In what ways does New Zealand contribute to climate change?

Answer 1

New Zealand is one of the lesser polluting developed nations and in recent years greenhouse gas emissions have dropped slightly. Currently CO2 emissions are 8.8 tons per person per year, the average for developed countries is about 11.

The ways in which it contributes are pretty much the same as most other countries including fuel for transportation, deforestation, fertilisers, air conditioning units, open fires, fridges and freezers, numerous industrial and chemical processes, fire suppressants, coal mining, effluent, landfill sites, livestock, agriculture etc.

One big difference and a reason why New Zealand has lower than average emissions is that two thirds of electricity generation comes from hydro power. Most countries rely on burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) to generate electricity. France is similar to New Zealand in that most of it's electricity is generated without burning fossil fuels, in the case of France it's nuclear as opposed to hydro.

Answer 2

If the climatologist cannot predict the temperature in a week, how can they in 50 years? Global warming has evidence, the devil is in the details. Will an increase in CO2 create warming? Yes Will the warming be great? Probably not Do we add enough CO2 in the atmosphere to have any efffect? Maybe, but it would certain not go above the error in measurement. Will warming cause the icecaps to melt? Yes Will the melting occur quickly? Absolutely not Will the melting cause the sea level to rise? Maybe, but you would need to account for more H2O in the atmosphere, and more ice formation in the South pole. Can man cause global warming? Yes Will that global warming be large? Probably not Will the global warming we cause be significant in relation to other factors? No, one eruption will put more crap in the atmosphere than we can in years Is global warming bad? Yes and no. an increase of 2-3 degrees will only have positive affects like increase the amount of food production. An increase of 5-6 degree would cause flooding and a whole lot of problems. So the real question is if we can actually increase the global temperature by 5-6 degrees with just CO2 and methane? The only "science" suggesting this is a multiplicative feedback loop between CO2 and H2O, that is truly impossible by the standards of physics. It is impossible because there is only a certain amount of energy that can be held from the wavelengths the sun emits. The wavelength CO2 absorbs are short and certainly do not have enough energy to suggest a change of 5-6 degrees.

Answer 3

every nation contributes. we must come to an international agreement to regulate, monitor and institute climate change and pollution policy in order to hold all countries accountable and create a better world. every single country contributes whether they have strict pollution controls or not.

Answer 4

as per the last morons answer . that lacked no sense at all. they share an equal part in the problem as well as all other nations. we as a people need to change bad habit's that contribute. a world effort in absolute.

Answer 5

Very little--the population is small and not as spendthrift of energy as most other developed nations, especially the US and China. They do use a fair amount of oil--gasoline for cars, there not being any alternative yet.

Answer 6

It doesnt.....the country and people are so backward, the USA might have to export some pollution over there to get them up to speed with the rest of the world.