Relocation for longevity

New Zealand is becoming a popular destination for Americans concerned about the effects of global warming in their own country. The Fier family of Montgomery County decided to move to New Zealand for the comparable quality of life, an excellent environmental record and its isolation from global conflicts by large tracts of the Pacific Ocean. Fier, 38, a computer security professional who used to work at NASA, said he thought hard about the risks of global climate change. He knew moving to a new country would be difficult but thought that the dangers of staying in the United States were worse. Several years ago, he drew up a list of countries and studied how they might fare over the next century. New Zealand’s environmental credentials are no secret: Nearly half of all skilled migrants to the country cite its “climate or the clean, green environment to be a main reason” for moving there, according to a survey conducted by the Department of Labour.