Guest Work

Featured image: Report shows New Zealand’s ‘fragmented’ environmental research funding doesn’t match most urgent needs

Report shows New Zealand’s ‘fragmented’ environmental research funding doesn’t match most urgent needs

Guest Author • Dec 10, 2020

Troy Baisden, University of Waikato There’s a serious mismatch between what New Zealand’s government identified as the most pressing environmental issues, including climate change and freshwater quality, and the investments in environmental research it actually makes. A report released today by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PCE) shows New Zealand spends about NZ$500m on environmental … Read More

Featured image: An ocean like no other: the Southern Ocean’s ecological richness and significance for global climate

An ocean like no other: the Southern Ocean’s ecological richness and significance for global climate

Guest Author • Dec 08, 2020

Ceridwen Fraser, University of Otago; Christina Hulbe, University of Otago; Craig Stevens, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, and Huw Griffiths, British Antarctic Survey In 2018, a map named after an oceanographer went viral. The so-called Spilhaus projection, in which Earth is viewed from above the South Pole, was designed to show the connected nature of the ocean … Read More

Featured image: The forgotten environmental crisis: how 20th century settler writers foreshadowed the Anthropocene

The forgotten environmental crisis: how 20th century settler writers foreshadowed the Anthropocene

Guest Author • Dec 04, 2020

Philip Steer, Massey University Just as writers and artists today are responding to the Anthropocene through climate fiction and eco art, earlier generations chronicled an environmental crisis that presaged humanity’s global impact. The Anthropocene is a proposed geological epoch that powerfully expresses the planetary scale of the environmental changes wrought by human activity. Yet almost a … Read More

Featured image: Why the way we approach transgender and non-binary healthcare needs to change

Why the way we approach transgender and non-binary healthcare needs to change

Guest Author • Dec 01, 2020

Rona Carroll, University of Otago Demand for healthcare for transgender people is on the rise in New Zealand but training for health professionals to develop basic competencies is lagging behind. There is little teaching on gender and sexuality at either of New Zealand’s medical schools. It’s partly due to lack of time, but also lack of confidence … Read More

Featured image: Mining companies are required to return quarried sites to their ‘natural character’. But is that enough?

Mining companies are required to return quarried sites to their ‘natural character’. But is that enough?

Guest Author • Nov 27, 2020

Shaun Rosier, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington New Zealand has more than 1,100 registered quarries. Some of these mined sites are small, rural operations, but a significant number are large and complex, and within a city’s urban boundaries. As part of the resource consent application for a mining project, quarry operators are usually issued with a … Read More

Featured image: 5 reasons why banishing backpackers and targeting wealthy tourists would be a mistake for NZ

5 reasons why banishing backpackers and targeting wealthy tourists would be a mistake for NZ

Guest Author • Nov 26, 2020

James Higham, University of Otago and Hazel Tucker, University of Otago Raise your hand if you’ve ever travelled for weeks or months as a backpacker on a limited daily budget. Keep your hand up if you were made welcome in the places you visited on your OE, enjoyed chance encounters and experienced the generosity of strangers. And did those … Read More

Featured image: ‘Courageous’ investment means innovation stays in NZ, not sold off overseas

‘Courageous’ investment means innovation stays in NZ, not sold off overseas

Guest Author • Nov 24, 2020

Jessica C Lai, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington and Jesse Pirini, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington New Zealand is in an economic recession and the government is trying to spend its way through it with direct investment to boost the economy and jobs. At the same time, the Reserve Bank of New … Read More

Featured image: SpaceX’s Starlink satellites are about to ruin stargazing for everyone

SpaceX’s Starlink satellites are about to ruin stargazing for everyone

Guest Author • Nov 22, 2020

Samantha Lawler, University of Regina I walk outside my rural Saskatchewan house before dawn and look up, expecting to have my breath taken away by the sheer number of stars overhead. I’m a professional astronomer, but I still appreciate naked-eye stargazing as much as an eager child. This is the first place I’ve lived that’s dark enough to easily see … Read More