New Zealand is only 4868 kilometers (3024 miles) from Antarctica. That is slightly less than NYC to Los Angeles, California.

In spite of the fairly short distance New Zealand is from Antarctica, it has seen sincerely profound heating trends on the land and in the ocean. I remind, Australia has been witnessing enormous deaths of and within the Great Barrier Reef. The heating in the southern hemisphere can be due to the difference in land to water.

Land cools and heats in seasonal intervals or has rainforests to mitigate heat. It is not the same for vast amounts of ocean that is consistently exposed to warming from the sun with little change in the temperature of the air it is exposed to. 

6 December 2018
By Jason Walls

Climate change (click here) has been identified as one of the "most significant security threats of our time," according to a new report by the Ministry of Defence.

It said climate change was "already having adverse impacts both at home and in New Zealand's neighbourhood".

The assessment identified the particular security impacts which may arise as a result of climate change.

These included vulnerable populations losing their economic livelihoods, increased food and water scarcity, malnutrition, climate migration, health-related crises, competition for resources, land disputes and the potential for increased violence from mismanaged adaptation or migration....