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the huge city with sea water and a labyrinth of 
underground pipes. 

   "Though summers are hard in any city, Tokyo's narrow 
streets, hordes of people and clusters of massive 
skyscrapers, largely unrelieved by greenery, produce a 
special brand of discomfort.

   "And it gets worse every year.  (((Oh yeah.  You bet it 
does.))) The number of nights when temperatures stay above 
25 Celsius (77 Fahrenheit) in Tokyo has doubled over the 
last 30 years, while average temperatures have shot up by 
2.9 degrees C over the last century. Relief, however 
distant, could be on the way.  ((("Great news, weather 
sufferers!  We live in the high-tech capital of a G-7 
state!")))

   "At the behest of the Construction Ministry, the panel 
has drawn up a plan that would use a network of buried 
pipes, and water pumped from the sea, to cool things down. 
'In the very best conditions, certain areas could in 
theory become as much as 2.6 degrees Celsius cooler,' said 
Yujin Minobe, a ministry planner.

    "The huge air-conditioning systems currently used to 
cool buildings get rid of the heat they take out of the 
structure by venting it into the outside air, raising 
temperatures still further and creating a 'heat island' 
phenomenon in large cities.  (((Soon whole *cities* will 
do it and vent their heat straight into the rising seas! 
Look out, Antarctica.)))

    "Under the plan, this heat would be transferred to 
water in large underground tanks, and the water then 
pumped through a six-km (3.7-mile) network of underground 
pipes to a cooling plant on the Tokyo waterfront.

    "There the heat from this water would be transferred 
to cooler sea water before the then-cooled water was 
pumped back through the underground pipes. The sea water, 
now warmed, would be released into the waters of Tokyo 
Bay.

    "COSTLY PLAN.  (((That's unsurprising.)))  Minobe said 
the plan would cover some 123 hectares (304 acres) in the 
centre of Tokyo, including the Marunouchi business 
district and the posh Ginza shopping area, and would 
initially cost around 41 billion yen ($344 million).

    "'Savings on reduced energy usage would eventually 
help pay for this,' he said.  (((A real nest of ironies 
here, folks.))) Officials quoted in the English-language 
Japan Times said energy savings would total more than 1 
billion yen a year, meaning the system would pay for 
itself in a bit over 30 years.

    "However, Minobe said many problems remained with the 
plan, which has only been under discussion since April 
last year. One of the most serious problems is whether 
warmer water being returned to Tokyo Bay would damage the 
fragile marine ecosystem, a point Minobe said still 
required more study.  (((Give it 30 years and there won't 
be any ecosystem left to study.)))

    "He said the average temperature cut is likely to be 
only around 0.4 degrees. 'I'm not even sure people would 
be able to feel that difference,' he said. Any such plan, 
however, would likely produce a gleam in the eyes of 
Japan's huge construction industry, known for its 
propensity for public works projects. Although several are 
decried as wasteful, public works projects have long been 
used by the government in attempts to stimulate the 
economy.  (((Nice use of the word "attempts.")))

    "Frankly, I think this plan is still really more of a 
dream than anything else," Minobe said. 

O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O
TOKYO STAYS COOL
AS DEADLY HEATWAVE BAKES 
KOBE, OSAKA, KYOTO
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