Articles in ‘Environment’

The Government is negotiating with the US to provide access to our critical minerals, while a memo before the Waitangi Tribunal says a backdoor deal violates obligations to Māori Resources minister Shane Jones has adopted a Trumpian slogan, and hopes New Zealand's mining industry can benefit from Trump's desire for critical minerals. Photo: Facebook New Zealand has been holding closed-door discussions with the United States on the supply of…

Spiders don’t normally create such large colonies, so no need to fear finding one in your basement *Credit: Getty  Ezzy Pearson* - BBC Science Focus Arachnophobes best look away now, because a group of scientists have found what could be the biggest spider colony in the world. The web is 106 square metres (1,140 square feet) in size and is thought to be home to up to 111,000 spiders. That’s roughly half the size of a tennis court. The…

If you’re a gardener – and definitely if you’re a farmer – you want to spend less on fertilizer but while growing more food. Well, it’s time to send your thank-you basket of fruits and vegetables to researchers at the National University of Singapore, because they’ve created a magic wand for doing just that. Well, actually, a magic needle. In their Advanced Functional Materials paper “Microneedle-Based Biofertilizer Delivery Improves Plant…

Currently the Waikato Regional Council is awaiting the final outcome from the Environment Court hearing into the objections around PC1. PC1 is the proposed change to be made to the operative Waikato Regional Plan that was put forward by the Waikato Regional Council back in 2016. It is expected PC1 will be operative next year and, depending on the final results of the Environment Court hearing, that farmers might need to get resource consent…

Although Koi Carp are mainly only found in the Waikato region at the present time, you can bet on the fact that they will spread across the whole country eventually if they are not controlled in some way. Waikato koi rarely exceed 9 years of age. Females average 5.2 years and males 4.6 years of age. An average fish weighs 3 kg. Females produce 100 000 eggs per kg of body weight. A typical female can produce 300 000 eggs annually (or more if…

There is something undemocratic in a society of machines. Men receive more or less power, honor, and esteem because of their capacity to purchase the use of certain devices—not because of who they are. The capacity to “go camping” proves to a man and his fellows that his access to this or that machine is not a cheat or a fraud, but an aid and assistance to an underlying skill that he really does have. In the midst of untold luxuries, families…

The discovery of multiple Asian yellow-legged hornet queens and nests across Glenfield has triggered warnings that New Zealand is running out of time to stop the pest from becoming permanent. Experts say MPI’s current containment zone is far too small for a species known overseas to spread tens of kilometres a year, and early signs suggest the Auckland incursion is already larger than first thought. **Hornets devastate honey bees, crops, and…

**PC1 Why Bother Complying** You may well ask what he is on about. Under Plan Change 1 the agricultural industries are going to be hit with a raft of new regulations and rules for compliance; the aim being to improve the water quality in the region. Even though only 15 of the sub-catchments in the Waikato and Waipa catchments were exceeding the standards proposed to be introduced through the enactment of PC1 at the time it was proposed. The…

As night falls in the rainforests, orangutans climb into the canopy to construct intricate tree nests, displaying remarkable ingenuity. These comfy platforms are carefully engineered beds, providing warmth, comfort, protection from predators, and even reduce mosquito bites. Scientists have long wondered how young orangutans learn to master such complex architecture. Recent findings reveal that they acquire this skill through close observation…

When you take into account the way we live in society today it is an incontrovertible fact that Mining is essential to our way of life. Everything we touch or use outside of living creatures requires a product from either a mine or a quarry at some stage of its lifecycle. From the time that Stone Age man picked up the first rock and started to use it as a tool we have been committed to the need for mining and quarrying to support our way of…