtech #tech
The Chinese government relies on dancing ethnic minorities to project normalcy. Last year, it brought dancing #Uyghurs to #Japan.
For the wonderful @mekongreview.com, I unpack the bizarre propaganda of 'Xinjiang Week' mekongreview.com/xinjiang-week/
For the wonderful @mekongreview.com, I unpack the bizarre propaganda of 'Xinjiang Week' mekongreview.com/xinjiang-week/
Xinjiang week - Mekong Review
Uyghur dance performances are invariably showcased by Chinese officials in an attempt to show that everything in Xinjiang is ‘normal’. It’s a move that, through its absurdity, creates even more unease...
mekongreview.com
September 11, 2026 at 7:50 AM
The Chinese government relies on dancing ethnic minorities to project normalcy. Last year, it brought dancing #Uyghurs to #Japan.
For the wonderful @mekongreview.com, I unpack the bizarre propaganda of 'Xinjiang Week' mekongreview.com/xinjiang-week/
For the wonderful @mekongreview.com, I unpack the bizarre propaganda of 'Xinjiang Week' mekongreview.com/xinjiang-week/
Reposted by Nithin Coca
“The next day, the messages grew more panicked. ‘Mama, please get home quickly.’ Finally, she sent the same text, four times in a row: ‘Mama, I miss you.’”
Relatives Go Online to Grieve #Tibet’s Flood Victims. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/w...
Relatives Go Online to Grieve #Tibet’s Flood Victims. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/w...
‘Mama, I Miss You’: Relatives Go Online to Grieve Tibet’s Flood Victims.
The authorities have not released an official list of those missing in the Tibet flood, creating an information void that people have tried to fill.
www.nytimes.com
September 10, 2026 at 10:11 PM
“The next day, the messages grew more panicked. ‘Mama, please get home quickly.’ Finally, she sent the same text, four times in a row: ‘Mama, I miss you.’”
Relatives Go Online to Grieve #Tibet’s Flood Victims. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/w...
Relatives Go Online to Grieve #Tibet’s Flood Victims. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/w...
Reposted by Nithin Coca
More re Anwar Ibrahim: compare his 2018, before-becoming Prime Minister of Malaysia comments re the Uyghurs. An e.g.: "Asked why Muslim governments have largely been quiet on the Uighurs, Anwar said, “They’re scared. Nobody wants to say anything”...
www.uyghurcongress.org
August 19, 2026 at 12:47 PM
More re Anwar Ibrahim: compare his 2018, before-becoming Prime Minister of Malaysia comments re the Uyghurs. An e.g.: "Asked why Muslim governments have largely been quiet on the Uighurs, Anwar said, “They’re scared. Nobody wants to say anything”...
Reposted by Nithin Coca
“There is barely any lake left,” Ghulam Mohammad, a 70-year-old resident of Anchar who has been fishing in the lake for nearly 40 years, said. “The water is shrinking, pollution is increasing, and the ecosystem is dying before our eyes.”
www.thexylom.com/post/kashmir...
www.thexylom.com/post/kashmir...
Why a Kashmiri Cattle Rearer Still Depends on a Lake That Made Her Sick
As pollution, sewage, and unchecked development shrink Kashmir's lakes, families who rely on them for their livelihoods have few alternatives — even when the water is toxic.
www.thexylom.com
September 7, 2026 at 12:45 AM
“There is barely any lake left,” Ghulam Mohammad, a 70-year-old resident of Anchar who has been fishing in the lake for nearly 40 years, said. “The water is shrinking, pollution is increasing, and the ecosystem is dying before our eyes.”
www.thexylom.com/post/kashmir...
www.thexylom.com/post/kashmir...
Reposted by Nithin Coca
RSF warns that censorship and information controls are obscuring the toll of the devastating floods in Tibet. No independent #Tibetan or international media have been allowed into affected areas rsf.org/en/floods-ne...
Floods in Nepal and Tibet: restrictions and disinformation are impeding vital news
As the list of identified victims and missing persons continues to grow, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is sounding the alarm about the obstacles preventing the public from accessing vital informatio...
rsf.org
September 3, 2026 at 5:52 PM
RSF warns that censorship and information controls are obscuring the toll of the devastating floods in Tibet. No independent #Tibetan or international media have been allowed into affected areas rsf.org/en/floods-ne...
Reposted by Nithin Coca
The Nepal-Tibet Catastrophe: What Is China Hiding?
Nepal counted its dead and opened its data; Tibet’s losses vanished behind China’s digital erasure.
