Where Does the U.S. Fall on the ‘Happy Planet Index’?
- Posted on June 15, 2012 at 8:06am by
Liz Klimas
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If you had to grade the United States based on its ability to “deliver long, happy, sustainable lives for the people that live” it in, how well do you think it would fare?
There is such a thing as the “Happy Planet Index” that measures different countries in the world based on this metric, taking into account global data including ”life expectancy, experienced well-being and Ecological Footprint“ in order to gauge how many ”long and happy lives they produce per unit of environmental input.” In other words, it’s an ardent “green” agenda measurement.
In time for the world sustainability summit, Rio20 taking place next week, this year‘s HPI’s have been released. This is the third time the index, a project of the New Economics Foundation, has been published, evaluating 151 countries. The New Economics Foundation, whose slogan is “economics as if people and the planet mattered,“ was founded in 1996 as a ”think-and-do tank“ that aims to inspire and demonstrate ”real economic well-being.”
The darker green the color, the higher the country's HPI. The more red an country is, the worse its HPI score. (Image: Happy Planet Index)
On a scale of 0 to 100 (100 being the best), the U.S. scored a 37 this year. If we were going to use the HPI to indicate the most “developed” nations, Costa Rica would tick in at the top with its score of 64. There are only 46 countries falling in line after the United States with Botswana coming in dead last at a score of 22.6.
According to the HPI website, wealthier nations often score poorly because of, you probably guessed it, their “large ecological footprints.” Latin American countries — those that are moderately to well developed — often score highest as they still provide relatively happy, long lives to their residents while maintaining a low ecological impact.
New Scientist created distorted maps of the world’s countries to show the difference between wealth and HPI:
(Graphic: New Scientist)
The target number by 2050 for all countries, according to the New Economics Foundation, is 89.
Learn more about the HPI from its founder Nic Marks, who describes it as a measurement of “how much well being do you get for your resources?”:
What do you think of the Happy Planet Index? Share your thoughts in the comment section.
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Comments (65)
FunFunFun
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 10:42amChinese city folks often wake-up with different colors in the air with strange smell, sometimes gray, green, yellow, ….Chinese media nor gov. reporting. Their wind blows with sand, because lack of grass and trees.
My Chinese exchange students all have this pale / transparent / gray skin color.
My Japanese exchange students, who are from big cities, have never seen STARS before.
In India, there are trash, animal / human poops right there on the streets.
And, Americans are, once again, the Bad guys again ?
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 11:39amIn Muslim Countries…. Women squat and pee in the Streets. Smiles are frozen in Scandinavia. Happiness is a bottle of Vodka in Russia… meat in China. No matter how bad it is in the US… it is better than anywhere else!
Report Post »Balpit
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 12:55pmAccording to this map, Cuba is yellow and the USA is red.
Report Post »Cuba is happier than the USA?
Did Castro and his friends create this chart?
Huguenot Descendant
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 4:29pmMexico is in the green!? Seriously, with the drug cartel’s killing in the streets, kidnappings, corrupt police officers, and millions of immigrants risking life and limb to cross into the US this chart made Mexico in the Green!?
Report Post »FreedomPurveyor
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 7:14pmIf you control the energy output, you control everything. It is sickening that the liberals continue to try to grab power under the guise of protecting the environment, and people actually buy it.
Report Post »pavepaws
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 8:22pmP on HPI. I’ll stay here. Screw the rest.
Report Post »teddrunk
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 10:20amSeriously, this is news? Geez, the Mother Earth crowd factors it in, I wonder how that evil United States will rank.
Report Post »txannie
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 10:07amThere are two ways of seeing this…one, this is just a bunch of b.s….or two, look at all the reddest of the red and where they are and the kind of “enslaved minorities” in them. Now, why would it happen to be so unhappy in just the two areas on this earth that have the most of them it them? Do they make it thier business to make things around them miserable or what? I’m just asking for an explaination of this observance….
Report Post »Apple Bite
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 9:55amI guess we are pretty damn mad with Obama after all….hmmm.
Report Post »On to November!
Dismayed Veteran
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 9:51amMan I am high tailing to Mexico. It is the closest green country.
Report Post »Nancys Red Diaper Doper Babies
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 10:30amUnfortunately they’ll turn you away at the door, it only swings one way.
Report Post »RedDawn2012
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 12:26pmAnd if you do get in, they’ll rob you and probably kill you.
Report Post »DAS_NIETZSCHEAN
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 1:30pmwell, this must reflect the next four years under the Commie policies of O’bummer. yea I got my passport and ready to move to Belize. when the Us GO’s RED(commie) I will be a nice yellow. LOL
Report Post »JACKTHETOAD
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 9:51amI thought scientists found a few more planets with intelligent life to actually compare us to. Dang.
Report Post »Tigress1
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 9:48amIf Americans are unhappy it’s because they are having to deal with all this liberal/Progressive/Socialist/Communist/atheist B.S.!
