Study tells us what we had suspected…

A study released by the World Economics Forum during the Davos meeting of world leaders was designed to monitor the environmental performance on the Millennium Development Goals adopted by 189 nations at the United Nations Millennium Summit.

The study measured progress in sixteen different areas. It ranked countries with their peer groups so that nation’s experiencing the same or similar conditions could be measured against each other. Of all of the 189 nations only 6—led by New Zealand and followed by 5 Northern European nations-- had achieved 85% or better success in meeting a set of critical environmental goals. These include clean drinking water and low ozone levels to sustainable fisheries and low greenhouse gas emissions.

The pilot study called the 2006 Environmental Performance Index, jointly produced by Yale and Columbia University, intended to focus more attention on how various governments have managed to improve conditions based on the circumstances they had inherited. Prior studies measured “trends” while this particular study tended to focus the spotlight on a nation’s policies.

In the study, the US ranked 28th over all behind most of Europe, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Costa Rica and Chile. Clearly, this is not a result that Americans can take pride in; but it serves mainly as a wake up call suggesting in very specific terms that our environmental policies need revision urgently!....


Les Aaron
The Armchair Curmudgeon
For the
Committee for Positive Change