By Lopsang Gurung
bitterwinter.org/the-nepal-ti...
Nepal counted its dead and opened its data; Tibet’s losses vanished behind China’s digital erasure.
By Lopsang Gurung
bitterwinter.org/the-nepal-ti...
The Nepal-Tibet Catastrophe: What Is China Hiding?
Nepal counted its dead and opened its data; Tibet’s losses vanished behind China’s digital erasure.
bitterwinter.org
September 2, 2026 at 11:13 PM
The Nepal-Tibet Catastrophe: What Is China Hiding?
Nepal counted its dead and opened its data; Tibet’s losses vanished behind China’s digital erasure.
By Lopsang Gurung
bitterwinter.org/the-nepal-ti...
Nepal counted its dead and opened its data; Tibet’s losses vanished behind China’s digital erasure.
By Lopsang Gurung
bitterwinter.org/the-nepal-ti...
You can tell a lot by who calls it the #Nepal-#Tibet floods and who calls its the #Nepal-#China floods.
September 2, 2026 at 5:07 AM
You can tell a lot by who calls it the #Nepal-#Tibet floods and who calls its the #Nepal-#China floods.
Reposted by Nithin Coca
Honestly, just tragic. A society that devours its young has no future but that is what the CCP has in the cards for Hong Kong, while Wong and many nameless others have sacrificed so much to defend their home
Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong pleads guilty in second national security case
Wong, 29, is accused of urging foreign powers to impose sanctions, blockades and other hostile measures against China
www.theguardian.com
September 2, 2026 at 4:41 AM
Honestly, just tragic. A society that devours its young has no future but that is what the CCP has in the cards for Hong Kong, while Wong and many nameless others have sacrificed so much to defend their home
So, are all the people angry at #Google maps for predictably renaming Lake Ontario actually going to stop using it?
Or are they just going to complain and then make excuses, just like they've done with basically every other #bigtech platform that supports fascists?
This is why they keep winning.
Or are they just going to complain and then make excuses, just like they've done with basically every other #bigtech platform that supports fascists?
This is why they keep winning.
September 1, 2026 at 10:28 PM
Reposted by Nithin Coca
Ten years after the Chinese Communist Party sharply escalated abuses against Uyghurs in the far western Xinjiang region, the crackdown on rights remains severe, @hrw.org reports.
The repression amounts to crimes against humanity.
www.hrw.org/news/2026/08...
The repression amounts to crimes against humanity.
www.hrw.org/news/2026/08...
China: Decade of Impunity for Crimes Against Uyghurs
The Chinese government’s decade-long severe repression against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims amounting to crimes against humanity, deserves a stronger response from the international community.
www.hrw.org
August 28, 2026 at 11:22 AM
Ten years after the Chinese Communist Party sharply escalated abuses against Uyghurs in the far western Xinjiang region, the crackdown on rights remains severe, @hrw.org reports.
The repression amounts to crimes against humanity.
www.hrw.org/news/2026/08...
The repression amounts to crimes against humanity.
www.hrw.org/news/2026/08...
I went back to China after a decade away—I'd previously lived there for 20 years. Some notes:
App Life in China
“It’s really tough doing anything in China right now,” my friend told me. He’s a serial entrepreneur in Shanghai with a locked-in grin. We were waiting for our food in a Taiwanese restaurant in a lovi...
www.chinafile.com
August 27, 2026 at 8:23 AM
Reposted by Nithin Coca
Devastating flash floods have taken place on the Nepal-Tibet border. We must ensure that reporting on this disaster focuses on Nepal and Tibet, not China.
This tragedy did not occur in “Western China,” “China’s Tibet,” or “Xizang.”
Tibet is Tibet and must remain so.
This tragedy did not occur in “Western China,” “China’s Tibet,” or “Xizang.”
Tibet is Tibet and must remain so.
August 27, 2026 at 7:09 AM
Devastating flash floods have taken place on the Nepal-Tibet border. We must ensure that reporting on this disaster focuses on Nepal and Tibet, not China.
This tragedy did not occur in “Western China,” “China’s Tibet,” or “Xizang.”
Tibet is Tibet and must remain so.
This tragedy did not occur in “Western China,” “China’s Tibet,” or “Xizang.”
Tibet is Tibet and must remain so.
