Time for change
The Earth has always had a dynamic climate, but it has never changed as fast as it is changing now. In this series, created in partnership with Rolex’s Perpetual Planet Initiative, we examine the forces driving environmental change and those devising solutions.
COP’s over. What does it mean for New Zealand?
The annual United Nations climate change conference ended yesterday, with an agreement described both as historic and inadequate.
Deep impact
For almost 25 years, marine biologist Vreni Häussermann has been opening people’s eyes to the wonders of the Chilean Patagonia fjords and using her research to push for greater protection of the marine environment.
The future of the world is written in penguin blood
Erect-crested penguins are one of the most mysterious birds on the planet. We have little idea how many there are, what they eat, where they forage, or how their environment may be changing as the Southern Ocean warms. No one has even visited the Bounty Islands where they breed in three years. Scientist Thomas Mattern chartered a yacht and mounted a mission to answer some of these urgent questions before it’s too late.
Looking at the past to predict the future
Gina Moseley is unearthing secrets about our climate in some of the world’s most remote caves.
Counting the dead
Record low Antarctic sea ice in the spring of 2022 caused four emperor penguin colonies to suffer “catastrophic breeding failure”. Since 2009, Peter Fretwell and colleagues from the British Antarctic Survey have used satellite imagery to monitor penguin colonies at five remote sites in the Bellingshausen Sea, east of the Antarctic Peninsula. These birds have never seen a human, but we can detect the brown staining of their poo from space. The scientists estimate about 9000 chicks typically hatch on the ice here each spring, with 6000-8000 surviving to fledge in December. But in 2022, Fretwell watched anxiously as the waves edged closer to the animals. Well before the chicks had develo
Bottom feeding
When humans fish, we tend to go after the big fish first—the meaty, confident predators that are easy to catch. Tuna, swordfish, crayfish, snapper. As those become rarer, we move on to the next-biggest fish, and finally on to the grazers, like kina. This phenomenon has been dubbed “fishing down the food web”, and it’s a problem all over the world: “You take the top predators out of any ecosystem and you disrupt the balance,” says University of Auckland marine scientist Andrew Jeffs. An international group of scientists analysed 70 years of New Zealand fisheries data and found the pattern holds here, too. As bigger fish became harder to find close to shore, fishers started catc
Summer 33
Two people have been counting albatrosses on remote islands in the subantarctic for more than three decades. Their research shows that at least one species is en route to extinction. A few changes to the way we fish could save it.
How Nepal and New Zealand's conservation connection is helping protect the Himalayas
New Zealand and Nepal share a close connection, largely through the work of Sir Edmund Hillary, Tenzing Norgay and their families. But for Rinzin Phunkjok Lama there’s a different connection to New Zealand that has had a huge impact on his life - and on the wildlife of his home country.
How to recreate a rainforest
In Brazil’s once vast Atlantic Forest, Laury Cullen Jr. has created a model for forest restoration that allows wildlife to flourish, local communities to gain employment and landowners to meet their legal obligations.
March of the armyworm
Armyworms are ravenous. They decimate crops and will take a thriving vege garden down to stalks overnight. Then they’ll come inside and eat your houseplants. They’ve been in New Zealand a long time but this summer, they boomed—and an even hungrier cousin blew in from over the ditch.
What storms may come
Much of New Zealand’s coastal property has an expiry date, with its value set to be wiped off the ledger in as little as nine years’ time, well before sea levels rise and coastlines are redrawn. What will happen to marae and communities by the beach? And why are we still buying—and building—properties right in the danger zone?
How 'participatory mapping' is reducing climate-related conflicts in Chad
Lines on a map have led to countless conflicts over the centuries. But in Chad, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, an environmental activist and defender of the rights of Indigenous Peoples, is using maps to try and avoid conflicts that are being exacerbated by the impacts of climate change.
Warm all the way down
After three warm, wet La Niña summers in a row, El Niño is coming. The climate pattern is well known for its effect on New Zealand’s weather, but what will it mean for the sea? Marine heatwaves have plagued our oceans since 2020. In some places, sea temperatures spiked by five degrees. Tens of millions of sponges bleached in Fiordland and 1300 tonnes of farmed salmon died in the Marlborough Sounds. This July, winter sea temperatures around Rakiura Stewart Island remained more than four degrees above average. El Niño may bring some respite, says NIWA oceanographer Erik Behrens. Whereas La Niña winds tend northeasterly, shuttling warm air down from the tropics and heating the surfa
With the help of hardy 'super corals', Dr Emma Camp is resuscitating our reefs
Scientists fear that the world's coral reefs could disappear if we don't do enough to reduce our impact on the oceans. But Dr Emma Camp sees a glimmer of hope in super-resilient corals that are able to withstand higher temperatures, greater acidification and lower oxygen levels and her research has shown that they could play an important role in reef preservation.
