Science Media Centre

Buried in sediment under an ancient crater lake in Central Otago, fossilised leaves have helped Kiwi researchers find the long-term effects of increasing CO2 levels on melting Antarctic ice. Preserved in sediment containing no oxygen to aid decomposition, the sediment cores were essentially stacked annual layers similar to tree ring or ice cores. Studying the […]

A study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has suggested that current climate models have underestimated how much carbon dioxide plants absorb, therefore overstating how much of the gas is actually in the atmosphere. The scientists say current forecasts don’t account for the slow diffusion of atmospheric carbon dioxide inside plant leaves, […]

Carbon dioxide emissions, the main contributor to global warming, are set to rise again in 2014 – reaching a record high of 40 billion tonnes, according to a new global stock-take. A 2.5 per cent projected rise in burning fossil fuels is revealed by the Global Carbon Budget 2014, an analysis published in the journal Earth […]

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has released the first segment of the long awaited Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) summing up the current state of climate science and the global outlook regarding climate change. Government representatives and scientists have approved the Summary for Policymakers of the first part of the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report, subjecting […]

On Friday evening, the Pike River mine outside the South Island town of Greymouth experienced an explosion which trapped 29 miners below the surface. The explosion looks to have been due to a methane gas buildup, making rescue attempts difficult, both for fear of setting off a second explosion, and due to potentially high levels […]

An international team of researchers, including scientists from the University of Auckland, has found that there was a sudden release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at the end of the last ice age, which means that the same might occur as global warming continues. The research suggested that the event may have been confined […]

Kiran Chug writes in the Dominion Post about a new report in Nature which says that loopholes in the Copenhagen Accord and a lack of global determination are seeing hopes of keeping global temperature rise to 2 deg c by 2100 fading fast. They caution that action is needed urgently if temperatures are not to […]

Q+A’s Paul Holmes interviews the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor Professor Sir Peter Gluckman about the Global Research Alliance, an international initiative set up by New Zealand to investigate how best to reduce agricultural emissions. The GRA’s first meeting took place recently in Wellington, and Gluckman commented on the GRA and its purpose, as well […]

John Hartevelt writes in the Dominion Post about a new report debunking the belief that New Zealand’s exporting of lamb to Britain has a high carbon cost. The research, hailed by Minister of Agriculture David Carter, suggests that the carbon produced by lamb production and transportation happens primarily on the farm: indeed, the carbon produced […]