NYT: Nations Ranked as Protectors of the Environment (U.S. 45th of 146)

[DeepModem Mom]

Nations Ranked as Protectors of the Environment
By FELICITY BARRINGER

Published: January 24, 2005


WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 - Countries from Northern and Central Europe and South America dominated the top spots in the 2005 index of environmental sustainability, which ranks nations on their success at such tasks as maintaining or improving air and water quality, maximizing biodiversity and cooperating with other countries on environmental problems.

Finland, Norway and Uruguay held the top three spots in the ranking, prepared by researchers at Yale and Columbia Universities. The United States ranked 45th of the 146 countries studied, behind such countries as Japan, Botswana and the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, and most of Western Europe.

The lowest-ranking country was North Korea. Among those near the bottom were Haiti, Taiwan, Iraq and Kuwait.

The index is the second produced in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, which meets in Davos, Switzerland, this week. The first complete index, in 2002, produced outrage and soul-searching in lower-ranking countries like Belgium and South Korea, said Daniel C. Esty, the director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and an author of the report.

The report is based on 75 measures, including the rate at which children die from respiratory diseases, fertility rates, water quality, overfishing, emission of heat-trapping gases and the export of sodium dioxide, a crucial component of acid rain....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/24/science/24enviro.html

[imenja]

1. we're now behind Russia (33)

the land of Chernobyl. Bush must feel proud.

[cire4]

2. Actually Chernobyl is in Ukraine, but still......

the fact that we're behind Russia, whose landscape is littered with communist-era industrial smokestacks, says alot for how much this country cares about the environment

[Art_from_Ark]

3. There are lots of toxic waste dumps in Russia, too

LOTS of them.

[imenja]

4. wondered about that

In those days it was all the same country. As you note, one has never thought of the Russians as environmentalists. It's interesting that Uruguay and Argentina should be among the top few cleanest nations.

[leesa]

5. I'll bet Bush is disappointed we ranked so high. He'll have to fix that.