It would be good to know in which country your friend went to and what she was doing there. I was born an raised in Colombia (you can tell it by my far from perfect English), been living in Europe for more than five years now, and I've had the opportunity to travel to more than a dozen different countries. I completely disagree about the conclusion your friend jumped into from her experience near the Equator.
It was 1986, if I remember correctly, when our country was hit by El Niño[1]. We barely had rain for months, so the government decided for the first time ever, to implement day-light saving time and electricity rationing. Most of our energy is hydropower, so it was very important for us to make a very conservative use of electricity. Schools and offices changed their schedules and everyone was very conscious about the situation. I was just a child, but I realized how important our natural resources were and that there is a really big difference between using them and wasting them.
I speak for myself, but believe me when I tell you this was a generalized sentiment. I lived in a big city, but there are small villages (even Today) that only have running water for a couple of hours a day, because there's not enough money to keep the water treatment plant turned on 24/7.
Now, living in the first world, I can tell that people here in general tend to be less conscious about those facts. I see it everyday at my office, at parties, public events, etc.
I don't think this has to do with geography, it's something cultural and it's not like that in the place where I come from. Is people in Hawaii living day by day and wasting resources because they are closer to the equator? I don't think so.
I recommend you to travel more, don't let your friends tell you, experience it first hand, get to know different people, different places. It makes you a better person and changes your perspective on certain things.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Ni%C3%B1o%E2%80%93Southern_O...
Definitely that's not the entire world. But what you are explaining is what I was saying, only in the reverse. In your country you had situations where you really had to plan and rationalize to go through extreme climate problems. Then again, every country and culture is different.
You might find this video interesting. Philip Zimbardo on Time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3oIiH7BLmg
But recently I realized the value they have. Humans need cycles and renovations. They need to get to a point where they can look back to what happened and what didn't in their lives and plan for the next cycle to make better. They need celebrations to allow them to relieve important moments and to realize that time is passing.
We celebrate not because the day itself has any special meaning, but because every one of us can get a special meaning out of it.
I was already coming to the realization, but the turning point was when a friend of mine told me her experiences working in countries close to the equator, where seasons and cycles don't exists. There, the culture is to live by the day, because winter never comes and they don't need to prepare for hard seasons. If they are hungry, fruits are always available, food is always provided by nature.
For this reason they don't plan ahead at work, they don't save money and they waste a lot of resources thinking that there will always be something provided to them. This was her hardest problem in working in those cultures.
So, these cycles shape cultures and are a big part of what pushed mankind forward. Now I look at them with different eyes.