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February 2, 2001Volume 29, Number 17



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Index assesses nations' environmental health

The United States ranks 11th in environmental sustainability, according to a 122-nation study based on a model that was developed at Yale University.

The study, which was sponsored by the World Economic Forum, was released Jan. 25 at the forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Finland, Norway and Canada are the top nations in environmental sustainability, according to the study, which was also sponsored by a grant from the Samuel Family Foundation.

The study's findings were based on the Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI). The ESI examines 22 key factors that contribute to environmental performance and results, such as urban air quality, overall public health and environmental regulation. It measures these factors against 67 quality-of-life variables, such as levels of sulfur dioxide in urban air, the infant mortality rate and the percentage of land protected from development.

"The ESI makes it possible to benchmark environmental performance and will allow lagging nations to identify where and how they can improve their pollution control and natural resource management efforts," says Dan Esty, project director for the World Economic Forum and director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy.

"The ESI represents a first step toward a new approach to pollution control and natural resource management where decision-making will be substantiated by data, facts, and analytic rigor rather than emotion and rhetoric," Esty adds.

Esty, who designed the methodology employed in constructing the index, says the United States lags in curbing greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change and reducing waste and consumption. Conversely, the United States is strong in the areas of controlling water pollution and allowing for robust environmental policy debate.

The study was conducted by the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, a joint venture of the Yale Law School and the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Earth Institute's Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University, and the Global Leaders for Tomorrow Environment Task Force of the World Economic Forum.

The ESI is the most comprehensive global report on the state of the environment, says Esty, noting that it was created to satisfy a critical need for substantive, impartial data for global environmental decision-making. Every country on the planet shows evidence of the impact that environmental quality has on citizen welfare, land productivity and overall social health, explains the Yale professor, but until now, there has been no concrete way to scientifically examine performance and compare progress toward environmental goals.

Comparable to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a central indicator for health of a country's economy, the ESI distills the health of a country's environment to a single number ranging from 1 to 100. Much like a cumulative grade point average for the environment, this number represents a country's environmental success -- its ability to sustain human life through food resources and a safe environment, to cope with environmental challenges and cooperate with other countries in the management and improvement of common environmental problems. The top country, Finland, registered 80.5 and the bottom country, Haiti, was at 24.7. The United States stood at 66.1.

"The ESI also shows that economic factors are important but not determinant in environmental success," Esty says.

Esty notes that Belgium and Sweden have similar GDP per capita income, but are ranked widely apart by the ESI. Belgium has a $23,223 GDP/capita income and registered 44.1, compared to Sweden with a $20,659 GDP/capita income and a 77.1 ranking.

"This strongly suggests that the traditional theory that a tradeoff exists between economic and environmental success is wrong. One need not get dirty to get rich.," says Esty.

One of the surprising results, he notes, was the fact that of the 67 variables, corruption was the one that most highly correlated with environmental success, suggesting that countries with low rates of corruption are better able to manage pollution control and challenges to natural resource management.

He adds that a country's social and economic structure show how well it enforces the rule of law and property rights, and, in addition to its regulatory structures, these are the underpinnings for environmental success.

"The ESI represents a huge opportunity for environmental gain worldwide. In particular, it is a fact-based foundation for environmental decision-making that promises to bridge some of the divides that have made environmental progress so difficult in recent years," says Esty.


T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Index assesses nations' environmental health

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Theater marks Yale's 300th year with comic romp

Unite for Sight focusing attention on importance of preserving eyesight

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Study reveals how abrupt changes in climate have caused societal collapses

Promising entrepreneurs to compete in 'Y50K'

Event to examine disparities in the nation's health care

Exhibit shows how Roman history was 'rewritten' in art

Painting and calligraphy by Yale artists featured in centennial exhibit


MEDICAL SCHOOL NEWS

Book describes 'miraculous' ways children learn words

Exhibits explore the role of Yale in the international realm

Adorno wins prestigious honor for book on Spanish explorer

MacMullen is lauded for lifetime of scholarly achievements in history

Book on postindustrial America wins Mead Award

Blade Runners: A Photo Essay

Prize-winning portraits

Nominees sought for Whitney Humanities Center director

ITS launches 'The Circuit,' an online monthly newsletter

Yale SOM honors chair of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission . . .

Campus Notes



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