“Wise environmental husbandry or flatulent political correctness? An ill wind or a fair wind?” Financial Times takes a tongue-in-cheek look at the proposed ‘fart tax’ to be levied on NZ dairy and sheep farmers. Methane produced by…
NZ cars may soon be running on a petrol blend containing 10% ethanol – a by-product of the country’s dairy industry. The move is being welcomed in both environmental and agricultural sectors, and has already gained the…
NZ’s early prosperity was said to have been borne on the sheep’s back – now they’re threatening to power us into the 21st Century: NZ’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority has hit upon a novel way of powering…
A landmark decision by the International Whaling Commission in Berlin is being hailed as a step in the right direction by “what was once a whaler’s club.” The ‘Berlin Initiative’ – proposed by 19 countries including NZ…
Native rats (kiore) on Little Barrier Island were saved from a scheduled DOC extermination by local tribe Ngatiwai, who claimed them as taonga. The rats, now almost extinct on mainland NZ, pose a threat to tuatara…
Ron Massey, of Napier Council, thinks the city’s onto an export winner after its successful growing of high-grade gingko trees. The Chinese herb is currently the trendiest pill to pop, supposedly offering dramatically increased energy and cognitive…
Soil-analysis undertaken in a NZ cave has uncovered a rich and previously unknown evolutionary heritage. A team of scientists have found DNA traces of an extinct animal and from plants alive 3,000 years before the first human…
The Guardian interviews Sir Edmund Hillary in the lead up to the 50th anniversary of his Mt Everest ascent. “He talks about his experiences with the bluff modesty of a Boys’ Own adventure hero Perhaps…
NZ’s sheep population is at an all-time low, plummeting from 70 million in 1982 to less than 40 million. Cows and fruit – particularly wine grapes – have gradually replaced the woolly icons as more lucrative…
A NZ foundation dedicated to the preservation of early Antarctic exploration is to erect a unique memorial museum to Norwegian explorer Carsten E. Borchgrevink. The UN-backed Global Resource Information Database (GRID) wants to preserve Borchgrevink’s cabin -…
“Never before has technology played such a pivotal role in bringing an animal back from the brink, setting the stage for computer-based rescues of endangered species elsewhere.” SMH feature documents the radical efforts of NZ scientists and conservationists…
NZ’s possum epidemic has made unlikely bed-fellows of environmentalists and fur-trappers. New Scientist looks at a globally unique situation, where groups such as WWF actively support the trapping of an animal for its fur and meat as…
The Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions came one step closer to enforcement after its ratification by the NZ and Canadian governments. Although both countries are relatively minor industrial polluters their signatures are vital in making up the…
“Somewhere east of New Zealand, where Gondwana’s break-up may have started some 130 million years ago, with New Zealand splitting from Australia, ‘the last resources of mankind’ could be awaiting discovery. So say a crew of German…
” has built up something of a reputation for bringing endangered birds back from the brink of extinction,” the kakapo being a prime example. Armed with electric blankets, video monitoring equipment, and over 100 volunteer nest-minders, NZ…
Judy Diamond and Alan B. Bond’s spent hours at an Arthur’s Pass rubbish dump working out the evolutionary significance of the kea: “Keas are giant mountain parrots, and they love cars, especially soft-tops. If you leave…
A new species of dinosaur has been discovered on a North Otago beach. The 70 million year old fossil is believed to be a type of plesiosaur – a giant, swimming reptile resembling “a…
New Scientist features the Kakapo’s claw-back from the brink of extinction: “What’s green, nocturnal, looks like an owl, smells sweet and fruity, and makes strange noises from growls and “skrarks” to metallic “chings” and deep resonant…
Volcano enthusiasts were recently treated to a bonanza 500 kilometres north east of New Zealand. They discovered three new hydrothermal fields along the Ring of Fire which marks the boundary between the earth’s Australian and Pacific…
The No.8 gene gets Wired for the 21st Century: “With about 45 million sheep and only 5 million people, New Zealanders hear their fair share of sheep jokes. When it comes to biotechnology and sheep, however,…
NZ scientists catch the biggest octopus ever found, a four-meter 75 kg giant hauled from 3,000 feet deep waters near the Chatham Islands. “It’s extremely deep, it’s extremely large, it’s the first recorded in the South Pacific,…
BBC News features research undertaken by Victoria University Tuatara Research Group (Professor Charles Daugherty and student Nicola Nelson) into the habitat of New Zealand’s “living fossil”, the tuatara. “They’ve been around since the time of the dinosaurs, so…
The world’s “rarest, heaviest, and only nocturnal and flightless” parrot, NZ’s native kakapo, enjoys a record breeding season with 22 chicks hatching on Whenua Hou, a small island off Stewart Island. Thanks to the bumper brood, kakapo…
NZ scientists involved in penguin dynamics research in Antarctica report on the deaths of hundreds of thousands of baby penguins this summer, caused by the blocking of food routes by giant icebergs.
Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Worldwide Kevin Roberts, accompanies Britain’s Princess Anne to Antarctica to celebrate the centenary of Scott and Shackleton’s discovery expeditions, and to launch the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust’s 10 year project to conserve…
Phil Robinson, helicopter pilot and Greenpeace activist, films rare Southern Ocean footage of a Japanese vessel harpooning a whale after a 40 minute chase. “Scientists” responded by targeting Greenpeace inflatables with water cannons.
New Zealand scientist Gavin Hunt describes a new theory of “how human beings came to be right-handed” by investigating the “right beakedness” tendencies of crows when “ripping pieces from leaves.” The discovery makes it more likely that…
The environmental state of Antarctica’s Ross Sea region is in pristine condition – “exceptionally so by global standards” – according to a new report from the New Zealand Antarctic Institute. However the reports also points out “significant…
School children in Amagase, Japan have adopted lambs resident in Dunedin, Amagase’s sister city in New Zealand. The lambs have their own websites for the children to access and catch up on what’s happening with their…
University of Canterbury’s Professor Denis Dutton (Arts and Letters Daily) reviews Bjorn Lomborg’s controversial new book, The Skeptical Environmentalist, in the Washington Post: Dutton concludes that the “richly informative, lucid book” containing “bad news for Green…
New Zealand, long recognised for its environmental innovation, makes another advance. Researches at Massey University have found a unique technique for the quick and safe treatment and removal of hazardous chemical spills. The portable unit draws effluent…
Mark Johnson is literally leading the way with research into whale behaviour – part of his work involves attaching digital recorders to 60-foot sperm whales out in the Gulf of Mexico. Scientists like Johnson are trying…
The Times explores the unlikely problem of growing tea trees like they do down in New Zealand.
1841: 1,214 acres of land around Waitemata Harbour purchased from Maori – the future site of Auckland city.
The 1999 Montana Reserve Sauvignon Blanc (“my homage to Michael Schuster”) is a current favorite of British women’s-health guru Dr Miriam Stoppard. This New Zealand example is ‘fresh and rich and slightly oaky with a really lovely…
Is every living thing on earth descended from a heat loving bacteria – or are we, as Dr Anthony Poole of Massey University suggests, all really aliens on our own planet?
Which ever way you flip it, global warming will affect every part of New Zealand – but perhaps we’re among the lucky ones?
Newly discovered New Zealand parasitic wasp creates a whole new insect family – Maamingidae, named after the Maori word for trickster, because it has taken so long to come to light.
New Zealand comes up smelling of roses, second equal behind Finland in the world anti-corruption rankings.
Global warming, along with over-fishing and oil-spills, threatens penguin populations around the world says University of Otago penguin biologist Lloyd Davies.
New Zealand’s carbon emissions rose 22% in the 1990’s, almost certainly putting Kyoto targets out of reach.
New Zealand rat predatation expert Mike Bell called in to save the puffins of Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel.
New Zealand Kune Kune pig Grunty, former star of British programme Pig at the Ritz, currently resident at a farm in Wellington, southwest England, saved from slaughter after being declared free of foot and mouth.
New Zealand plant expert Doctor Warwick Harris lectures in Seattle on the Christchurch Botanical gardens.
“We need to take millions of possums out of circulation, not just nibble at it,” said Tauranga farmer Bryan Bassett-Smith promoting Possyum, the possum meat dog food he hopes will solve New Zealand’s marsupial woes.
Hoiho (yellow-eyed penguins, literally noise-shouters) catch the attention of an international money man.
The kea outscores gibbons in intelligence tests. “There was definitely learning going on,” says Rachel Johnston who administered the avian IQ tests.
The BBC’s Radio4 celebrates International Dawn Chorus Day by listening to the world wake up via some aural ornithology; singing the sun up is the enchanting “Nightingale of New Zealand” – the Tui.
Japan gets sharky over New Zealand’s support for a Southern Ocean whale sanctuary, but South Pacific nations are right behind the proposal.
Phil Goff, Minister for Foreign Affairs and trade, voiced New Zealand’s condemnation of the Bush back-down on Kyoto after a meeting with US Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Scotland’s national collection of New Zealand Olearia attract visitors to Inverewe Gardens on the shores of Lake Ewe.
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