. It involved 80 scientists from around the world, including Professor Nicholas Golledge and Associate Professor Brian Anderson, both from the ARC, and Dr Dan Lowry, ARC adjunct research fellow.
The study uses computer models and statistical techniques to make predictions based on a range of socio-economic scenarios. The results will inform the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report, which will be published later this year.
The research predicts that if global warming is limited to 1.5°C, rather than the 3°C that global governmental emissions pledges currently commit us to, the contribution to sea level rise from melting ice could be cut from around 25cm to 13cm by 2100. This would greatly reduce the costs and impacts of coastal flooding around the world, including in New Zealand.
TE AO
“Is there a greater honour than to be acknowledged by your enemy as a warrior” - Sir Pou Tēmara
He is a cultural authority on whaikōrero, whakapapa, and karakia, a Māori academic, a professor of te reo Māori me ōna tikanga at Waikato University, and both a student and a tutor at Victoria University of Wellington as well as Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi This week Sir William Te Rangiua Pou Tēmara accepted his knighthood despite challenging the monarchy system throughout his career. Raised by his grandparents in a Tūhoe environment where te reo o Tūhoe was his first language, Tēmara went on to become a recognised authority in the Māori language, customs, practices and Māori performing arts.
Ross Giblin/Stuff
An independent report says Wellington Mayor Andy Foster (left) breached the council’s code of conduct after he tried to sway councillors against selling council land for a planned Shelly Bay redevelopment. Sir Peter Jackson (right) backed Foster’s campaign to stop the development. (File photo)
An independent report has recommended Wellington Mayor Andy Foster be censured for attempting to disclose confidential information to councillors before a crucial vote on the planned Shelly Bay redevelopment. The report, released to councillors on Friday and obtained by
Stuff, was commissioned following a code of conduct complaint from councillor Jenny Condie.
by Jem Traylen
The government is being accused of helping Facebook and Google spy on New Zealanders when they browse government websites. While the use of web-tracking tools to sell products online has become more common, its undisclosed use by government agencies such as the Police, IRD and Waka Kotahi (NZTA) came as a complete surprise to Kent Newman, a PhD researcher at Victoria University of Wellington.
Newman is researching the use of targeted advertising and said the government had made a major breach of privacy that people should care about.
“People are accessing core services and the government is taking that information and is disclosing it to advertisers without telling people. When the government loses information, we care about it, it’s frontline news. We should care just as much if they are doing this systematically and purposefully – they are turning our information into a commercial product.”
Dr Nick Cradock-Henry, Senior Scientist, Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research, comments:
“The prospect of higher-than-average temperatures and lower rainfall than normal, for parts of the South Island, highlight again, the climate-related challenges for primary industries and rural communities. For example, drought has been a recurring feature of farming in North Canterbury over the last decade, overlapping with both the Kaikoura-Marlborough-Hurunui earthquake (2016) and
Mycoplasma bovis (
M. bovis), a bacterial disease affecting dairy and beef cattle, which resulted in a major biosecurity hazard and response (2017).
“Farms are often set up to cope with one, or even two, ‘difficult years.’ Repeated, or prolonged dry conditions, however, exacerbate existing vulnerabilities, placing undue pressure on household finances, personal relationships, livestock, and other aspects of the production system.