Dr Rob Bell
Principal Scientist - Coastal and Estuarine Physical Processes
What do you like about your job?
Combining engineering (my background) and science to develop solutions for complex issues or problems, by undertaking research followed by application through consultancy projects. Then coming full circle, real-world projects, particularly those involving adaptation to climate change, throw up gaps and problems that we can then do further research on.
What do you do to tackle climate change in your everyday life?
I have regularly cycled to work over my career and enjoy riding cycle trails around the Waikato and a few years back completed the Otago Rail Trail. We compost our garden and food waste — and eat the nourished vegetables we grow as a result.
How does your work make a difference?
I try hard to join dots across sectors, translating the coastal and climate-change science we do into engineering practice (I work on coastal infrastructure projects), government policy (I had input to the wording of the hazard aspects of the NZ Coastal Policy Statement) and producing guidance for local government on adapting to climate change at the coast. I also regularly give presentations or lectures to public audiences, workshops, council meetings and for university courses.
What do you like about your job?
Being able to work with cutting-edge technologies to increase New Zealand's resilience to climate and weather-related hazards. Having ready access to tools and datasets that we can use to reach a deeper understanding and provide new insights into New Zealand's changing climate.
What is the most important thing you want to tell us?
The intensity of extreme rainfall events is increasing and will continue to do so in the future. By striving to limit climate change we can reduce the severity of these increases, but we still need to have a clearer understanding of how the changes will develop so we can plan and adapt in the best way possible.
How does your work make a difference?
Our research into climate extremes and how they might change in the future is used in many ways. For example, guidance reports and technical advice are provided to central and local government and tools such as HIRDS allow engineers, planners and the general public to see how changes might affect their communities.
What do you do to tackle climate change in your everyday life?
I reduce my carbon footprint by eating low on the food chain, making household and financial investment decisions that reduce reliance on fossil fuels, and commuting by bike as much as possible. This might seem like a sacrifice, but it's really quite easy, particularly when you realise that the personal benefits extend well beyond climate change mitigation.
Tell us one interesting fact about climate change?
Atmospheric levels of heat-trapping gasses haven't been this high since before modern humans evolved, 200,000 to 300,000 years ago.
How does your work make a difference?
My research helps us make informed decisions about how we can mitigate and adapt to climate change, particularly when it comes to our most precious natural resource and the deadliest natural hazard — water.
What do you like about your job?
I get to work with a lot of very interesting and talented people from all around the world.
What do you do to tackle climate change in your everyday life?
I ride my electric bike to work. And I charge it with electricity from a generator committed to renewable energy sources — even when that might cost me more money. When buying a house I considered sea level rise as a factor in my decision making.
Tell us one interesting fact about climate change?
It is actually short duration heavy rains that causes flash flooding that increases the most with climate change — up to 16% per degree of warming.
What is the best part of the work?
There is huge variety in what we do, no two jobs are alike so you are constantly exposed to new ideas and learning. I've also been lucky to get to some pretty interesting places and meet inspiring people.
What do you do to tackle climate change in your everyday life?
With medium term thinking on individual action, we have put quite a bit of effort and approximately halved our family carbon footprint. Our lifestyle has changed. The biggest thing has been combining houses with my father, going beyond the building code in construction, and using solar and wood fuel grown on site. I see the next big change has to be with transport. I've been riding an e-bike for over 10 years now but would like to ditch fossil fuel vehicles altogether.
What is the most important thing you want to tell us?
There are many big issues that science is contributing to. What is most important for the future? I pick sustainability in food production which includes reducing the environmental impact and emissions related to producing food and going urban — more than two thirds of the global population are predicted to be urban dwellers by 2050, there are many opportunities to engineer resilient and carbon neutral cities.
What do you like about your job?
I like the idea that I am serving humanity. I'd be hopeless at medicine or building or law! But I can combine different sets of information to analyse problems and identify responses. This way, I can make my own contribution to improving lives.
What is the best part of the work?
Getting out of the office and working with people from different disciplines and cultures. Addressing climate change means integrating different types of information and perspectives from all over the community. I am continually meeting people and learning new things. Can it get any better?
What is the most important thing you want to tell us?
Walk in someone else's shoes before you act. Understand what matters to them so that you can integrate all the views and values of the problem to identify sustainable responses.
What do you like about your job?
I get to do the whole nine yards - the inception of an idea, collecting data at sea, the excitement of interpreting the results, and getting the information out there to scientists and policymakers — what other job has such variety, yet such impact?
What do you do to tackle climate change in your everyday life?
I'm a keen cyclist, both roads and mountain biking; we've just gone a year without a car, and it's really not that hard. I keep international travel to a minimum, and combine business with visiting family in the UK. Attending international meetings by video conference has worked, but it's not easy staying up all night!
How does your work make a difference?
Its imperative that scientists like myself are not just monitoring impacts, but also seeking solutions — technical, societal, ethical - to climate change and ocean acidification.
What do you like about your job?
