As someone who has lived in New Zealand, and is married to a New Zealander, I can confirm that many Americans imagine that NZ would be a place that would solve for the laundry list of problems headed our way. If I agreed with this I would have moved there already. But frankly, I don't see it. So I agree with the spirit of this post--which I take to mean, beware of surrounding one's prospective solutions with too much certainty. It's possible, for example, that Wisconsin or Alberta will be much better places to tough out the coming changes. And yes, it's also possible that NZ will be an excellent place too.

It's very, very rare to find a society on the country level that is willing to grapple with the future in sober fashion--and, that will be able to effect changes through those realizations through the political process. The US currently, and California in particular, suddenly look like exactly the wrong scale to make such changes--even if the society were able to address them. No doubt the size of NZ gives people the impression that it would be easier to get things done there. Well, I can assure everyone that denial, intractability, stubborness, and a steep discount of the future (Hagens) are alive and well in NZ. In fact, given some of the cultural heritage from Britain, some of these traits may be even more pronounced.

I highly recommend John McPhee's book on Alaska, which shows what can happen when alot of people who think they are escaping a problem settle down amongst each other. That said, there is no question that many parts of NZ will solve for a good chunk of the laundry list, typical to those of us thinking about water, food, and energy. NZ would indeed be an excellent place to do your own thing. But I wouldn't count on Wellington to provide any kind of special or insightful action until the problems are well advanced. FWIW, this is also the view of most of my contacts in NZ. A nice of example of the realities, vs the dreams, of NZ can be found in the public transport disaster that defines Auckland, and the country's proposal to solve by building--yep you guessed it--a massive new highway.

I almost moved to NZ in 2005 as a way to escape the impending financial crisis which obviously was going to be centered in the US. Result? Global financial crisis with no escape anywhere. And while Austral-Asia still looks "pretty good" I have recently started to become quite concerned about China starting in the next 3-5 years.

I love New Zealand. I may move there still, but, it would be with the knowledge that there are no closed systems anymore and while NZ my solve for half the list of coming problems it will be very hard work nevertheless.

G