Sustainability and Health

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), The number 1 cause of the death in New Zealand is heart disease killing about 4.6 thousand people. Other causes of death include stroke, Alzheimer's, and cancer which kill a very small portion of the population. This is interesting compared to large countries like the United States where Alzheimer's and cancers are the top causes of death. The top cause of the death in children is considered to be prematurity. The average life expectancy for a New Zealander is about 70 years old. What I found interesting with New Zealand's health profile was that death due to diseases like malaria or HIV were at 0. It was reported that 92% of children at age 1 received the Measles immunization. Additionally, 100% of the population is using sanitized and clean water. This data shows that New Zealand really values the health of their citizens. There is an apparent link between sustainability and health. For example, in general, if citizens are using household products that are bad for their health and contain dangerous chemicals, odds are it is terrible for the environment too. The creation of safer household items and the use of those items in turn too benefits the environment. Or if New Zealand's water contained harsh chemicals like lead and chromium, that would detrimental for humans leading to disease while also dangerously impacting their environment.

WHO, 2016.  “New Zealand: WHO Statistical Profile.”  News Release.  2015 January.  URL: http://www.who.int/gho/countries/nzl.pdf?ua=1 [downloaded October 29, 2016]

Social Integration

According to an article published in the New Zealand Herald entitled, "Govt may invest more in Housing First - Bennett," it discuss the issue of homelessness faced by those who live in New Zealand. There are currently about 40,000 homeless people in New Zealand with the majority being from the Maori tribe. The people who are homeless are not who you typically think of as homeless but are working and just cannot make enough to make ends meet. The government is trying to follow an idea known as Housing First which was developed in Canada to help provide more housing to those who need it. What is a bit challenging about enacting this is that the national government doesn't seem to what to take part while other parties like the Maori and Greens parties. After colonization by the British, the Maori population declined as their tribe was introduced to disease by the settlers. They had to fight for their land and currently only make up a small portion of all who live in New Zealand. It is great to see that an issue like this is making headlines in their paper as it is a serious issue. The poor indigenous Maori tribe is still being displaced and facing problems long after colonization. I hope that soon the Maori will be given more respect and the proper treatment as they were in New Zealand look before the British colonized the land. 

This is an image of Maori warriors showing a bit of their culture

Understanding environmental constraints

Some of the biggest environmental concerns present in New Zealand include human-induced climate change from agricultural means, change in land use, and loss of biodiversity. The main contributors to these environmental constraints include the impacts of agriculture and population. To start with,  emissions from agriculture plays a main role in causing climate change. New Zealand's main exports are agricultural and it can be stated that the carbon dioxide emissions from agriculture are much higher than the carbon dioxide from land use. From FAOSTAT, figure 1 below shows the agricultural emissions to be consistent at about 40 gigagrams per year from 1990-2012 while land use amount results in values below 0 gigagrams per year for that same time frame. 

Figure 1: Carbon dioxide emissions per year (Source FAO)

 

Enteric Fermentation from livestock is found to be the largest source of emissions at 55.3%. A lot of methane is released into the air which is also considered to be a greenhouse gas and can cause climate change. The second largest source came from manure left on the pasture at 31.9% (Figure 2). There is also known water pollution present as fertilizers and pesticides are getting into their water supply as runoff.

Figure 2: Portions of Emissions based on the 1990-2012 time frame (Source: FAO)

Besides the concern of agriculture, there is also the issue of land usage and loss of biodiversity. New Zealand's population is very small being only half the size of New York City. But since colonization, the population has taken over the land, changed the landscape, and altered the original unique biodiversity present in New Zealand. Back in the 1950s, New Zealand's population was found to be 2 million and is expected to triple to 6 million by 2100 (See figure below).

Figure 3: New Zealand Population growth from 1950 to 2100 ( Source: UN Population Division)

As the population increases, the land present will be altered to accommodate the growing number of people inhabiting the two islands of New Zealand. Forests are being cut to give people more living space while using the timber as an export. Forests make up the lowest land resource found in New Zealand in 2011 (FAO New Zealand). Deforestation can also putting more carbon dioxide into the air contributing to climate change. Additionally, in an article published in New Zealand's Journal of Ecology, only 10% of pre-European wetlands remain today (Robertson 2016). New Zealand has utilized much of the land even though the population size isn't vast. The loss of biodiversity with such unique organisms like the flightless Kiwi is devastating. If the habitats of these unique organisms are continued to be destroyed, these organisms will sadly only be a distant memory. 

