Urgent need for warming study

Press, 28 December 1987, Page 5

Urgent need for warming study

PA Wellington Government scientists planned an urgent review of research into the likely effects on New Zealand of rapidly rising sea levels and temperatures, said the Director-General of the D.5.1.R., Dr A. J. Ellis. New Zealand’s coast-

line, climate, ecology and primary production would all be seriously affected by global warming, Dr Ellis said. “Research into the impact on this country and ways of adapting to it is now a top priority.” Overseas scientists had

estimated sea levels round New Zealand would rise up to 1.4 metres over the next 40 years and air temperatures would jump by up to 4.5 deg. C, he said. Local research supported the international scientific opinions on

likely environmental impacts of rising global temperatures, in which records showed the four warmest years of the last 120 had all occurred in the last seven years. The average temperature had risen by 0.5 deg. in less than a century,

said Dr Ellis. “Early in the new year I will review current research and identify the. gaps before deciding what new research to initiate,” he said. The D.S.I.R.’s atmospheric monitoring programme at the inter-

nationally important Baring Head station, southeast of Wellington, has found a steady increase in carbon dioxide levels since 1970. Carbon dioxide is the main “greenhouse” gas that traps heat in the lower atmosphere.