Of course, this comes from Aljazeera, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t right.
Vanuatu happiest place on Earth
The tiny nation of Vanuatu has topped a new index that measures quality of life against environmental impact, with industrial countries, perhaps unsurprisingly, faring badly.
Vanuatu is part of a vast sprawling Pacific archipelago described as “the happy isles of Oceania” by author Paul Theroux.
The UK-based New Economics Foundation (NEF) 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 (G8) leading industrialised nations which is 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 Britain at number 108.
Consumption poor guide
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 Andrew Simms, the NEF’s policy director.
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 fair share, while island nations scored above average and Switzerland came top in Europe.
Out of the 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.
Number of shrinks and lawyers is a good indicator – the less of them the better, healthier and happier society …
And all this time I thought Disney World was the happiest place on earth…
While a small ecological footprint would be a good thing…….what pray tell, does that have to do with the happiness of the locals? If you lived in a mud hut eating bugs to survive while watching friends and family die from starvation…….you would have no ecological footprint at all. But would you be happy?
On the flip side, no one wants to live in smog you could chew (read L.A. in the 80s).
What surprises me is “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 fair share,”
People have been telling me that America is evil, that our coporations are killing Mother Earth daily. How can we have a footprint below our fair share?
#3 What surprises me is “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 fair share,”
People have been telling me that America is evil, that our coporations are killing Mother Earth daily. How can we have a footprint below our fair share?
Which Central America are you talking about?
Bah, that’s what I get for reading before my coffee is done.
The sad thing is that Vanuatu will disappear eventualy with the rise in sea levels (like quite a few other south pacific nations).
In what way does this come from Al Jazeera? I saw it first on the BBC, and it is a study conducted by the UK-based New Economics Foundation.
… of course, just because it comes from Auntie, that doesn’t mean it is right.
Did you click on the link?
They’re just happy because they hosted SURVIVOR one year. Who couldn’t be pleased by Jeff Probst?
I think America should invade and annex Vanuatu, thereby raising, by virtue of averaging, our own happiness quotient. That can be a project for the Boy Scouts 😉
I think when they’re talking about Central America they’re talking about that tiny patch of land between mexico and panama.
So yes, Central America IS NOT HOUSTON.
Is this a happier place? Yeah, specially for str8t men.
Number of shrinks and lawyers is a good indicator – the less of them the better, healthier and happier society …
I guess that makes Afghanistan, North Korea, Congo, Sudan, Liberia, and Saudi Arabia happy, healthy, and better societies.
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I have to see this as very biased toward the mud hut, bug eating, tropical dictatorship. This defiantly not a measure of Quality of Life, judging from the survey questions. One aspect is the suggested Life Expectancy. While the average American is just below 80, if you have ever smoked, regardless of how much or how long ago it has been, did not factor into the answer.