News
Ngā Ara Whetū Submission on Proposed Amendments to the Ministry for the Environment’s Freshwater National Direction
Image used is Oakley Creek in 2009 by russellstreet, used under CC BY-SA 4.0 On 29 May 2025, the Government put out a public call for submissions on their proposed amendments to the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020 and the Resource Management...
Repair Café: Call for Volunteers!
The Faculty of Engineering and Design Sustainability Committee, CIRCUIT Centre, Ngā Ara Whetū, and Sustainability Hub and other faculties are collaborating with Repair Network Aotearoa to host our own Repair Café at the University for our staff and students! Repair...
Hidden treasure: saving precious minerals from the e-waste landfill
By Benjamin Dekker. Image used is Electronic waste at Agbogbloshie Ghana by Muntaka Chasant, used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Can green chemistry drastically reduce our mining and landfilling needs? Chemists at the University of Auckland are pioneering new methods for dealing...
Ngā Ara Whetū Submission on the Waste Minimisation Act 2008 and Litter Act 1979
On 22 April 2025, The Ministry for the Environment put out a public call for submissions on proposed amendments to the Waste Minimisation Act 2008 and Litter Act 1979. We support some of these changes, and are critical of others. In this submission, we identify a...
Can we buy time to save our native trees?
Myrtle rust poses a threat to pōhutukawa and 14 other native trees. Myrtle rust poses a risk of wiping out New Zealand’s Christmas tree, the pōhutukawa, and could harm manuka honey production, says Dr Mark Harvey from the University of Auckland. “It’s destroying whole...
A Coming Water Crisis: Science, Politics, and Solutions
Flooded building and tree trunk by Basile Morin. Used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Date and Time: Thurs, 29 May 4pm-5:30pm NZST Location: Old Government House, 24 Princes Street Event Description: Please join us for a bite, a beverage, and a salon discussion with our expert...
Eco Film Festival Tickets Now Available!
FREE tickets for Ngā Ara Whetū's second Eco Film Festival are now available! On Saturday 7 June we will be holding three sessions of films focused on ecology and the people situated within it, at Academy Cinemas underneath the Central Library Building, 44 Lorne...
Opinion: The politics driving the mass tragedy of native species decline
The on-going population declines of native wildlife in Aotearoa New Zealand are being perpetuated by politics and our discourses regarding the environment, according to Professor Maria Armoudian, Co-director of Ngā Ara Whetū and Senior Lecturer in Politics and...
Sustain Episode 14: How can we deal with the threat posed by microplastics?
From the Antarctic to the deepest depths of the ocean, microplastics are found in increasingly large numbers. These tiny, seemingly inescapable plastics pose a range of threats to human health, animal life and the ecosystems on which we rely. How can we deal with this...
Project for Media in the Public Interest
Want to understand the world better? Get some context around some of the big questions? Have a fresh light shed on global issues and political debate?
The Project for Media in the Public Interest (PMPI) is a website connecting audiences to informed dialogue about science, economics, arts and politics. Academics from across disciplines at the University of Auckland, across America, Europe, Australia and other universities discuss their research on important topics via videos, podcasts, interviews, symposia and opinion pieces.
“We are aiming to elevate critical thinking, raise the level of public debate, and counter the trend towards soft news,” says the project’s founding director, political scientist Dr Maria Armoudian.
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