Infrequently Asked Questions

Professor Jacinta Ruru. Photo by Kirsten Ellis, Raukawa Charitable Trust,at Papa o Te Aroha Marae, Tokoroa, 2016. New Zealand has led the world in giving the Te Urewera park lands their own legal identity. New Royal Society of New Zealand Fellow Jacinta Ruru calls in from the 2016 World Indigenous Law Conference in Los Angeles, where she’s at … Read More

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Dr Giles Dodson Co-governance with Māori could create more support for marine reserves, says new Royal Society of New Zealand Council member Giles Dodson. But the legislation doesn’t support it. Innovative co-governance of conservation areas is happening – but through Treaty of Waitangi negotiations, says Dr Dodson, rather than traditional conservation legislation. Dr Dodson, a Senior Lecturer at Unitec … Read More

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Dr Scott Larned Improvements in some components of river water quality are encouraging, but it’s too early to declare victory, says NIWA’s Dr Scott Larned. In a recently published paper in the New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, Dr Larned reported ten-year trends in New Zealand river water quality. He tells us what has improved … Read More

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It’s good to keep things positive, says Macleans College teacher Susan van der Spuy, when teaching science and environmental issues to children. Otherwise they can tend to think the whole planet is going to burn up. Mrs van der Spuy, who recently finished a placement at Landcare Research under the Royal Society of New Zealand’s Science Teaching Leadership Programme, … Read More

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Our ability to care for the environment depends, in part, on our ability to navigate risk. This issue looms large with climate change, says senior Landcare Research researcher Dr Alison Greenaway, who worked on the Royal Society of New Zealand report Climate Change Implications for New Zealand. We need climate-sensitive institutions, says Dr Greenaway, as … Read More

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One of the striking things for University of Waikato law Professor Barry Barton, while working on the Royal Society of New Zealand report Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy for New Zealand, was how often his scientific colleagues had to tell him they didn’t have necessary data on New Zealand’s carbon emissions options. Without that information, we don’t know … Read More

The journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand began its life in the 1860s covering a wide range of topics. New editor Professor Ewan Fordyce FRSNZ would like to regain a little more of that breadth of discipline. The University of Otago Professor knows something about crossing disciplinary boundaries, as a paleontologist in a Geology Department, working … Read More

Dr Janet Stephenson Experts, just about everyone and even the government would like New Zealanders to be zipping around in electric cars. But it won’t happen, at least not rapidly. Otago University’s Director of the Centre for Sustainability Dr Janet Stephenson explains. She also tells us why New Zealanders are buying photovoltaic solar panels, wonders why we’re buying … Read More

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Professor James Renwick With sixteen percent of New Zealanders living in the coastal zone, and two thirds in areas prone to flooding, most of us are likely to feel the watery effects of climate change. A new Royal Society of New Zealand report, Climate Change Implications for New Zealand, says your local council should be thinking about … Read More

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Associate Professor Angela Wanhalla About 1,500 hundred New Zealand women married American Servicemen during WWII, says University of Otago’s Associate Professor Angela Wanhalla. With the latest of a string of illustrious research grants, she looks at the less-considered questions of this war time history – divorce, adoption, legitimacy, shame, the women who were married then abandoned, and the women … Read More

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