[2] Between 2004 and 2007, Salinger was an honorary associate professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Science at the University of Auckland and within that timeframe, became a principal scientist for the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA).
[7] Between August – December 2019 he served as a visiting professor at the Institute of Biometeorology, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, University of Florence, Rome, Italy.
[20] The research also showed the effect the heatwave had on the seawater temperatures around the South Island of New Zealand, disrupting the patterns of fish movements and negatively impacting the kelp forests along the Otago coastline.
After the UK Met Office predicted that 2019 would be close to a record, Salinger claimed this to be "due to global heating, and the added effect of the El Niño in the Tropical Pacific".
[26] A letter from Salinger to his grandchildren in October 2020, stated that the "current summer is an example of the future that we baby boomers are bequeathing you if we keep continuing the emissions of greenhouse gases that we have been doing in the late 20th and early 21st century".
Salinger expressed frustration at the lack of action by successive New Zealand governments in responding to climate change, noting that floods in Napier in 2020[32] highlighted the effects of weather-related disasters.
He stressed the importance of actions such as agreeing to implement the Climate Change Commission's recommendations[33] and providing support to farmers in switching to regenerative agriculture so that New Zealand will not be seen as a "global perpetrator because of their huge emissions".
Concerns were raised by Salinger and James Renwick in January 2019 about how the heatwaves from 2018 were "leading to early grape harvests and killing farmed fish in parts of New Zealand...[and]...if emissions [kept] increasing as they have done in recent years, last summer [would] seem cool by the standards of 2100".
[35] In July 2020, Salinger and Lisa Alexander, (Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, New South Wales, Australia), noted that based on research,[36] New Zealand and Australia were experiencing extremes of rain and temperatures and "a major global update based on data from more than 36,000 weather stations around the world [confirmed] that, as the planet [continued] to warm, extreme weather events such as heatwaves and heavy rainfall [were] now more frequent, more intense, and longer".
[37] In an article in the New Zealand Herald, in September 2020, Salinger also said the "chances of a La Niña climate system playing with our weather over coming months was now highly likely, while the potential for a marine heatwave certainly has our attention".
[38] In October 2020, a major forest fire ripped through the Mackenzie Basin New Zealand, and resulted in the evacuation of Lake Ohau Alpine Village, with several homes destroyed by the flames.
[39] The Science Reporter in the New Zealand Herald (5 October 2020) shared information from a fire scientist, Grant Pearce who thought that the fire may have come from a spark on powerlines, but had more likely been fuelled by dry pastures at a time when a La Niña climate system was bringing "stronger westerly to north-westerly winds, instead of south-westerly winds usually seen at [that] time of year".
In the same article, Salinger indicated a clear link to climate change, with local temperatures much higher than normal for this time of the year, possibly confirming La Niña.
We spent a large amount of money on the court case, there were some expensive legal technicalities...[and that]...funding had come from a number of sources, which are confidential.
[66] On 23 January 2014, Salinger stated that this "marked the end of a four-year epic saga of secretly-funded climate denial, harassment of scientists and tying-up of valuable government resources in New Zealand".