Nau mai haere mai - and welcome to this week’s New Zealand newsletter.

This week, media organisations throughout the world are increasing their coverage of climate change as part of the international Covering Climate Now project, which encourages journalists to improve climate reporting and to recognise it as the defining issue of our time.

AUT political scientist David Hall argues that the climate crisis is an appalling lapse in duty of care by decision makers, which now affects us all, but that our response cannot overlook this duty. He writes that we can’t afford to be careless about the consequences of climate action, nor uncaring towards people it affects and that to achieve our goal of a low-emissions future, we need to strike a balance between encouraging action and limiting pushback.

During this week, The Conversation is also publishing Climate Explained articles every day, in which experts respond to climate-related questions from readers. The latest stories look at why carbon dioxide, at less than one-twentieth of 1% of Earth’s atmosphere, has such an important role in regulating climate, and whether we should mass plant trees and shrubs that are known to be effective in stripping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

And in other significant developments, New Zealand history will be part of the core curriculum in schools from 2022. Massey University historian Michael Belgrave welcomes the decision but argues that the teaching of history will have to be well resourced to ensure that children learn more than facts about people, places and timelines, but understand why things happened and their consequences.

You will find many more articles about New Zealand issues in this newsletter, as well as The Conversation’s international coverage, and much more on the New Zealand page. The Conversation is committed to delivering responsible, evidence-based journalism. Many thanks for reading. Please share this newsletter with friends and colleagues - they can subscribe here. Ka kite anō ā tērā wiki.