In an announcement that mostly just amounts to a milking circumstance for PR purposes, the current administration in New Zealand has announced that it won’t be granting any new offshore oil and gas exploration permits or holding an associated tender process. To explain that a bit more, owing to relatively low global oil prices in
This is pretty awesome. Of course, it’s fun to watch dogs driving cars, but it’s also cool because the purpose of this dog driving course, conducted by a charity in New Zealand, is to get more people comfortable with the idea that rescue dogs are intelligent, can be trained, and are worthy of adoption. I
On September 22, 2013, the fourth annual World Rhino Day will be celebrated with special events organized both online and offline by zoos, NGOs, conservancies, schools, businesses, and concerned citizens. This year, the big day falls on a Sunday, which has prompted some celebrants to include Saturday, September 21 — making it a weekend of sharing
a pygmy right whale beached off New Zealand (copyright Darryl Wilson) In 2002, the body of a strange looking whale resembling both a right whale and a bowhead was found washed ashore near Golden Bay, New Zealand. Now, a new analysis of the creature’s DNA and skull concludes that it is/was in fact a pygmy
The volcano that was featured as Mount Doom for the Lord of the Rings trilogy is causing the New Zealand Department of Conservation some angst, with department measurements indicating the increasing likelihood that Ruapehu will erupt. Subsequently, the Department of Conservation issued a warning to climbers and trampers in the region, recommending that they do not
As reported the other day, actress Lucy Lawless (Xena) joined Greenpeace and climbed an oil rig in New Zealand that was supposed to be headed to the Arctic. Lucy was arrested yesterday for this civil disobedience, as were the other environmental activists. Regarding some of her reasons for joining Greenpeace’s work, Lucy writes: “I’ve got
A new study has revealed the effect that El Niño and La Niña are likely to have on the New Zealand climate in the coming decades with a continuation in the global climate change. “As the world continues to warm New Zealand is likely to experience the impacts of El Niño and La Niño events
A bunch of tiny little penguins were rescued from a horrible oil spill off the coast of New Zealand and were recently released back into the ocean. Here’s more from WWF, including a beautiful video of the release. The first little blue penguins affected by the Rena oil spill were released back into the wild
Greenpeace’s new custom-built “crowd-funded, hyper-efficient, purpose-built environmental activist sailing ship” has set sail from its harbour in Bremen and is on its way to Hamburg on its first voyage after being launched.
This amazing video shows the Virginia earthquake ripple west across the United States, thanks to an array of detectors that are part of the USArray/EarthScope facility.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Terra satellite captured this image of Franz Josef Land as the clouds parted on August 14.
Well, as if we haven’t seen enough earthquakes and tsunamis this year, New Zealand just got hit with another. New Zealand was hit with a 7.6-magnitude earthquake today, according to the USGS, and a local tsunami warning has followed.
It’s been a little while since I last wrote about Happy Feet, the second penguin in history known to have swum from Antarctica to New Zealand. So, here are a number of updates about the emperor penguin from the last week or so.
An emperor penguin took a wrong turn and ended up swimming 2,000 miles from Antarctica to New Zealand. This is the first time in 40 years such a penguin has traveled to New Zealand.
This image of the south of New Zealand’s North Island and the north of its South Island was taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite on April 29, 2011.
NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite captured this beautiful image of New Zealand on March 30.
New research out of the University of California, Berkeley and the Berkeley Geochronology Center (BGC) has allowed scientists to reconstruct what the land looked like before it was scoured and carved up by glaciers.
This image was taken on February 10 of this year by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite, and shows a large phytoplankton bloom along the shores of New Zealand’s South Island. Source: NASA Earth Observatory’s Image of the Day
A day after a powerful magnitude 6.3 earthquake rocked Christchurch, a city of 377,000 on New Zealand’s South Island, on Feb. 22, 2011, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA’s Terra spacecraft imaged the Christchurch region. The imaging was done at the request of the International Charter, Space and Major
Earthquakes are one of those phenomenon that occur and immediately elicit sympathy and empathy from those watching on TV. But they seem like they’re a semi-irregular occurrence, taking place maybe twice a year. At least, that would appear to be the situation if we were directed solely by TV news. In New Zealand, earthquakes are
Russia Today, on their YouTube channel, has posted footage taken of the Christchurch in the aftermath of the 6.3-magnitude earthquake that hit on Tuesday.
With the scale of just how hard and damaging the recent 6.3-magnitude quake quickly increasing with each hour that passes, with each revision of the dead and missing, Australia has increased the number of rescue experts they are sending in to help. Attorney-General Robert McClelland announced on Tuesday that Australia would be sending a total
Seems like you can’t swing a dead…um, strike that. It’s hard to miss the wave of news coverage of late concerning the mysterious die-offs of flocks of birds (in two Southern U.S. states). And then there’s that slightly earlier, mass fish kill (all one species), not far away, coming just a short time before the
Are you fed up with Japanese whaling, or with the battles between Japanese whaling vessels and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society? Apparently, the U.S., the Netherlands, Australia, and New Zealand are a bit fed up with the former and a bit worried about the latter. They’ve issued a joint statement (below) both opposing whaling in
According to a report that analyzed 450,000 responses from 151 nations, personal income is indeed related strongly to two categories of subjective experience: “life evaluation” and “emotional well-being“…but only up to an annual income of 75, 000.00. Beyond that level, subjective reporting of emotional well-being and “positive affect” do not change. Researchers sought to quantify
[social_buttons] Ancient lizards from the time of dinosaurs may go extinct due to climate change in the coming decades. A 200-million-year-old lizard, the three-eyed Tuatara, may go extinct due to climate change, scientists warn. The problem is that climate change is reportedly turning the whole species into males.
One of the last countries on Earth to still hunt whales, Japan, is considering withdrawing from the International Whaling Commission. [social_buttons]Japanese Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Masahiko Yamada said Tuesday that, unless an international ban on commercial whaling is eased, Japan could withdraw from the IWC, the international body that regulates whaling. The IWC are
[social_buttons] It is estimated that man has been in Oceania for up to 125,000 years. The land was there before man. And for a long time a balance has been found between man and nature. Perhaps that balance was achieved because man and nature were not separate entities, but one and the same. However, in
[social_buttons] A New Zealand woman was rescued freezing and exhausted from the sea yesterday after a playful dolphin prevented her return to shore. Eyewitnesses at the town of Mahia noticed the woman was at sea with the dolphin, known locally as Moko, for some time late yesterday afternoon, before she began screaming for help. Speaking
Rob Gilchrist, a former activist, had spied on 9 different peaceful environment and animal welfare groups over the past 10 years before his girlfriend discovered suspicious emails, New Zealand’s Sunday Star-Times reported in a 3,200-word expose today. [social_buttons] “Protests are part of a healthy democracy,” said Rochelle Rees, Gilchrist’s girlfriend. “The police are supposed to
Aw, c’mon, pull my finger! You’ve probably had that one pulled (pardon the pun) on you at least once in your life, and the old guy got a good laugh out of your response. It’s ok, old guys do strange things, I know. Well, this isn’t about old guys, but sheep, cattle, deer and goats,
