Landcare Research staff map extent of storm damage

The recent February storm in the lower North Island produced severe and widespread landsliding.

The landsliding extent has been mapped by Landcare Research staff at the Palmerston North office using the French SPOT5 satellite. 19,800 hectares of land has been lost to pasture production, either through erosion or deposition of debris.

The worst affected district was the Rangitikei (6,300 ha), followed by the Manawatu district (4,500 ha) and the Wanganui district (4,100 ha).

Erosion scars, which comprise approximately 25% of the total, can take up to 10 years to regain productivity. Debris tails, which comprise approximately 75% of the total, can regain pasture productivity with one year.

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>