NIWA data release welcomed

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

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