Page 6 - 2008 NZ SUB ANTARCTIC ISLANDS - SMARTPHONE

distinction. Even this bird had almost disappeared before human beings took notice of the
precipice on which its fate teetered. Some species were lost before policies and actions could
protect them.

As if to counterbalance this dismal past, another stage in evolution has come to pass in New
Zealand. Human beings have become aware of their responsibility for the natural world and have
decided to sacrifice time, treasure, development, and even some rights in order to restore their
country to its paradisiacal past, at least as much as it is possible to do so. This is indeed a huge
mutation in the human genome—one that appreciates the physical beauty of nature, the
interconnectedness of all life on earth, and works to protect the earth rather than exploit it in
every way possible. This mutation has helped New Zealand create a public policy that is already
allowing recovery in plants and animals, bringing some threatened species back from the brink
and supporting others that are still in danger.

Today the NZ human being has evolved past most of his fellow humans in this area; he has
become the steward of the earth rather than the exploiter, the restorer rather than the plunderer,
and the sharer of earth’s blessings with all the life-forms he encounters rather than the selfish total
consumer of every good thing. Now there’s an evolutionary change we could wish on all
humanity!

Chapter 2. Some Present Day New Zealand Facts

This island nation is about the size of Colorado in land area: 103,737 square miles. To draw a
more familiar comparison, Florida comprises 58,560 square miles of land territory. Florida’s
peninsula is 447 miles long while it is 1000+ miles from the tip of New Zealand’s North Island to
the bottom of the South Island. Florida is 361 miles wide at its most expansive while the New
Zealand’s broadest area is on the North Island and measures a slimmer 186 miles across.
Florida’s human population has swelled to 15,982, 378 in a smaller territory while New
Zealanders number 4,173,460. Needless to say, Florida’s native flora and fauna have suffered
devastating human pressure just like New Zealand’s, but Homo Sapiens Floridiensis has not yet
undergone the evolutionary shift described above as characteristic of New Zealanders.

A couple of specific factors about the make-up of New Zealand’s human population are also
relevant to this sea change observed in ecological awareness. The median age is 36 so we have a
relatively young, but nonetheless mature group of people living there. 70% of the people are of
European stock, Maoris make up 8%, but people who describe themselves as mixed between
Maori and European are 12% (Asians & Polynesians make up the other 10%) of the population).
Perhaps this relative homogeneity is a factor in the development of ecological sensitivity. Maybe
the fact that Maoris and other New Zealanders have lived together for 200+ years in peace since
the original conquest has helped the two cultures which have so impacted their native land see the
biological situation similarly. It is obviously true that the Maori minority is definitely a working
part of the nation’s attempts to restore the country to a stable and healthy biota.

Another factor that no doubt facilitates the enormous environmental program is New Zealand’s
governmental form: a parliamentary democracy in which Maoris have full rights and
representation. A change Kay & I noticed immediately on this visit is the much greater visibility
of Maoris in the overall culture: supporting that observation is the ubiquity of the Maori language
in printed materials, on signage, place and street names, general recognition of the contributions
of the Maoris to New Zealand history, Maori symbols as decorations and logos. It seemed
evident to us that the Maoris are much more integrated into the society than in 1987. Further

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