Sustainability NZ (2026)

24/08/2026

The atmosphere around biomass is more than a background condition.

CO₂, steam, O₂ and NH₃ can tune biochar porosity, surface chemistry and product yields during pyrolysis.

17/08/2026

Somewhere inside every cell in your body is a tiny recycling plant that switches on the moment food runs out, quietly dismantling old parts to keep the whole system alive. Japanese biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi won the Nobel Prize for uncovering exactly how this process works, a mechanism called autophagy, which literally translates from Greek as self eating.

Scientists had actually spotted signs of this phenomenon decades earlier, back in the 1950s and 60s, when researchers noticed that cells could wrap up their own contents in little membrane sacs and ship them off to be broken down. But nobody understood how or why it happened, and the process remained a scientific mystery for years because the machinery involved was nearly impossible to observe directly.

Ohsumi cracked the puzzle using an unlikely subject, ordinary baker's yeast, the same organism used to make bread rise. Working at the University of Tokyo in the early 1990s, he engineered yeast cells that could not break down the material they packaged for recycling, which let him watch these sacs pile up under the microscope like undelivered parcels. From there, he identified more than a dozen genes essential to the entire process and traced out the step by step machinery cells use to consume their own damaged proteins and worn out components.

What makes autophagy so vital is timing. When a cell is starved of nutrients, stressed, or carrying damaged material that could become dangerous if left alone, it activates this system to break everything down into reusable building blocks, essentially feeding itself from the inside until conditions improve. The same pathway also helps clear out invading bacteria and viruses and plays a role in how the body ages.

Since Ohsumi's discovery, scientists have connected faulty autophagy to conditions ranging from cancer to Parkinson's disease, opening entirely new directions for treatment. A process that starts with a single celled fungus in a lab dish has ended up reshaping how medicine understands human disease itself.

Source: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2016, Yoshinori Ohsumi

11/08/2026

Women is leadership roles: Is unconditional empathy a good thing?

A 2006 study published in Nature by Dr. Tania Singer and colleagues at University College London found that women showed empathy for both fair and unfair players who received mild electric shocks, while men exhibited a reward response in the nucleus accumbens when viewing an unfair player (cheater) being shocked.

Methodology: 32 volunteers (16 men, 16 women) played a game with confederates, establishing liking or disliking based on fairness.

Brain Imaging: During MRI scans, participants watched these confederates receive shocks.

Key Findings:

Men: Showed empathy for fair players but no empathy for unfair players; instead, their reward centers activated when the cheater suffered.

Women: Showed empathy activation in pain-related brain areas for both fair and unfair players, with no surge in reward centers for the cheater's pain.

Interpretation: The study suggested men are more prone to schadenfreude (pleasure at another's misfortune) in contexts of revenge, whereas women maintained empathetic responses regardless of the target's behaviour.

03/08/2026

Removing PFOA forever chemicals from agricultural soil.

Researchers used h**p, rock dust and biochar to scrub forever chemicals from farm soils
A Yale study finds that combining three low-cost interventions could bring contaminated soils below safety thresholds within a decade, at a fraction of conventional cleanup costs.

27/07/2026

𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗔𝗴𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲: 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗮𝗻𝗱, 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲

Regenerative agriculture is transforming the future of farming by focusing on soil health, biodiversity, water conservation, and climate resilience. Unlike conventional farming, regenerative practices aim to restore ecosystems while maintaining productive and profitable agriculture, creating long-term value for farmers, businesses, and the environment.

Techniques such as cover cropping, crop rotation, reduced tillage, composting, rotational grazing, and agroforestry help improve soil fertility, enhance carbon sequestration, increase water retention, and support healthier ecosystems. These practices not only improve crop yields over time but also strengthen food security and reduce agriculture's environmental footprint.

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗔𝗴𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗜𝘀 𝗧𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴
✅ Improves soil health and fertility
✅ Enhancing carbon sequestration to combat climate change
✅ Conserves water and increases drought resilience
✅ Supports biodiversity and healthier ecosystems
✅ Meets growing demand for sustainable food production

𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵𝘆 𝘀𝗼𝗶𝗹 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗼𝗱, 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗲𝘁. 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗴𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗳𝗮𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴—𝗶𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆.

13/07/2026

Auckland Transport must halt work on a raised speed bump crossing planned for the intersection of Ti Rakau Drive and Gossamer Drive.

Councillors Bo Burns and Maurice Williamson and Simeon Brown have written to AT calling on AT to cancel this project, which it wants to install as part of the Eastern Busway works.

Not only would it cause disruption while it is being installed, it would also cause significant congestion at this intersection once completed, with cars forced to slow down.

Ti Rakau Drive is one of the busiest roads in Auckland. The last thing it needs is a speed bump slowing traffic down even more at this major intersection.

The Eastern Busway is already bringing big changes, crossing Ti Rakau Drive at three locations. That makes keeping traffic moving more critical than ever, and this planned speed bump will do the opposite.

07/07/2026

Southland wetland to be sacrificed for data centre.

Datagrid has received full resource consent to remove a 2,400 square metre wetland at its proposed $3.5 billion hyperscale AI data centre site in Makarewa, Southland. Environment Southland independent commissioner Hugh Leersnyder deemed the removal to have "minor adverse environmental effects", classifying the wetland as having "low ecological value".

With data centres causing heightened public privacy concerns about their purpose and scope of use, human and animal safety concerns as well as environmental concernsdue to their power consumption and requirements for fresh, clean water, the further depletion of natural wetland area is being met with much apprehension.

29/06/2026

Every AI information request you made today used at least half a litre of fresh water and no one is asking where that fresh water is coming from.

That is not an estimate. It is a peer-reviewed finding from the University of California published 2025. 500 millilitres per 100-word AI prompt. Used to cool the servers processing your request. Gone. Not returned.

Microsoft used 1.69 billion gallons of water globally last year for its data centres. A 34 percent increase on the year before. Those numbers are from their own sustainability report.

There are now data centre facilities in Auckland pulling 100 megawatts each.

15/06/2026

Is this the worst road layout in New Zealand?

Great South Road, Takanini. Green painted areas of road space ahead of motor vehicle lanes at an intersection to allow slow moving cyclists to obstruct faster moving traffic, despite the provision of dedicated cycle lanes.

With the speed differential of motor vehicles and cyclists, obstructing traffic and creating congestion is not the main concern here; it's safety.

08/06/2026

Alarmism isn't only unhelpful but actively damaging to both genuine environmental efforts and productivity. Fear helps with nothing, policies based on inaccurate information are wasteful and efforts based on such misunderstandings take focus off important matters like reducing waste.

Stefan Homburg

• The World Climate Council retracts its apocalyptic computer model as unrealistic
• 46 climate scientists abandon it as unserious
• USA has completely withdrawn
• Bill Gates, banks and WEF distance themselves from climate alarmism

Background: For many years, computer models have fueled Greta Thunberg's motto "The Earth is burning!" By now, the gap to reality has become too wide.

However, governments cling to the ideology. It fears being punished by voters for the immense economic damages of its "climate policy" if it admits the misguided path and punitive measures world banks may take.

The SPD is the guarantor for Habeck's policy of deindustrialisation and the Union submits: Every smallest attempt, e.g. by Katharina Reiche, to correct the fatal course is blocked. Everything is financed with excessive state debt and unspecified, unquantified and unmeasurable hopes and dreams.

Sustainability NZ

24/08/2026

17/08/2026

11/08/2026

03/08/2026

27/07/2026

13/07/2026

07/07/2026

29/06/2026

15/06/2026

08/06/2026

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