News

What can the Pacific expect from the changing climate?

Sarah-Jane O'Connor • Feb 16, 2016

• climate change,
• Pacific,
• sea level rise

Though we are already locked into sea level rise of at least 20 centimetres by 2050, the window of opportunity to act has not yet closed on us, climate scientists say. Victoria University professors James Renwick (Physical Geography) and Tim Naish (Antarctic Research Centre) presented a keynote address on Monday at the Pacific Climate Change conference, hosted by … Read More

Climate change felt in the Pacific now, not in 100 years

Sarah-Jane O'Connor • Feb 15, 2016

• Anote Tong,
• climate change,
• Kiribati,
• Pacific islands,
• sea level rise

Anote Tong wants to build a sea wall around a church. It’s the only thing remaining in a Kiribatian village: the rest has been washed away by the rising sea. “There is a village where the people are all gone, because there is no village.” The President of the Republic of Kiribati says the church needs a sea wall to … Read More

What are the real risks of Zika?

Guest Author • Feb 11, 2016

• microcephaly,
• mosquitoes,
• Zika virus

Michael Selgelid, Monash University and Euzebiusz Jamrozik, Monash University Zika has raised alarm bells worldwide, prompting the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) declaration of a “public health emergency”, El Salvador’s dramatic recommendation that women delay pregnancy for two years, and the US Centres for Disease Control’s (CDC) recommendation that pregnant women consider postponing travel to … Read More

“Science on trial” highlighted poor communication

Sarah-Jane O'Connor • Feb 05, 2016

• earthquake,
• Giulio Selvaggi,
• GNS Science,
• L'Aquila,
• science on trial

Convicting scientists for manslaughter following the L’Aquila earthquake wasn’t “science on trial” but a failing of communication, one of the seismologists says. Giulio Selvaggi spent nearly a year of his life in an Italian courtroom as he and five other scientists were tried for the manslaughter of 33 victims of the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake. Their eventual conviction had a chilling … Read More

Climate link to huge human upheaval

Sarah-Jane O'Connor • Feb 05, 2016

• Early Europeans,
• Early human dispersal,
• last glacial maximum,
• Last Ice Age,
• M Haplotype

New DNA evidence suggests a major upheaval of humans living around Europe at the end of the last Ice Age, apparently linked to severe climatic instability. Les Closeaux at Rueil-Malmaison, Paris Basin, France. L. Lang Ancient bones and teeth of people who lived in Europe over the span of 30,000 years were used to establish this unknown period of … Read More

Zika virus updates

Sarah-Jane O'Connor • Feb 04, 2016

• Mosquito,
• Vaccine,
• Zika virus

As more information comes in about Zika virus and its risks, we will continue to update this page with posts from our bloggers and guest work. New evidence supporting a link between Zika virus infection and microcephaly, Siouxsie Wiles, Infectious Thoughts. Zika: a potential new mozzie vector?, Siouxsie Wiles, Infectious Thoughts. Read More

Kakapo researchers turn to crowdfunding

Sarah-Jane O'Connor • Feb 02, 2016

• crowdfunding,
• genome sequencing,
• kakapo

Scientists studying the rare and unusual kakapo have turned to crowdfunding to back a push to sequence the DNA of the remaining 125 birds. A campaign launched on experiment.com hopes to raise NZD$68,000 to fund genome sequencing for the nocturnal parrot. The entire project would clock in at $100,000, but with $35,500 already funded sequencing has begun on the … Read More

Antipodean wandering albatross continues to dive

Sarah-Jane O'Connor • Feb 01, 2016

• Antipodean wandering albatross,
• Antipodes Islands,
• Department of Conservation,
• New Zealand,
• seabird conservation,
• subantarctic islands

Numbers of the Antipodean wandering albatross have continued to fall, according to New Zealand researchers who visit the birds’ main breeding island every summer. The population has been monitored since 1994 and in a brief report to New Zealand’s Department of Conservation (DOC) in December, scientists Graeme Elliott and Kath Walker warned that the population has continued to … Read More

Why kakapo fans get excited about mating season

Sarah-Jane O'Connor • Jan 29, 2016

• breeding,
• Codfish Island,
• kakapo,
• kuia,
• Richard Henry,
• Whenua Hou

A certain circle of social media has been abuzz the past few weeks with news from Whenua Hou and Anchor Island about the kakapo breeding season. Today an excited post announced that one female, Kuia, on Anchor Island was sitting on two eggs with maybe more on the way.   Why is this so thrilling? Kuia is … Read More

2015 hottest year on record

Sarah-Jane O'Connor • Jan 21, 2016

• climate change,
• climate records,
• COP21,
• El Niño,
• hottest year,
• NASA,
• NIWA,
• NOAA,
• Paris Agreement

It was signposted all year, but North American agencies have confirmed: 2015 was the hottest year since records began in 1880. NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) analysis showed that global surface air temperatures continued a long trend upward: 15 of the 16 warmest years on record have occurred since 2001. Globally-averaged temperatures in 2015 surpassed … Read More