Science Media Centre

In a NZ Herald two-page special report, Jamie Morten interviews three climate researchers from Victoria University Wellington about climate, change and the future. Prof David Frame, Prof James Renwick and Dr Simon Lamb share their insights in the feature, ‘Your future weather: A daunting forecast’ . An excerpt (read in full here): Professor David Frame [...]

On the Australian science commentary site The Conversation, climatologists from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology spell out the situation for the Lucky Country. What’s causing Australia’s heat wave? By Neil Plummer, Australian Bureau of Meteorology; Blair Trewin, Australian Bureau of Meteorology; David Jones, Australian Bureau of Meteorology; Karl Braganza, Australian Bureau of Meteorology, and Rob [...]

In a New Zealand Herald opinion article, Prof Jim Salinger, Visiting Professor at Stanford University, California, asks NZ not to ‘welch on its global obligations’ regarding climate commitments. An excerpt (read in full here): Time NZ played its climate change part, even if it’s small As I sit in my autumn perch in California I [...]

Today‘s New Zealand Herald editorial examines the issue of science and scepticism in the wake of the recent NIWA climate record trial in the New Zealand High Court. An excerpt (read in full here): Editorial: Judge’s ruling in climate case refreshing Scathing judgment backing Niwa represents damning of sceptics’ crusade. A year ago, James Hansen, [...]

The High court has has ruled in favour of NIWA, rejecting a legal challenge of the Crown Research Institute’s national temperature record. In 2010 the  New Zealand Climate Science Education Trust applied to the high court for a judicial review of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA)’s actions in publishing its national [...]

A group of climate experts, including Prof James Hansen, claim  recent heat waves and extreme summers can be attributed to  global warming and not random chance. The group outline this view in a new study, published in PNAS, which compared recent temperatures to a 1951-1980 base period. Their findings revealed that extremely hot summers—those with [...]

A drilling expedition off the coast of Antarctica has revealed the continent once boasted a warm “near tropical” climate. In 2010, just hours before boarding the drilling ship JOIDES Resolution, Montclair State University Associate Professor Sandra Passchier took a photo of the Wellington Botanic Gardens and posted it on her blog, writing: “This is what [...]

In the Dominion Post ex-NWIA climate scientist Prof Jim Salinger writes about the climate record he helped to create – which is now the subject of a High Court case. An excerpt (read in full here): Wellington’s climate shows warming trend Climate scientists want to monitor how climate is changing and global warming progressing. How [...]

The turbulence created by power-generating wind turbines may have an impact on local climate, suggests new research. A new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change has identified a link between wind farms and slightly increased temperatures. American researchers used data from the satellite system MODIS to examine land surface temperatures near large wind [...]

Heavy rainfall has caused extensive flooding across southern New South Wales and North East Victoria, forcing several communities to evacuate. Widespread, and persistent recordbreaking rainfall was recorded across southeast Australia between 27 February and 5 March 2012, leading to heavy flooding across southeast Australia.  So far, 13,000 people are reported to have been evacuated from [...]