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  • Rights: Crown Copyright 2020, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
    Published 15 October 2020 Referencing Hub media
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    Drew Bingham and Bonnie Farrant are part of a team that produced Our atmosphere and climate 2020. They discuss how the team maintains its independence and what role evidence1 plays in what they’ve reported.

    Questions for discussion:

    • Why is it important for all New Zealanders (the general public and policy makers) to work from a common understanding of the country’s climate2?
    • Why is it important that the report isn’t influenced by anything other than the science?

    Transcript

    BONNIE FARRANT

    The report is produced by both MfE and Stats New Zealand. We are a joint programme called the Environmental Reporting Programme.

    DREW BINGHAM

    The report is a health check on the state of the climate and atmosphere3 in New Zealand. The overall story is that our activities create emissions, which are changing the climate, which is affecting our wellbeing.

    The report’s really aimed at everyone in New Zealand. We want all the New Zealanders to be able to understand what is going on with our climate, and the government, people who make policy or work in the climate space have an evidence base that they can draw upon so that we’re all working from a common understanding.

    The heart of the report is the data4 that we collect on the state of the climate. So it’s all the weather5 data that’s collected in towns across the country, the temperature6 and rainfall. It’s the greenhouse gases7 that are measured over at Baring Head, it’s the ultraviolet radiation8 that’s measured. And these data are really important because it helps us understand how climate is changing, and so if we’re going to adapt to climate change9 or take action to mitigate10 it, we need to understand how it’s affecting New Zealand.

    The way that we maintain independence in the reports is we have an outside panel of experts, the senior science and mātauranga11 team. We rely on their independent scientific assessment of the report to make sure that what we’re saying is backed up by the science and the evidence.

    We’re independent of the government of the day, so the government won’t see this report until the day before it’s published.

    And also, we’re independent of the rest of the ministries.

    Acknowledgements
    Bonnie Farrant, Stats NZ
    Drew Bingham, Ministry for the Environment
    Still image of the Beehive, Luke Pilkinton-Ching, University of Otago Wellington, released under CC BY-NC 3.0

    Acknowledgement

    This resource has been produced with the support of the Ministry for the Environment and Stats NZ. (c) Crown Copyright.

    1. evidence: Data, or information, used to prove or disprove something.
    2. climate: The weather conditions of an area averaged over a series of years, usually 30 or more.
    3. atmosphere: 1. The layer of gas around the Earth. 2. (atm) A non-SI unit of pressure equivalent to 101.325 kPa.
    4. data: The unprocessed information we analyse to gain knowledge.
    5. weather: Daily or short-term conditions like temperature, cloud cover, precipitation and wind affecting a certain area.
    6. temperature: A measure of the degree of hotness or coldness of an object or substance. Temperature is measured with a thermometer calibrated in one or more temperature scales. Kelvin scale temperature is a measure of the average energy of the molecules of a body.
    7. greenhouse gases: A natural or manmade gas that traps heat in the Earth's atmosphere and contributes to the greenhouse effect. The main greenhouse gases are water vapour, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), ozone and industrial gases such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). These gases in the Earth's atmosphere trap warmth from the Sun and make life possible. An overabundance of greenhouse gases leads to a rise in global temperatures – known as the greenhouse effect.
    8. radiation: Energy that is transmitted (radiates) from a source in the form of rays or waves or particles.
    9. climate change: The large-scale, long-term increase in the Earth’s average temperatures, with associated changes in weather patterns. There is significant scientific evidence that warming is due to increased quantities of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, with most of the rise due to human activity.
    10. mitigate: To make less severe or to lessen the intensity. For example, mitigating climate change involves reducing greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing ‘sinks’ (such as forests, oceans and soils) that store the gases.
    11. mātauranga: Māori cultural knowledge and understanding of the world; Māori wisdom.
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      evidence

    1. + Create new collection
    2. Data, or information, used to prove or disprove something.

      data

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    4. The unprocessed information we analyse to gain knowledge.

      greenhouse gases

    5. + Create new collection
    6. A natural or manmade gas that traps heat in the Earth's atmosphere and contributes to the greenhouse effect. The main greenhouse gases are water vapour, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), ozone and industrial gases such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). These gases in the Earth's atmosphere trap warmth from the Sun and make life possible. An overabundance of greenhouse gases leads to a rise in global temperatures – known as the greenhouse effect.

      mitigate

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    8. To make less severe or to lessen the intensity. For example, mitigating climate change involves reducing greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing ‘sinks’ (such as forests, oceans and soils) that store the gases.

      climate

    9. + Create new collection
    10. The weather conditions of an area averaged over a series of years, usually 30 or more.

      weather

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    12. Daily or short-term conditions like temperature, cloud cover, precipitation and wind affecting a certain area.

      radiation

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    14. Energy that is transmitted (radiates) from a source in the form of rays or waves or particles.

      mātauranga

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    16. Māori cultural knowledge and understanding of the world; Māori wisdom.

      atmosphere

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    18. 1. The layer of gas around the Earth.

      2. (atm) A non-SI unit of pressure equivalent to 101.325 kPa.

      temperature

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    20. A measure of the degree of hotness or coldness of an object or substance. Temperature is measured with a thermometer calibrated in one or more temperature scales. Kelvin scale temperature is a measure of the average energy of the molecules of a body.

      climate change

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    22. The large-scale, long-term increase in the Earth’s average temperatures, with associated changes in weather patterns. There is significant scientific evidence that warming is due to increased quantities of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, with most of the rise due to human activity.