Science Media Centre

The government’s Developing our Energy Potential – Draft New Zealand Energy Strategy and Draft New Zealand Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy document has been open to public submissions for the last three months, with submissions due to close by tomorrow.
The strategy document fits energy within government’s stated goal of growing New Zealand’s economy.  It [...]

As if we don’t have enough stress in our lives, now there’s a new one – food stress. But what’s the cause and who is suffering from it?
One of the key topics for discussion at a national conference being held in Dunedin next week (1-3 September) by Dietitians New Zealand will be food [...]

Groundwater is a crucial natural resource — around one third of the water used in New Zealand comes from underground — but it can be easily overlooked in the contentious debates surrounding declining water quality and resource management.
With the highly-anticipated recommendations from the Land and Water Forum on freshwater management reform due back to government [...]

New research into the earthquake responsible for the deadly 2009 tsunami in Samoa and Tonga, has shown that it was caused by not one, but two near-simultaneous massive undersea earthquakes.
The surprise finding helps explain why the resulting tsunami did not fit predictions — i.e. the waves were larger than expected in some areas, while [...]

Representing the most comprehensive and authoritative answer yet to one of humanity’s most ancient questions — “What lives in the sea?” — Census of Marine Life scientists have today released an inventory of species distribution and diversity in key global ocean areas.
The marine researchers involved combined centuries-old historical records with data obtained during the decade-long [...]

ONLINE MEDIA BRIEFING: Tues 20 July, 10 am (NZT)
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Conservation efforts in New Zealand currently depend heavily on a single pesticide — sodium monofluoroacetate, or 1080.
In its 2007 review of 1080 — widely-used in New Zealand to control pest animals in native ecosystems and agricultural land — ERMA (the Environmental Risk Management Authority) called for [...]

ONLINE MEDIA BRIEFING: Tues 13 July 9 am (NZT)
As part of its focus on improving public health, the Maori Party is preparing to introduce a bill calling for GST on healthy foods to be scrapped.
The bill is provisionally scheduled to receive its first reading in parliament on July 21.
Click below to play [...]

ONLINE MEDIA BRIEFING: Tues 29 Jun 11 am (NZT)
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Statistics New Zealand will release its latest biennial report on Innovation in New Zealand — which gives a snapshot of “business innovation and performance in New Zealand” — this Wednesday, 30 June.
Innovation has become a hot topic in the science sector, reinforced by the announcement of a [...]

ONLINE MEDIA BRIEFING: Thurs 24 June, 10:30 am (NZT)
Did you know that there’s more carbon in the dirt beneath our feet than in the air above our heads?
Soils hold at least twice as much carbon as the atmosphere, and they also store more carbon than the world’s forests and other vegetation combined.
Although soil [...]

ONLINE MEDIA BRIEFING: Thurs 10 June, 11 am (NZT)

Over past decades, the drive to discover large new petroleum reserves has pushed drilling into deeper and deeper off-shore waters.
New Zealand is surrounded by deep water basins that have potential to yield substantial petroleum resources. This week’s announcement of the opening of the Raukumara basin to [...]

Wrangling over water issues
Polluted rivers, dirty dairying, greening the MacKenzie Country, dams for hydro-power and water allocation — these are just some of the big water issues that have been in the headlines in recent months.
Although freshwater is relatively abundant in New Zealand, uneven distribution of water resources and increasingly intensive use have led to [...]