sustainablenz

This week a new New Zealander will take our nations population over the 4.5 million mark, and so another numerical milestone in our nations history will come to pass. It may be a baby born in Auckland or equally a migrant worker arriving to work on the Christchurch rebuild. There are two things, however, of … Continue reading →

…It’s like understanding the area of a rectangle. To know how big a rectangle is, you have to multiply the width by the length. So, the width in this case is the amount of energy and resources that the human race demands. The length is the number of those who are doing the demanding. And … Continue reading →

The Philippines has once again suffered tragic loss. Super typhoon Haiyan has caused massive damage and loss of life to a nation that seems all too often in the firing line of such natural disasters. This tragedy comes less than a month after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the island of Bohol in the Phillipines … Continue reading →

Is the latest census data revealing a trend of slowing population growth or is it simply a temporary break from the rapid growth seen in the previous years? The data shows that New Zealand’s population grew at an average annual rate of 0.7% from 2006 to 2013 compared with an average annual rate of 1.5% … Continue reading →

NB: This blog post is pure speculation and conjecture. Maybe you have seen one of these machines traveling on a road or parked outside the supermarket near you. They seem to be rapidly increasing in number these days. The ubiquitous people mover, also known as the minivan, seems to be replacing the family sedan or … Continue reading →

Too often the commentators in the mainstream media remind us that New Zealand has an ‘aging population’. We are reminded that we need to be concerned by the increasing burden that these old people will place on our society and how this aging population can only be detrimental to our nation. Yet, are there no benefits from having an … Continue reading →

Fisher-people in and around Auckland are going to have to reduce their snapper catch in the near future if there are to be fish left for future generations. The proposed changes may involve reducing the daily bag limit from 9 to 3 or increasing the minimum size from 27cm to 35cm. This is in an … Continue reading →

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth…” The above quote is attributed to a first century Jewish teacher; better known as Jesus. Regardless of our religious persuasion (or lack of) I believe there is a lesson that we can learn in this modern age from this 2000 year old teaching. Meekness has … Continue reading →

The recent release of the UN World Population Prospects: The 2012 Revision contains some sobering reading. The global population projection for 2050 has been revised up from 9.3 to 9.6 billion and for 2100 from 10.1 to 10.9 billion. The reason is that fertility levels in a number of developing countries, particularly those in Sub-Saharan … Continue reading →

Gwynne Dyer wrote a recent opinion piece published by the New Zealand Herald that is well worth a read. In it he outlines the potential geopolitical instability that may be caused by Ethiopia’s plans to build a massive dam on the Blue Nile (upstream from Egypt). Water is clearly becoming a resource of international significance, … Continue reading →