Dropping like they’re hot
New data released by Stats NZ suggest Aotearoa has turned a corner in greenhouse gas emissions, reducing from a pre-pandemic peak of 21 million tonnes in March 2019 to 18.4 million tonnes in December last year. But the story for each industry sector is a little more complex than the total might suggest. Both mining and commercial transport emissions have increased, while an economic slowdown has led to reductions in agriculture, forestry, fishing and manufacturing. Record rainfall teamed with new solar and wind generation has meant our energy sector has been flush with renewable power—rather than importing and burning coal—resulting in a whopping reduction of 1.7 million tonnes of emissi
Losing the ice
Virginia Woolf documents our melting glaciers.
Exploration and preservation: the quest for a Perpetual Planet
For nearly a century, Rolex has supported some of the world’s greatest pioneers, explorers and scientists. Its founder Hans Wilsdorf actively collaborated with those who ventured to unexplored and often hostile places, scaled new heights, plunged to new depths or increased our understanding of the world and Rolex has continued his legacy through its Perpetual Planet Initiative.
It’s not easy being green
Many of the world’s oceans are greener than they were 20 years ago, a new study published in Nature has found—suggesting climate change is altering sea-surface ecosystems. A single satellite orbiting the Earth for the past two decades has been keeping tabs on the colour of the oceans by measuring the way different wavelengths of light reflect from its surface. Scientists had thought we’d need many more years of data before signs of climate change would show up in this way, but by looking at seven light wavelengths, the researchers found that more than half of the oceans worldwide have significantly altered in hue— especially in temperate and tropical areas—and that the shift can
How to fix: Transport emissions
New Zealand’s second-biggest climate challenge is how we get around. This is what we could do about it.
How to fix: Agricultural emissions
Agricultural emissions New Zealand’s biggest climate challenge is different from that of other nations: it originates in the stomachs of cows, sheep and deer. This is what we could do about it.
State of emergencies
Feeling like 2023 has been one state of emergency after another? Us, too. Being nerds, we looked at the data from Civil Defence. Short answer: yes, there has been a convergence of emergencies. The graph shows the number of declared days of emergency—both local and national—over the last 21 years. While it doesn’t show the number of people or size of area affected, nor loss of life, it does show that declared States of Emergency are on the increase. Apart from earthquakes and the pandemic, climate and weather play a role in everything. For our peace of mind, and for yours, we chose not to extrapolate the trend line to work out when we’ll reach a permanent state of emergency, 365
The long haul
Antarctica is a puzzle that science is racing to solve. The continent shifts from stable to unstable, frozen to melting, without much warning—and we don’t know why, or how. This switch hasn’t taken place in the century we’ve been observing it. But Antarctica has its own records that go back millennia, buried in the sea floor beneath hundreds of metres of ice. To retrieve them, a New Zealand-led expedition journeyed to the heart of the Ross Ice Shelf—a featureless, inhospitable expanse the size of France.
Afterburn
Wildfires were rare in Aotearoa prior to humans. That changed, but it is climate change that will fuel the inferno of the future.
The final meltdown
Retreating glaciers and thinning snow and ice are the future of New Zealand’s mountains. Climate change is predicted to warm the country’s atmosphere by 1–4°C by the end of the century, altering the natural water cycle—how much is frozen as snow, how much falls as rain, and how much flows in rivers. Climate researchers are seeking to predict what will change, and when. What will be the impact on hydroelectric power stations and irrigation schemes? Which areas will be hit hardest by flooding, or increasingly severe drought? The Deep South National Science Challenge is taking a lead role in helping decision-makers plan for the coming century.
Acid seas
The chemistry of seawater is changing, becoming more acidic, and this transformation is most profound along our coastlines. In this delicate borderland between land and sea, some places are experiencing a surge in acidity, peaking at levels that the open ocean isn’t predicted to reach until the end of this century. What does this mean for marine life?
Missing targets
A study analysing the climate-change goals of various nations has ranked New Zealand among the worst performers. Along with China and Russia, New Zealand’s climate change polices would propel the world to five degrees of warming by the end of the century, says the study, published in November in the journal Nature Communications. Researchers looked at different countries’ climate-change policies and determined the temperature rise that would ensue if all other nations followed their example. The United States and Australia are ranked slightly better, but their policies would lead to more than four degrees of warming. Recently, the World Meteorological Organization’s 2018 Climate Report
New Zealand's Next Top Model
A small group of Kiwi scientists is attempting to construct the ultimate crystal ball—a mathematical model of the Earth’s natural systems so intricate that it can predict the behaviour of our atmosphere, land and seas, human industry and biological production, far into the future.