Comparing Economic Development: New Zealand

In class on Wednesday, I had the opportunity to see where my country stood in terms of economic development. To start with, according to the Fortune 500 website, New Zealand has zero fortune five hundred companies while larger countries like Russia have many which make them leaders in industrialization. What I find is that the more fortune five hundred companies a country has, the more  policies are favored towards their interests and success as opposed to legislation geared towards the environment and sustainability. I also found that New Zealand is very much geared towards sustainability as their government is much more open to enacting new legislation. Within the last 25 years, New Zealand had enacted the Resource Management Act of 1991 that sets out to monitor physical resources such as the land, air and water to make sure the environment is not being compromised. This piece of legislation helps maintain sustainability in New Zealand. Additionally, organizations like New Zealand Centre for Sustainable Cities are constantly researching ways to make urban areas more sustainable since many New Zealand live in the cities. What is also pretty cool is that organizations like Air New Zealand which is a prominent airline in New Zealand have tried to find ways to make flying environmentally friendly creating a sustainability advisory panel.

Even though New Zealand has made much more progress than larger countries, they are still trying to address problems associated with exports and production. New Zealand's main exports include meat, wood, wool, and dairy. They thrive through agricultural means which in turn influences their environment. About 2/3 of New Zealand's forests have been destroyed. New Zealand has issues with air pollution the the use of fossil fuels from transportation via cars is contributing to this issue. Carbon emissions are also very high. Another issue New Zealand faces is water pollution due to pesticides and other wastes from farms that become run off. Additionally, New Zealand has also had an issue with biodiversity being that as soon as people occupied the land, the biodiversity on the island has dropped significantly. When I first researched New Zealand, I had failed to see all the environmental issues this country faced only focusing on all the great things this country has done thus far in terms of sustainability.

Australia and New Zealand were placed together in a category terms of understanding sustainability. What makes our countries unique is that we both were colonized by the British and hold a high amount of biodiversity. Unlike other countries, we are not leaders in industrialization nor do we have major political power and ties. I feel like our countries focus more on their citizens and issues affecting them such as education and health as opposed to more international affairs. By placing all the countries students' chose in groups, we are able to better get a sense of how the economy, society, and environment all play a role in achieving sustainability. I enjoyed being able to work with another individual whose country was similar to my own. It really gives me perspective in comparison with others around the world. I can now appreciate the complexity of sustainability and how all the factors in that ven diagram really influence where a country stands in terms of sustainability.

Economic Development in New Zealand

The country I have decided to focus my sustainable development research on is New Zealand. New Zealand is an island found in the southwest Pacific Ocean. New Zealand was colonized last by humans and contains a great presence of biodiversity. Today, it is currently a British colony where the majority of people speak English. I would say that New Zealand is a laggard in industrialization while it is known to be a developed country today. There are no fortune 500 companies located in New Zealand as its GDP is much smaller in comparison to the top 10 fortunate 500 companies. The main source of production in New Zealand comes from agriculture with some top exports being dairy, wool, meat and wood. In terms of government, New Zealand is a democratic country. I would consider New Zealand to be a sustainable country with a decent economy. They also have one of the best educational systems and really value the health of their citizens. New Zealand has also enacted some major legislation on sustainable development such as the Resource Management Act of 1991 which focuses on how land, air and water can be used. New Zealand is also working towards being a "green" country by promoting eco-friendlyness. Environmental organizations in New Zealand are also promoting ways that habitats can be restored to help preserve the biodiversity present on the island. 

Sources: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainability_in_New_Zealand

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand

I really like the image above as it relates what sustainability is to New Zealand. Note that Kiwis is a nickname given to the people of New Zealand as their national bird is the Kiwi.

Development Metrics: Where does New Zealand stand?

Table 1.  Common Demographic and Economic Development Indicators: Recent Data for New Zealand
	New Zealand	New Zealand
Indicator:	Value:	Year:	Source:
GDP	$173,754.08 million	2015	WDI
GDPPC, PPP	$126.6 billion	2010	Gapminder
HDI	0.157	2014	UNDP
Life Expectancy	81	2015	Gapminder
Educational Attainment (mean years of school for women, 25+)	12.5	2013	UNDP Human Development Reports
Infant Mortality (infant deaths per 1,000)	5.9	2013	Gapminder
Crude Death Rate (deaths per 1,000)	7	2014	UN Population Division
Fertility Rate (total fertility rate)	1.9	2014	WDI
Urbanization Rate (% urban)	86	2015	WDI
Urban Growth (urban population growth)	1.9%	2015	World Bank

Link to Interesting Gapminder Analysis Graph:

www.bit.ly/2dxjoQ9

I placed life expectancy on the y axis to see that New Zealand had one of the higher life expectancies  at 81 slightly over the United States's expectancy at 79. Additionally, this graph shows that more children are out of primary school at 1,833 million in New Zealand compared to only 1,023 million in the United States. It is also important to note that the United States has a drastically larger size population at about 310 million compared to New Zealand's 4.37 million. I would definitely be interested in learning more about how the educational systems differ between the two countries.