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Alpine ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to climate change, and studies suggest that mountain dwellers from delicate flowers in the Swiss Alps to pygmy possums in Australia are in trouble. Although it can be difficult to tease out other factors, including fire suppression and livestock grazing, a growing number of researchers fear that if the heat keeps rising, many alpine plants and animals will face quick declines or extinction. In neighboring New Zealand, a paper presented in 2003 in Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research predicts that a 3ºc temperature rise over the next century, moderate as estimates go, will wipe out 80 percent of alpine islands and extinguish a third to a half of 613 known alpine plants.

The article discusses governmental incentives for researchers to publish their findings in international journals, arguing that the lack of increase in the number of articles published by U.S. scientists is attributable to international competition created by changes in incentives. The authors of the study looked at the number of papers submitted to the journal "Science" by scientists in the U.S. as well as in countries such as Great Britain, New Zealand, and China which reward publications with cash bonuses, funding, and career-based incentives. They conclude that such incentives are positively correlated with the number of both submissions and publications.

The article discusses a paper by whale biologist Phillip Clapham published in the online journal "Marine Fisheries Review," regarding the absence of humpback whales in New Zealand's Cook Strait. Topics include the discovery that humpbacks in Cook Strait were being illegally hunted by the former Soviet Union and other countries, the falsification of data by members of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), and the impact illegal hunting has had on the humpback population.