Climate change
What is climate change?
Greenhouse gases in our atmosphere (mainly carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide) act like the outside covering of a greenhouse - trapping warmth from the sun and making life on Earth possible.
What's happened though is our increasing greenhouse gas emissions from things like transportation, industry, energy production, agriculture and deforestation are causing our planet to heat at a faster rate. Once this global warming affects our weather patterns and climate, it is referred to as climate change.
There are a couple of good New Zealand websites that explain climate change in detail. These have been produced by the Ministry for the Environment.
4 million careful owners:
www.4million.org.nz/climatechange
Climate Change Office:
www.climatechange.govt.nz
Climate change in Northland
Some of the predicted impacts of a moderate rate of climate change for Northland include:
- changes in average temperature
- sea level rise
- rainfall patterns
In general, Northland, like much of the north of New Zealand, is likely to become warmer and drier.
For further information on predicted impacts for our region, visit the Climate Change Office website:
www.climatechange.govt.nz/about/impacts/northland.html
The challenge for landowners
Almost 50 percent of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions are made up of methane and nitrous oxide, the two gases most closely associated with farming. For this reason the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry have a close interest in issues relating to climate change.
Their website addresses the challenges to landowners and has a specific section on the challenges for Māori landowners.
www.maf.govt.nz/climatechange