I get to work with really talented people and undertake a wide variety of research. It is ever-evolving and interesting to me to do research that spans different areas of climate research - including the distant past, recent history and our future.
What is the best part of the work?
Discovery, learning, and building new ideas about how our climate works, and I think the combination of all three together is very rewarding. When we apply new understanding to prediction and planning, it means we can potentially become more resilient to the impacts of climate change.
Tell us one interesting fact about climate change?
Under the present-day rate of climate change, it is not likely that some index glaciers and snowpacks that we presently view on our End of Summer Snowline survey will still be around in 40 years time.
What do I like about my job?
I get to work with dedicated, creative, fun people to understand how greenhouse gases exchange between the atmosphere, land, and oceans, and what that means for New Zealand. It's a great combination of an exciting science problem and a fantastic team to work with.
What is the best part of my work?
My work lies at the intersection of atmosphere, land, oceans, and policy. That means I get to work with heaps of interesting people across a range of fields, and I'm constantly learning new things.
What's the most important thing you want to tell us?
It's not too late to make a meaningful difference on climate change. While some climate change is already built into the system due to our past greenhouse gas emissions, we still have time to avoid some of the worst potential climate change impacts. Human beings are extraordinarily resourceful when we set our minds to it, and we've reached a point where virtually every country is ready to work towards solving this problem. I'm excited about the future.
What do you like about your job?
I like to think that my work helps address a leading global problem of our times. Understanding climate change is the prerequisite to addressing this problem.
How has climate change affected your life so far?
It has caused me to make a few career choices that made me end up where I am now: starting out as a physics graduate in Germany, I now work as a climate scientist for NIWA.
Tell us one interesting fact about climate change?
In the Southern Hemisphere, in summer Antarctic ozone depletion has been a bigger factor in driving rainfall changes over New Zealand than increasing greenhouse gases. It has driven a southward movement of climate regimes, such that New Zealand is now more likely under subtropical highs than before the onset of ozone depletion in the 1960s. For the future, there will be a tug-of-war between increasing greenhouse gases, causing a continuation of this trend, and ozone recovery, reversing it.
What is the best part of your job?
I've always been a bit of a 'numbers nerd', so I really enjoy analysing data to look for patterns and interpreting what this means.
Tell us one interesting fact about climate change?
Did you know that, if the Greenland ice sheet melts completely, global-average sea level will rise by about 7 metres, but sea level near Greenland will actually go down?
How does your work make a difference?
My work contributes to a better understanding of how natural climate variability and climate change affects the Southern Hemisphere, and New Zealand in particular. I value findings that are helpful to ordinary New Zealanders in their everyday decisions.
What is the best part of the work?
Broadening the reach of the science we do to many different people and making it more accessible, from decision makers at councils to school kids and community groups, and even friends and family.
How has climate change affected your life so far?
Visiting Franz Josef Glacier in the early 2000s as a kid and being able to walk right up to the terminus, and visiting again a few years ago and hardly being able to see the end of the ice way up the valley - such huge change has occurred there over a short timespan. Also, my husband was caught up in Tropical Cyclone Winston that devastated Fiji in 2016, the most intense tropical cyclone on record for the Southern Hemisphere. It's scary to think that storms like that are likely to become more severe with climate change.
What do you do to tackle climate change in your everyday life?
I cycle to and from work - it has the triple benefit of being good for the environment, exercise, and I avoid sitting in Auckland's terrible traffic!
What is the best part of the work?
By far the best part of my work is connecting with other researchers and stakeholders and discovering together how access to climate data and information can benefit their work. It is extremely rewarding to help people improve their level of understanding of our climate.
How has climate change affected your life so far?
There has been an awakening of the reality of climate change over the last few years. Almost every night there is a story on the news about a weather-related disaster affecting the lives of people somewhere in the world. It is humbling to realise that I work in a scientific field that has such an impact on humanity.
What is the most important thing you want to tell us?
The climate of New Zealand is highly variable. Some years it's warmer than normal, some years we get impacted more by storms and flood events, some years we find ourselves in long periods of drought. As a nation we've learned to adapt to this variability but we need to be mindful that climate change is exposing us to more and more of these types of impactful events. Long-term adaptation planning beginning now is vital to New Zealand's long-term sustainable future.
What do you do to tackle climate change in your everyday life?
I'm an avid recycler (having previously worked in waste management!) and although I have a licence, I don't have a car.
Tell us one interesting fact about climate change?
The 'greenhouse effect' actually has nothing to do with the way that greenhouses heat up in real life!
What is the best part of the work?
The best part of the work is the network of people that I work with; not just at NIWA itself but throughout the world through international collaborations.
What do you like about your job?
The diversity of people I meet on a daily basis and answering the need for relevant, accurate information across a wide range of users.
What is the best part of the work?
The societal challenges posed by climate change and how we can bring our knowledge to the debate. Linking science to decision making and data collection (numerical and on ground).
How does your work make a difference?
My work provides information enabling decision making that will affect New Zealanders. I also like the idea that better understanding past and future behaviours informs climate change adaptation strategies.