Insuring Coastal Properties
With recent summer downpours, the question has turned to how our infrastructure can cope with such deluges. Flooding has ensured big questions need to be asked – such as, what will this mean for repairing or replacing our homes? Will we be able to insure our homes in a world with rising sea levels? Catherine Iorns is at Victoria University’s Faculty of law, and researches the law in relation to sea-level rises.
Depth gauge
Much rests on our ability to measure just how much snow lies on top of Antarctic sea ice.
Rising Seas: Three feet high and rising
With predicted increases in sea level of a metre or more by the end of this century, present-day problems of coastal erosion, flooding and salt-water intrusion into groundwater are going to get much worse.
Smart Talk: Antarctica And Climate Change
Multimedia artist Joseph Michael joins Deep South Director Dr Mike Williams and Associate Professor Sandy Morrison to discuss climate change on the white continent.
Species at risk: 2º from Oblivion
From native frogs to alpine plants, signs of change are all around us, a frightening barometer with which to gauge our changing climate and a reminder that if we can conserve these species most at risk, there is hope for all.
Rising Seas: Ready or not
Global sea levels are rising, but how high remains unknown.
Opinion: A climate of apathy
Our decades of indulgence have cost the planet, and Nature just dropped off the bill. Who’s going to pick it up?
The science of climate change: Hot air
Global warming could transform the country and the planet, but it will also have a much more immediate impact on the world we live in, with respect to both the climate we experience and the way we lead our lives.
Social change: A Climate for Change
How are we to deal with an issue of the magnitude of climate change? How do we approach what UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called “the defining challenge of our age.”
Predicting the future: The Heat is On
What will a warmer New Zealand be like?
Opinion: Climate rationality on trial
When did New Zealand's foreign policy get so feeble?
Climate change academic gives us 10 years
University of Arizona emeritus professor Guy McPherson says we're heading for the planet's sixth mass extinction in just 10 years.
Science in the ice: The cold, hard truth
The record of the Earth’s past climate has been frozen in ice bound up in ice sheets and glaciers on land, and floating on the seas in great ice shelves. Cores extracted from this ice tell an alarming story, and dramatically alter climate projections.
Opinion: Credit where none is due
A new report reveals how 12 companies profited from pollution using fake carbon credits from Russia.
Coping with a new climate: Otherwise Fine
As droughts and floods hit in equal measure, farmers bust find new ways and means of agriculture. But many are struggling to change as fast as the climate.
East Antarctic ice shelf melts more than expected
The East Antarctic ice shelf is more vulnerable than previously thought, with warmer water melting it, scientists say.
The Power of Poo
A prototype methane recovery system is converting biogas gas captured from an effluent pond on a 900 cow dairy farm in Southland to electricity.
Antarctic science: Under the Ice
Antarctica’s fragile ecosystem is a barometer for the warming and acidification of Earth’s oceans. Over the last decade, NIWA scientists have been diving under the ice as part of Project IceCUBE to gauge just how the ecosystem might cope with these threats.
Politics: Government’s targets ‘unreasonable’
A Waikato law student is suing the government over its climate change policy, claiming its greenhouse gas emissions targets were arrived at illegally, and that the low emissions reduction pledge it will make in the upcoming UN climate conference in Paris in December is “unreasonable and irrational”.
Coping with a new climate: 'And for Marlborough...' fine and dry
The weather forecasts for central Marlborough had a monotonous sameness last summer, as El Niño kept clouds away and turned pastures to brick.
Antarctica's contribution to sea level rise
After 50 years of disagreement about whether the Antarctic ice sheet is growing or shrinking, advances in computer modelling and data analysis have allowed international climate expert Professor Matt King to estimate Antarctica's increasing contribution to sea-level rise. Based at the University of Tasmania, as Professor of Polar Geodesy, Professor King's research includes observing and modelling the Antarctic ice sheet, estimating resulting sea-level change and the changing shape of Earth. Professor King is visiting Victoria University's Antarctic Research Centre, and the University of Otago.
Scientist: Warren Williams
Warren Williams is always looking for greener pastures.
Part 6 - We are the ones we've been waiting for
Anyone who is even vaguely alert will be aware that there's something up with this planet of ours. What's Up?
Scientist: Trevor Chinn
Trevor Chinn pioneered the study of New Zealand’s 3162 glaciers.
Arctic science: On thin ice
The extent of sea ice in the Arctic has never been so low.
The seafloor stores carbon, but trawling releases it
A new study reveals that New Zealand’s huge ocean territory contains two billion tons of carbon, locked in the seafloor. If we want to fight climate change, it might be a good idea to keep it there.