Scientists reconsider global approach to climate change

The University of Queensland conducted a study that showed future climate change may impact differently in the two hemispheres.

This means that a global approach to climate change is not the solution to climate change issues. The study concentrated on the survival of New Zealand’s glaciers at the end of the last ice age- when other ice areas were retreating. It has renewed calls from scientists to better understand a regional approach to the study of climate change.

“This study reverses previous findings which suggested New Zealand’s glaciers disappeared at the same time as ice in the Northern Hemisphere," said the head of the university’s School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, Professor James Shulmeister.

"We show that when the Northern Hemisphere started to warm at the end of the last ice age, New Zealand glaciers were unaffected.”

Shulmeister said that changes in the Southern Ocean are likely to be critical for New Zealand and Australia.

“This study highlights the need to understand regional climate rather than a global one-size-fits-all,” he said.

The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science journal.