We are in #17!
Hi guys.Has anyone heard of this new survey/index/statistical study made by this new environmental thinktank called NEF? Well, the Philippines landed in the top 20 out of 180 countries in this list that tries to connect quality of life (life expectancy and satisfaction) vis-a-vis the use of natural resources. Anyway here's the site, check it out: http://www.happyplanetindex.org/why.htm
Tiny island of Vanuatu ranked as happiest place, Switzerland tops in Europe, Central America has highest average score.
Updated: 10:30 a.m. ET July 12, 2006 SINGAPORE - The tiny nation of Vanuatu, one of the “happy isles of Oceania,” has topped a new index that measures quality of life against environmental impact, with industrial countries, perhaps unsurprisingly, faring badly. The UK-based New Economics Foundation aimed to measure the environmental efficiency of global progress with its “Happy Planet Index” report, which it said painted a different order of world wealth but showed all countries could do better.
“The Happy Planet Index strips the view of the economy back to its absolute basics: what we put in (resources), and what comes out (human lives of different length and happiness),” the NEF said. The Group of Eight, an unofficial forum of the heads of leading industrialized nations meeting on July 15-17, failed to make the top 50. Host Russia came in at 172 in the 178-nation survey, with the United States at 150 and the UK at number 108.
The NEF, an independent group that did the index jointly with UK-based green campaign group Friends of the Earth, said the report showed high levels of resource consumption do not reliably produce high levels of well-being. “The order of nations that emerges may seem counter-intuitive. But this is because policy makers have been led astray by abstract mathematical models of the economy that bear little relation to the real world,” said NEF’s policy director Andrew Simms.
NEF said Central America was the region with the highest average score, combining good life expectancy of 70 years with an ecological footprint below its globally fair share, while island nations scored above average and Switzerland came top in Europe.
Out of Asian nations Vietnam came highest at number 12 and Singapore was ranked lowest at 131. African countries made up seven of the bottom 10, with Zimbabwe coming last. Vanuatu is part of a vast sprawling Pacific archipelago described as “the happy isles of Oceania” by author Paul Theroux.
The full Happy Planet Index is available at http://www.happyplanetindex.org
posted by Anonymous @ 7:23 PM
1 Comments:
How true! That we are basically happy people. This is one reason why some of us still do not want to leave the country. Some do leave but long to return.
So, when we see someone here at DLS-CSB sporting a frown or a drooping face, tell him to smile or he might pull us down the ranking :-)
It's so nice to be happy... Tra la la la...
P.S. By the way, here is the link to the actual list.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home