17 Dec 2019

Best of 2019: environment

12:07 pm on 26 December 2019

It's been a grim year for the environment and our stories covering the subject were among our most widely read, but our most popular on bringing a forest back to life using gorse offered hope.

Pet numbers need to shrink to help save the planet

Pet ownership around the world continues to grow, and the environmental cost is skyrocketing along with it, says nutritional ecology expert David Raubenheimer.

A file photo of a dog.

Photo: zinkevych/123RF

 

Raising the Bar: how to make our rivers healthy

Dismayed by the increasing degradation of our waterways - and drawing on a traditional Māori worldview - Dan Hikuroa says it's time to think of our rivers as sentient beings.

 

Professor Jared Diamond: 'The world is in more trouble than it has ever been'

"The present situation is the most dangerous situation of my life, just because there are more people with more consumption and more impact on the world.”

American scientist and writer Jared Diamond.

Photo: AFP / FILE

 

Climate pioneer Dave Lowe "we only have one atmosphere"

New Zealander Dave Lowe is a legend in atmospheric science, being one of the first people to find proof that humans were driving global warming.

Dave Lowe taking an air flask sample at the edge of the Baring Head cliff in 1972.

Photo: Dave Lowe

 

The early climate heroes who tried to warn us

Climate change was being discussed by some unlikely heroes in the early 1980s, says New York Times journalist Nathaniel Rich. He's written a book about them.

Nathaniel Rich

Photo: AFP / FILE

 

David Wallace-Wells: Inaction on climate change will turn Earth into 'a hell'

if people don’t mobilise to tackle the issue immediately, our planet will face untold disaster, drought and famine, says David Wallace-Wells.

A burnt out truck is seen in Paradise, California after the Camp fire tore through the area.

Photo: AFP

 

The psychology behind climate change disbelievers

By nature, climate sceptics are slightly suspicious, sometimes religious and usually politically conservative, says psychologist Marc Wilson.

A picture taken in 31 October, 2018 shows polar bears feeding at a garbage dump near the village of Belushya Guba. Scientists say conflicts with ice-dependent polar bears will increase in the future due to Arctic ice melting and a rise of human presence in the area.

Photo: Alexander Grir / AFP

 

Gorse for the trees: How one man brought back a forest

In 1987, Hugh Wilson had the idea of turning some hilly farmland back into native forest. Thirty years later, the Hinewai Nature Reserve is 15,000 hectares of flourishing native bush.

No caption

Photo: James Hosking

 

Predictions of sea-level rise severely understated

Many parts of the world are closer to sea level and many more people at risk of rising seas than previously believed.

Professor Matt King

Photo: Associate Professor Nick Golledge

 

Jonathan Safran Foer - can you eat your way to saving the planet?

How much power does the individual have in preventing climate change? More than you  think, says American author Jonathan Safran Foer.

Jonathan Safran Foer

Photo: Jeff Mermelstein

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