Climate change

Climate change rates a mention on NZ media!

I don't know whether to laugh or cry when I listen to this pathetic item on climate change. Either its just 'natural weather patterns' or it's climate change with a nice linear progression with consequences that will have to be 'mitigated'. It's a sick joke.

Give me a break!

FARMERS BEING WARNED TO PREPARE FOR MORE CLIMATE CHANGE

Farmers and growers are being warned to be prepared for a changing climate and not to ignore warning signs, such as extreme dry spells.

Protecting NZ from Antarctic change

Scientists are warning that climate change in Antarctica could have a "dramatic" influence on New Zealand

Stuff,

2 May, 2013

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To try to understand what might happen, the issue has been included as one of the 10 science challenges announced by the Government this week.

So far, comparatively little has been spent on the problem, and the expert panel that drew up the short list of challenges appears to have been surprised at the extent of the risk.

Panel chair Sir Peter Gluckman, the prime minister's chief science advisor, said that in drawing up the list the panel had started by considering the risks faced by New Zealand.

The so-called deep south challenge had been included "because we could see that was something we really needed to understand", he said.

The panel recognised that of all the various potential risks New Zealand faced, a dramatic change in Southern Ocean currents driven by changes in the Antarctic ice sheet, "would have far more dramatic influence on our economy, through changes in the climate and rainfall patterns, than any of us had realised".

"Therefore, given that we are uniquely committed and associated with Antarctic research, and given our leadership in that area, it was self-evident that to protect our future as a country, we need to understand what's going to happen in the Southern Ocean far better than we do now," Sir Peter said.

Despite concerns about the issue, it attracted relatively little funding in the current financial year.

A cabinet paper by Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce calculated that only $4.1 million was spent on research areas connected with the deep south challenge in 2012/13, out of the $523 million provided through contestable funding and crown research institutes. Those figures did not include research funded through the tertiary education sector and other government agencies.

The expert panel's report to the cabinet said the major purpose of the deep south challenge, and a major reason it was prioritised, was to examine the key role climate change would play in affecting New Zealand through changes in the Antarctic and Southern Ocean.

The New Zealand Antarctic Research Institute (NZARI) said a goal of the challenge was to reduce the uncertainty of Antarctica's impact on New Zealand's oceans, climate and ecosystems in a changing global climate.

Any change in Antarctica's natural systems would have profound downstream effects for this country. Melting ice would raise sea levels, while increased temperatures in Antarctica would change ocean and atmospheric circulation.

"Antarctic ice melt may result in sea levels rising by up to five metres and as fast as 4cm per year," NZARI said.

Along with sea level rise, the other critical issue for New Zealand was ocean temperatures as controlled by ocean current strength and position.

"The critical elements controlling this are ice shelves and sea ice, as they provide the buffer between the atmosphere, ice sheets and ocean."

Research into the impact of a warming world on New Zealand's vast exclusive economic zone and adjacent Antarctic Treaty sector was almost nonexistent, NZARI said.

New Zealand's ocean and climate system was sandwiched between the world's biggest current - the Antarctic Circumpolar Current - in the south and the South Pacific Subtropical Gyre from the north.

"Only within the last decade have scientists fully realised the role of the Southern Annular Mode, an Antarctic driven ring of climate variability, on the westerly wind system on New Zealand winds, rainfall and temperatures."