The oldest kauri tree in New Zealand, Tane Mahuta which stands near northland’s Hokianga Harbour, is at risk of dying.

Too many tourists are trampling over the aged tree’s roots. Kauri roots are very shallow and sensitive to damage. And the Conservation Department says Waipoua Forest’s Tane Mahuta has been damaged by people clambering around its trunk. Tree-huggers are being asked to keep back.

Tane Mahuta is showing “die back” with some branches dying. Conservation officers are calling for people to stand only of viewing platforms provided.

Conservation staff and local iwi have replaced truckloads of leaf litter trampled by tourists, and a barbed wire fence will be built to keep the public away from the tree’s roots.

© 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>>