10 July 2007
NIWA data release welcomed
The decision of the National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA) to make access to its nationally significant databases free over the web has been welcomed
by the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition. The initiative will include archived data on climate, lake level, river
flow, sea level, water quality, and freshwater fish from NIWA, the MetService, and several other contributing agencies.
"This is something our members have long been advocating, well before our Coalition was formed last year," said Owen
McShane, chairman of the Coalition's policy panel. "We commend the leadership of NIWA on this sensible decision, not
merely because it ought to be the right of taxpayers to access information gathered at their expense, but also because
it will assist in the current debate on the causes and extent of the changes taking place in New Zealand's and the
world's climate.
"We hope that now, in addition to being more open making its results public, NIWA may also signal a willingness to pay
greater attention to contesting opinions about the causes of climate change, especially in view of the recent public
admission by its own Dr Jim Renwick that NIWA gets climate prediction right only about half the time," said Mr McShane.
ENDS