10 big questions on climate change answered

WeatherWatch weather analyst Philip Duncan’s blogs on climate change have attracted a lot of reader interest. He took readers’ 10 most commonly asked questions and put them to Dr James Renwick, Principal Scientist, Climate Variability & Change at Niwa.

Philip Duncan: 1) It feels like summers in New Zealand aren’t as hot as they used to be – it doesn’t feel like NZ is getting hotter at all?

Dr Renwick: I hear that comment quite a lot, and I think a lot of it is psychological. My perception is that when you’re young you spend a lot of time outdoors in the summer…the older we get the more time we spend indoors, in the office, less holidays etc. So our perception is that summers used to be hotter, but I can assure you that the data show it is definitely warming up and has done so over the last century.

New Zealand Herald