Is New Zealand a environmentally-friendly country?

Question

Ive been around the world and seen a lot of concern from the developed world and heard a lot about NZ being environmentally conscious, is it true. As a South African, unfortunately theres no concern, majority of people here are concerned about what car they drive, job status etc South Africans are very materialistic! Ive been to th USA, France, and Brazil and i find those countries to be a lot more concerned about there environment and i see more initiative to do something about it....not SA!

Answer 1

we are but we could be way better.

Answer 2

Yea we seem to be a very green country, not to mention we're strictly nuclear free even though we pretty much invented nuclear power.

Answer 3

Yep - that's why we are called "GodZone".

Answer 4

Absolutely! There are trash bags that the city, such as Wellington, distributes to make sure that things are taken care of properly. They also stress the importance of recycling and picking up trash. New Zealand is incredibly focused on the environment and keeping New Zealand beautiful for our future generations. It's not a myth! New Zealand is beautiful for a reason!

Answer 5

They would like to think so, but at the moment NZ is generating more rubbish per person than most inustrialised countries. It is just that therye are not so many people here so it is sometimes hard to notice. They love their V8 & V6 cars that guzzle up the petrol. Most households have 2 cars, the public transport system is a joke and overall the farmers are still using producs that have been banned in many countries. They recently tried to change the legislation on this in my county but the farmers screamed to loud and only minor changes were made.

In saying that there is an overall environmental awareness, most people recycle their rubbish and New Zealanders are proud of their green image. So if it stared to be visible that we are not as environmental as we would like to think then maybe more would be done.

In the end there are many people here that do a lot, but big businesses and farmers are the main culprits leading to only baby steps are being taken.

Answer 6

We in NZ are much less environmentally friendly than we kid ourselves.  Probably South Africa does less damage to the environment than we do, even with your larger population, because you have so many poor people.  Our government runs a website that allows you to calculate your footprint.  Check it out.  If everybody in the world had my lifestyle, we'd need 4.8 planet Earths to supply our raw materials and energy and absorb our waste.  Like most Kiwi households, we run a car, eat meat and own a computer.  Building a computer produces as much waste as building a car.  We're lucky enough to have a small population, but a lot of greedy businesspeople want to increase it for their own selfish ends.  We're still a clean green country, but that's in spite of the people who live here, not because of them.  A lot of crowded countries in Europe are more environmentally responsible than we are.  Discouraging plastic bags, advanced recycling schemes, better public transport and more efficient transport options, like rail transport, for instance.

Answer 7

Very much.Come over and see for yourself.The best place to raise kids.

Answer 8

Yuss! We are VERY enviromentally concerned.

Keep Nz beautiful!!

Answer 9

Yes. We are not perfect and have a lot of older cars , and are a farming society which creates a lot of pollution etc, but most kiwis are proud of the clean green image of new zealand and want to ensure it stays that way.We are good at recycling, eco tourism and looking at sustainable ways to create electricty ie: wind power and solar power.

Answer 10

They actually learn from mistakes and make immediate changes when possible to keep their country green.  Plus, being a country of islands, it's even more important to protect your environment as it is more fragile.  I have always respected their sense of personal responsibility to their country, land and people that many places in the world just don't have.  Good on ya kiwis!!!

Answer 11

There's an appearance of environmentalism, and people talk about it, but I would say there are still places to improve. For example, I stayed at a farm in the south island where they didn't recycle anything at all, not even glass or aluminium. And this wasn't because they didn't want to, but because the facilities weren't available.

There's a lot of hype about the 'no nuclear' policy, but you don't hear about where the garbage goes or what people should do to reduce water consumption.