Guest Work

I put myself through hell as an IPCC convening lead author, but it was worth it

Guest Author • Aug 20, 2019

• climate change,
• Geneva,
• IPCC

Pete Smith, University of Aberdeen In my day job, I am a scientist at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland studying things such as how agriculture contributes to climate change and what we can do about it. Recently, though, I found myself in Geneva, to take part in my fourth “adoption plenary” for a report of the … Read More

New Zealand’s environmental parable for a world crisis

Guest Author • Aug 19, 2019

• Big South Cape,
• conservation,
• population,
• rats,
• saddlebacks

Brian Gill The fate of rats on a tiny New Zealand island is a story to retell as the world’s experiment with unlimited growth of human numbers threatens ruin. The world has too many people. As if more than 7,260 million souls are not enough, the population is in the dreaded phase of exponential growth, rocketing uncontrolled and uncontrollably to … Read More

Almonds don’t lactate, but that’s no reason to start calling almond milk juice

Guest Author • Aug 07, 2019

• almond milk,
• dairy,
• plant-based food

Dan Weijers, University of Waikato and Nick Munn, University of Waikato At a conference about disruptive innovations in food production last week, dairy industry spokespeople criticised the “milk” labelling of non-dairy products such as almond or rice milks. Federated Farmers, a rural advocacy group, prompted media headlines with a suggestion that we should call … Read More

3

Calling all Storytellers!

Guest Author • Jul 31, 2019

• science communication,
• StoryCollider,
• storytelling

Ceridwyn Roberts I often wonder if all science starts with kids making potions. All you really need is some red cabbage indicator and then everything in the house is being tested, including the cat’s fur with the cat still attached. When my son was little ‘playing chemist’ would keep him happily occupied for at least half an hour at a … Read More

Bioplastics – a major opportunity for New Zealand

Guest Author • Jul 26, 2019

• bioplastic,
• compostable plastics,
• packaging,
• plastic

Elspeth MacRae If you could name the packaging material that is close to being public enemy number one at the moment – it would have to be plastic. We’ve all seen the tragic images of marine life entangled in plastic – the dead whales with stomachs of plastic, the list goes on. As a result of this continuous … Read More

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40 years ago, scientists predicted climate change. And hey, they were right

Guest Author • Jul 23, 2019

• Carbon dioxide,
• Charney Report,
• climate change

Neville Nicholls, Monash University This month the world has been celebrating the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the Moon. But this week sees another scientific anniversary, perhaps just as important for the future of civilisation. Forty years ago, a group of climate scientists sat down at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts for the first … Read More

Japan resumes commercial whaling – researchers on how the world should respond

Guest Author • Jul 02, 2019

• International Whaling Commission,
• IWC,
• Japan,
• whaling

Sui Phang, University of Portsmouth and Peter Bridgewater, University of Canberra Japan recently left the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and has now caught the first whale in its waters since resuming commercial whaling, 33 years after a global ban came into effect. As a non-member, Japan is no longer bound by the International Convention … Read More

Why the Australasian Health Star Rating needs major changes to make it work

Guest Author • Jun 19, 2019

• food,
• Health Star ratings,
• nutrition

Jessica C Lai, Victoria University of Wellington; Alana Harrison, Victoria University of Wellington; Hongzhi Gao, Victoria University of Wellington, and Samuel Becher, Victoria University of Wellington Unhealthy diets cause multiple physical and mental health problems. To help consumers make healthier choices, Australia and New Zealand introduced the voluntary Health Star Rating … Read More

Call for independent watchdog to monitor NZ government use of artificial intelligence

Guest Author • May 27, 2019

• algorithms,
• artificial intelligence,
• bias,
• Discrimination,
• law,
• New Zealand

John Zerilli, University of Otago and Colin Gavaghan, University of Otago New Zealand is a leader in government use of artificial intelligence (AI). It is part of a global network of countries that use predictive algorithms in government decision making, for anything from the optimal scheduling of public hospital beds to whether an offender should … Read More

The ‘Christchurch Call’ is just a start. Now we need to push for systemic change

Guest Author • May 17, 2019

• Christchurch Call,
• extremism,
• Social media,
• tech companies,
• terrorism

Kevin Veale, Massey University The “Christchurch Call” summit has made specific progress, with tech companies and world leaders signing an agreement to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. The question now is how we collectively follow up on its promise. The summit in Paris began with the statement that the white supremacist terrorist attack … Read More