Blazing a trail
In 1994, the first Moonride mountain-bike race was held in Rotorua, an event which has followed the growing popularity and evolution of the sport.
In 1994, the first Moonride mountain-bike race was held in Rotorua, an event which has followed the growing popularity and evolution of the sport.
It strikes me as unusual that I would have to come to one of the coldest places on the planet to witness warming at its most extreme. But here I am, in Curtis Bay on the Antarctic Peninsula, surrounded by bash ice and bergs. All about me, tiny pieces of reticulated ice crackle on the surface. There are splinters and crunches, sounds like shotguns as bergs split open and calve into the sea with a roar. Then penetrating silence, as if the entire continent is poised to collapse. Soon, the little voices in the ice begin to whisper again. Each year, the great embayments of the continent fracture and break up, colossal floes shearing from the permanent ice and drifting out to sea as tabular bergs nautical miles across and pan-flat on top. Six months later, the white continent waxes again, building sea ice that will double its area. Each year, the annual melt is greater, the freeze less substantial. Each decade, for the past five, average temperatures on the Antarctic Peninsula have risen by half a degree Celsius. Seven of its great ice shelves have either retreated or completely disintegrated. Something is going wrong, and it started here first. Rather than paring back on combustion and consumption, we’re doing more of it. Globally, greenhouse-gas emissions are accelerating: they grew more quickly between 2000 and 2010 than in each of the three previous decades. Emissions during the decade to 2010 were nearly 70 per cent higher than they were in the late 20th century. Half of all greenhouse-gas emissions since 1750 have occurred in the past 40 years. New Zealand has been doing little to help. Our emissions have gone up 25 per cent since 1990. On average, each New Zealander produces twice the greenhouse-gas emissions of the average citizen of China, and around eight times those of someone living in India. We are now the fifth-highest emitter per person in the world—behind Australia, the United States, Canada and Luxembourg. Rather than planting trees, we’ve been felling them: 151,000 hectares have been dropped since we signed the Kyoto Protocol. Pretty soon the trees felled during the forestry boom of the 1990s will be felled too, representing a huge carbon source rather than a carbon sink that currently offsets a portion of our emissions. Another problem is our love affair with ‘enteric fermentation’. In 2013 alone, our fields resounded as the digestive tracts of the national herd emitted 23,935 million tonnes of methane double the carbon-dioxide equivalent of all the vehicles on our roads. This being election year, more hot air is circulating than usual. But the major parties remain muted on the matter of mitigation. “Best endeavours” with “minimal disruption to the economy” are the cautious words of one party leader as he implied that the forecast by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of 0.06 of a percentage point off annual economic growth to pay for a shift to a low-carbon economy would be too expensive. I don’t expect he’s done a calculation on the annual cost of the droughts, storms and sea-level rise that projections forecast. Indeed, the tide may need to slosh across the threshold of Parliament steps before climate science is respected. The scientists cannot be more emphatic. If there were alarm bells, they would be ringing. Though I can’t hear them—down here in Curtis Bay, any sirens are drowned out by the cacophony of the summer melt. Ernest Shackleton wrote of the “little voices” of the ice that would draw men into the unknown, away from trodden paths. Frank Wild wrote that he could “not escape the ‘little voices’... the wild will keep calling and calling forever in your ears”. For them, the little voices were the call of the wild. A century later, I wonder if the wild isn’t saying something different. In this special issue, the ice speaks loud and clear. New data, extracted from Antarctic ice cores, points to more dramatic change than scientists had forecast. The fate of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet will add metres to estimates of sea-level rise and dramatically alter the future tenability of coastal land the world over. It may be time to listen to the little voices.
Social media’s answer to a conversation across the back fence
The climate models behind predictions of droughts and floods require a colossal amount of data crunching. Scientists have decided to share the load. NIWA is calling on any member of the public with a computer and an internet connection to volunteer their hardware. Weather@home can be downloaded and run as a background process on a home computer to help crunch climate data. It takes any spare processing power and processes data from both a global climate model and NIWA’s regional climate model, then uploads the results for the scientists to scrutinise. Volunteers can sign up at weatherathome.net
A kilometre of seal that’s been an ancient Maori path and redoubt, a promenade for housewives to ritzy stores, then a motorway-scarred red-light party zone… and now maybe something else again.
This route is one of the real highlights of Te Araroa —particularly so when the weather conditions are favourable and allow unbridled views across the Mackenzie. Coupled with the yesteryear charm of the musterer huts en route, this is a magnificent New Zealand experience. From the carpark, markers will guide the way to Bush Stream. From there it is a case of following the stream, either up or adjacent to it, crossing where needed. This is an unmarked route. Take particular care getting around (or over) Sawtooth Bluff and especially after rainfall or during the snow melt and when the river is high. The track passes Crooked Spur Hut then ascends behind Crooked Spur before coming down across Packhorse and Sweeps Streams and to Stone Hut. Continuing alongside Bush Stream, the track proceeds to Royal Hut named after a fleeting 1970 helicopter visit by Prince Charles and Princess Anne. After Royal Hut a five-kilometre climb, steep in places, takes walkers to Stag Saddle—at 1925 metres the highest point on the entire Te Araroa route. At Stag Saddle the option exists in good weather to climb to the west onto the ridge and descend down that, taking in the stunning panoramic views. Towards the end of the ridge, a 4WD track crosses the ridge and heads down to Camp Stream; follow that to Camp Stream Hut. The ridge route should not be attempted in poor weather as the route is unmarked and prone to cloud/fog in bad weather. If the weather is poor, or for unconfident navigators, stick to the poled route down the valley. From Camp Stream Hut there is a short, steep crossing of Coal River. There’s an earlier exit option down the Roundhill Skifield road, otherwise the route will follow the base of the Two Thumb Range before being guided by Boundary Stream out to Lilybank Road. When planning to walk this route, the strong recommendation is to do it north to south—and if possible plan do it in good weather—so as to take advantage of the scenic descent overlooking Lake Tekapo. A comfortable three-day journey would be to plan stays at Stone Hut and Camp Stream Hut, though faster walkers could look to make it a two-day walk staying at Royal Hut. The Te Araroa website has details of transport operators who can assist in taking walkers to/from the trailheads.
Trevor Chinn pioneered the study of New Zealand’s 3162 glaciers.
Losing your legs would end most mountaineering careers, but for Mark Inglis, it was just the beginning.
Connection in an age of fragmentation.
Swept by the cold seas of the Southern Ocean, New Zealand’s outposts of the Bounty and Antipodes Islands are awash with life.
Treasure under the ice
Engineers test a bizarre bomb
The record of the Earth’s past climate has been frozen in ice bound up in ice sheets and glaciers on land, and floating on the seas in great ice shelves. Cores extracted from this ice tell an alarming story, and dramatically alter climate projections.
Petr Hlavacek is in his element
Poisonous plants weren’t born bad: they were pressured into it
3
$1 trial for two weeks, thereafter $8.50 every two months, cancel any time
Already a subscriber? Sign in
Signed in as . Sign out
Ask your librarian to subscribe to this service next year. Alternatively, use a home network and buy a digital subscription—just $1/week...
Subscribe to our free newsletter for news and prizes