Report Post »Taldren
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 9:38amRofl, yes … they are SOOO HAPPY in Mexico. Are they counting drugs as being an environmental product?
Report Post »myway
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 9:46amThey are happy in Mexico because we buy their drugs and hire their people, give them rights, money, healthcare, SS, and a free ride. We are going to stop deporting young illegals, just in on FOX.
Report Post »Nancys Red Diaper Doper Babies
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 10:32amAll that slaughtering done by the hands of the drug cartels just give me the warm and fuzzies.
Report Post »pavepaws
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 8:26pmIf Mexico is such a happy place then I guess the illegal immigration problem is over. Massive reverse emigration coming.
Report Post »bement14
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 9:37amSyria is higher than us in the Happy Planet Index? I guess its a good thing for the government to be killing civilians?
Report Post »perry1980
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 9:30amOur score will go way up after November 2012
Report Post »hi
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 9:41amLol!! So true!
Report Post »affinity
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 9:23amI would be very, very happy if the Progressives took their power point presentations, Al Gore, plus all of the liberals in California and moved to Russia or China. Since this is never going to happen I’ll just have to continue being a happy person living in the best nation on earth and let them continue to be unhappy people no matter where they live. Happiness is inside each of us and isn’t dependent on a “Happy Planet Index.”
Report Post »FightingBear
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 9:06amIt study seems suspect to me ….why are all those people in the “happiest places on earth” invading The United States….one of the most unhappy places on earth?
This study seems to have some real problems when you step away from ideology and simply look at the reality.
Report Post »go2gym
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 9:06amAs long as “South” is not the USA’s south.
Report Post »PATRIOTIST
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 9:03amI know most Conservatives will be happy when the leftist nutjobs all pack up and move South!
Report Post »randy
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 8:53amWe’ll be a happy little country again when Obama is voted out in November!
Report Post »gobnait
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 8:52amWhy are all the ‘green’ Mexicans pouring out of their country and into the evil ‘red’ America if Mexico is such a paradise? What a load of tosh.
Report Post »GPS-Tech
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 9:04amYeah, That dumbass has obviously never gone to visit relatives down in Mexico.
Report Post »Ghandi was a Republican
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 8:48amSo– The U.S. fairs poorly for the petroleum products she must use to feed the 3rd world on her own dime. Then America is demonized for it in a backhanded and disingenuous slap, while the 3rd World is deemed planet friendliest. Just sayin’…
Report Post »Dougral Supports Israel
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 8:47amI‘m happiest when I’m left alone by government, the UN, and smug social “scientists” that think they know better than I about what makes me happy.
Report Post »Dougral Supports Israel
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 8:57amI am also very happy when I am regulating my own life and not caring at all what the statist thinkers in the world think about it. Part of that happiness is an occasional big bacon cheeseburger, using incandescent light bulbs, and shooting my gun at the range. I get bonus happiness points for having one-flush old fashioned toilets in my house.
In short, I couldn’t care less about the happiness index because it is completely irrelevant to the way I choose to lie my life.
Report Post »Byrdi
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 8:38amIn other words, a happy life is based on earth worship. People will be restrained in any activity that is productive which is to be replaced by other amusements such as sex of any kind. No wonder they are dumbing down our children. If they actually got good self esteem from achieving, they would not be able to tolerate their confined lives that are coming in a few years. They are devolving the human race.no doubt complete with drugs.
Report Post »netmail
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 8:30amWith liars and frauds running amok out in the open, it’s been difficult think about “happiness” much lately. That would be a global sentiment too I would think.
Report Post »EqualJustice
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 8:26amYes, because WE have Obama and Co. Ask us again NEXT year at this time. :)
Report Post »bpodlesnik
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 8:21amI find that graph really hard to believe.
Report Post »contkmi
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 8:19amAw, isn’t that cute. The little communists tried to make themselves relevant.
Report Post »atechgeek
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 9:01amTee Hee .. that’s funny. These commies think they know so much about everything when in fact they know nothing. I find their level of arrogance particularly numerous in that they think we can actually control our environment. We are merely a splotchy film of bacteria growing on a huge marble in an endless universe. We are so irrelevant to the big “climate” picture it’s beyond ridiculous. Anyone who has read basic physics books knows for a fact that there are too many (external to our planet) forces that have a major effect on our climate. The reason the liberals climate wackos don’t say anything about it is because they cannot tax the sun for gamma radiation output. They would if they could .. for that I am sure. Imagine how much money they could get from the Sun, PSR J1836+5925, and LSI +61 303 … freakin ID10ts.
Report Post »Lesbian Packing Hollow Points
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 8:15amA load of bull only a Statistical Demographer could love… or give a S%^#@ about.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 8:12amWhat is The Truth Scale… when the Socialist all LIE?
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