Reposted by Nithin Coca
Devastating news from the Nepal–Tibet border, where flash floods & mudslides have killed at least 17 people. As climate change accelerates snow & ice melt across the #Himalayas, the need for early warning systems & climate-resilient infrastructure grows ever more urgent www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Nepal flash floods: Heavy casualties feared
The flood in Rasuwa - an area north of Kathmandu bordering Tibet - is feared to have swept away villages.
www.bbc.co.uk
August 26, 2026 at 10:24 AM
Devastating news from the Nepal–Tibet border, where flash floods & mudslides have killed at least 17 people. As climate change accelerates snow & ice melt across the #Himalayas, the need for early warning systems & climate-resilient infrastructure grows ever more urgent www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Nithin Coca
“… the artworks at the centre of the case were created more than 10 years before China created the law under which Gao was charged.”
🤯
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...?
🤯
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...?
August 25, 2026 at 11:32 PM
“… the artworks at the centre of the case were created more than 10 years before China created the law under which Gao was charged.”
🤯
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...?
🤯
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...?
I support I should feel sorry, but I'm also someone who has repeatedly warned nonprofits that I've worked w/ that they rely too much on #bigtech platforms.
Amazing that I, a freelance journalist, have a most robust data backup system than many nonprofit orgs?
slate.com/technology/2...
Amazing that I, a freelance journalist, have a most robust data backup system than many nonprofit orgs?
slate.com/technology/2...
The Quiet Decision Microsoft Made That Devastated Thousands of Nonprofits
When the tech giant retired a popular software grant, years of nonprofit data vanished with it.
slate.com
August 24, 2026 at 11:55 AM
I support I should feel sorry, but I'm also someone who has repeatedly warned nonprofits that I've worked w/ that they rely too much on #bigtech platforms.
Amazing that I, a freelance journalist, have a most robust data backup system than many nonprofit orgs?
slate.com/technology/2...
Amazing that I, a freelance journalist, have a most robust data backup system than many nonprofit orgs?
slate.com/technology/2...
Reposted by Nithin Coca
And we have a new all-time record warm *absolute* temperature for the oceans, according to ERA5 (which goes back to 1940):
August 21st likely marked the warmest Sea Surface Temperatures have been for the entire Holocene period. Should be major news!
August 21st likely marked the warmest Sea Surface Temperatures have been for the entire Holocene period. Should be major news!
August 23, 2026 at 6:22 PM
And we have a new all-time record warm *absolute* temperature for the oceans, according to ERA5 (which goes back to 1940):
August 21st likely marked the warmest Sea Surface Temperatures have been for the entire Holocene period. Should be major news!
August 21st likely marked the warmest Sea Surface Temperatures have been for the entire Holocene period. Should be major news!
#Climate groups, rightly, spoke out when #COP was in countries with horrific #humanrights records like #Azerbaijan #Egypt & the #UAE, all of which didn't provide much space for #civilsociety.
Unfortunately, so far not seeing much of that with this potential news www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Unfortunately, so far not seeing much of that with this potential news www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
China Said to Weigh Potential Bid to Host 2028 UN Climate Summit
China is considering a proposal to host the annual United Nations climate summit in 2028, a move that would signal the country’s intent to show greater global leadership on the issue.
www.bloomberg.com
August 21, 2026 at 11:41 AM
#Climate groups, rightly, spoke out when #COP was in countries with horrific #humanrights records like #Azerbaijan #Egypt & the #UAE, all of which didn't provide much space for #civilsociety.
Unfortunately, so far not seeing much of that with this potential news www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Unfortunately, so far not seeing much of that with this potential news www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
End one party dictatorship!
August 21, 2026 at 6:54 AM
End one party dictatorship!
Reposted by Nithin Coca
Once promoted as a green coal alternative, Japan’s biomass power sector faces growing backlash after a series of industrial accidents.
With rising costs and expiring government tariffs, critics are questioning the industry's future.
Learn more in this story by @nithincoca.com for #Mongabay.
With rising costs and expiring government tariffs, critics are questioning the industry's future.
Learn more in this story by @nithincoca.com for #Mongabay.
Concerns grow over ‘green’ biomass power in Japan after spate of accidents
For the past decade, Japan has been expanding the use of woody biomass for power generation to replace or be mixed and burned with coal. The country is now the second-largest wood pellet consumer in…
mongabay.cc
August 18, 2026 at 11:53 AM
Once promoted as a green coal alternative, Japan’s biomass power sector faces growing backlash after a series of industrial accidents.
With rising costs and expiring government tariffs, critics are questioning the industry's future.
Learn more in this story by @nithincoca.com for #Mongabay.
With rising costs and expiring government tariffs, critics are questioning the industry's future.
Learn more in this story by @nithincoca.com for #Mongabay.