Green Ratings

A recently concluded research study aimed to rank 141 nations of the world according to the most greenest and most livable places. The study was carried out by an environmental economist form the University of California, in Los Angeles, by the name of Mathew E Kahn PhD. He and his team analyzed data for 141 nation of the world from two main data sources. These were

1. United Nations 2006 Human Development Index
2. 2005 environmental Sustainability Index

Their analysis looked into social factors such as education and income and into environmental measures.

The following chart shows a summary of some of the categories and how our dear old SL fared.

Category	Rank of Sri Lanka	#1	#141
Air Quality - Rates concentration of several pollutants in urban areas	102	Moldova	Guatemala
Water Quality - Rates pollutant levels as well as other factors that affect water purity	90	Norway	Morocco
Energy Efficiency - Rates conservation efforts and use of renewables such as hydrocarbon	36	D. R. Congo	Trinidad & Tobago
Green House Gasses - Rates carbon emission per capita and GDP	37	Chad	Turkmenistan
Environmental Health - Rates childhood mortality, diseases and deaths from intestinal infections	36	Austria	Turkmenistan
Overall - Rates the greenest, most livable countries based on social and environmental factors	66	Finland	Ethiopia

The study also revealed 5 key lessons tha can lead to improvements.

1 You can always get greener
2 Don’t stop thinking about the future
3 Save forests and trees
4 Manage progress for the benefit of all
5 Turn things around while there is still time

A ranking of 66 out of 141 is actually better than what I would’ve thought we’d get. We are already half way there and with a little more effort we can certainly improve on things. Let’s just hope that things don’t go the other way :D

Source: Reader’s Digest

PS - Oops... guess my table experiment didn't go off that well. Will fix it when i get some time :(