Science Media Centre

Research led by a New Zealand scientist has revealed the major cause behind the significant melting of the West Antarctica ice sheet at the end of the last glacial age. The retreat was caused primarily by ocean warming (rather than rising sea levels), and the study’s lead author, Dr Andrew Mackintosh, says it suggests there [...]

Our understanding of how, and why, the earth’s largest ice sheet lost so much of its ice between 7,000 and 14,000 years ago has significantly improved due to research conducted by an international team of researchers led by VUW scientist Dr Andrew Mackintosh. The research, published in prestigious journal Nature Geoscience this morning, used a [...]

Rob Fenwick writes in the New Zealand Herald about sea level rise and the conference he attended which saw 2500 polar scientists – the largest such group ever – gather to discuss ice melt and sea level rise. While there is consensus amongst polar (and many other) scientists that sea level rise will occur, more [...]

Kiran Chug of the Dominion Post writes about Tim Haskell, the reasons behind the decision to name an Antarctic strait after him, and his reaction to the news. The Haskell Strait lies between McMurdo Sound and White Island, and is generally covered in ice – a possible reason why it had not yet been named. [...]

Kiran Chug of The Dominion Post reports on new research by New Zealand scientists which shows that massive ice shelves are the reason why Antarctica is not losing as much ice as the Arctic. Climate change skeptics have previously claimed that the lack of ice loss in Antarctica is evidence against global warming, but the [...]

New research published in the journal Nature suggests that Antarctica is warming despite earlier signs that the icy continent was cooling. The scientists claim the evidence makes it “almost certain” that human activity is responsible for at least some of the warming. Martin Manning, Professor of Climate Change at Victoria University‘s School of Government comments [...]

A UK-led group of climate researchers claim their research has demonstrated for the first time that human activity is responsible for significant warming in both polar regions. Rising Arctic temperatures and the accelerating retreat of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has been widely reported in scientific journals and the popular press. However, these changes [...]