Green World

Aotearoa’s largest annual Earth science festival, EarthFest, is taking place this Saturday. The event is designed to spark curiosity about Earth science concepts and careers through hands-on exhibits, engaging demonstrations, and interactive displays that appeal to all ages.
bFM News teamer Leilani spoke with University of Auckland PhD student and EarthFest committee member, Annahlise Hall, about the festival’s goals, the value of making science accessible to the wider community, and why events like this play an important role in shaping public understanding of Earth sciences.

EarthFest takes place this Saturday at the Fickling Convention Centre in Mount Albert from NINE to THREE. This event is free and open to everyone. 

The 30th UN climate conference will run from next week, the 10th to 21st of November in Belém, Brazil, taking on key issues around the mitigation of climate change, like the limiting of global temperature rise, increase in climate spending commitments, and the impacts for vulnerable populations.

For Green World this week, Wire Host Sara spoke with Senior Lecturer at AUT’s School of Future Environments, Dr Priscila Besen, about the importance of this year’s conference for climate action.

Besen will be in attendance at COP30, and will share content at the event here.

Victoria University of Wellington PhD candidate Alexander Kaurov alongside Harvard Professor of Science Naomi Oreskes published an article about the impact of AI on scientific literature in the digital age.

They highlight the difficulty of scrutinising information in the “explosion of scientific papers” newly produced and available and discuss the benefits and disadvantages of artificial intelligence in responding to this new norm of literature.

For Green World this week, Wire Host Sara spoke to Alexander Kaurov about this issue and the future of AI’s influence on academic research

This week in Aotearoa, the Hauraki Gulf Tīkapa Moana Marine Protection Bill is set to pass its third reading in parliament. The legislation extends existing protections and introduces new areas of marine reserve. The move is providing what many have described as long overdue in Aotearoa’s conservation efforts, as only 0.3% of our waters are currently under full marine protection. However, experts have also raised concerns about the balance of consideration of commercial fisheries comparative to that of local whānau and hapū groups.

Producer Jasmine Gray spoke to Fiona McCormack, an Associate Marine Anthropology Professor at the University of Waikato, about the nature of this legislation and what it means for wider marine conservation efforts.