Study Puts Finland First, and U.S. 51st, in Environmental Health

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: Study Puts Finland First, and U.S. 51st, in Environmental Health

:

: February 2, 2002

:

: By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

:

: WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 - A new study of 142 countries has found

: that Finland ranks first in the world for its environmental

: health and the United Arab Emirates ranks last, with the

: United States coming in at 51.

:

: The top five countries were Finland, Norway, Sweden, Canada

: and Switzerland. The five worst were Haiti, Iraq, North

: Korea, Kuwait and the Emirates.

:

: The United States ranked behind Botswana (15) and Cuba

: (47), but ahead of Germany (54), Japan (62) and Britain

: (98).

:

: The study found that although economic wealth does not

: necessarily correlate with a healthy environment, the level

: of corruption within a government does.

:

: That is, the more corrupt the government, the less likely

: it is to pay attention to the environment.

:

: The study also found considerable variation among countries

: that were at the same level of industrialization and

: economic development.

:

: And it found that no country got good grades in every

: category.

:

: It was conducted by the Yale Center for Environmental Law

: and Policy and the Center for International Earth Science

: Information Network at Columbia University for the World

: Economic Forum, being held in New York this week. Much of

: the commentary in the report focuses on the lack of

: reliable data in most countries, a challenge to experts in

: their efforts to set a baseline of information for future

: evaluations, to be conducted annually.

:

: The study took into account 68 variables - including how a

: country responds to water and air pollution, how it

: protects land, whether its government is corrupt and how

: seriously it takes global climate change - to measure

: environmental " sustainability, " or likely environmental

: quality of life over the next generation.

:

: " No country is on a truly sustainable path, " the study

: concluded. " Every country has some issues on which its

: performance is below average. "

:

: Esty, director of the Yale Center, attributed the

: United States' midlevel ranking to inadequacies in

: controlling greenhouse gases and reducing waste, offset by

: great success in controlling water pollution.

:

: " It's an interesting question for a country that is so good

: in some respects, why that global-scale issue has not been

: given more focus and produced better results, " Mr. Esty

: said.

:

: He said the study was intended to help countries become

: more rigorous in making environmental decisions.

:

: " Some in the business community take climate change

: seriously, " he said, " but others fear it's an issue created

: by a set of extreme environmental groups. If they saw the

: data and the picture of reality that the data presents,

: they might be willing to take the problem seriously. "

:

: He said that Cuba and Botswana ranked higher than the

: United States because they did not have as much industry

: and therefore as much stress on their environments. " It's

: not necessarily better to be in Botswana than it is to be

: in the United States, " he said. " But there are some issues

: that are more serious in the United States and we can ask

: if we're taking those as seriously as we need to. "

:

:

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/02/science/02ENVI.html?ex=1013744941 & ei=1 & en=

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: Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company