[greenyes] Nordic countries most sustainable

["Reindl, John" <Reindl@no.address>]

For your information, from the web page of Environmental Science &
Technology,
http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2005/mar/business/kb_nordic.
html:

Nordic countries most sustainable
Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland took four of the top five spots in the
2005 Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) ranking produced by a team of
environmental experts at Yale and Columbia Universities and released in late
January.
This is the third update of the ESI, which is intended to be an alternative
to the gross domestic product and ranks countries on 21 elements of
environmental sustainability, including natural resource use, pollution
levels, and contributions to protection of the global commons. South
American countries were also well represented in the ranking, with Uruguay,
Guyana, and Argentina among the top 10.
The United States placed 45th-a major drop from its 2001 ranking of 11 in
the pilot version of the ESI mainly because of its scores on waste
generation and greenhouse gas emissions.
Many countries are now using the ESI as a policy guide, according to the
report. Mexico, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, and Belgium have all
implemented new policies in response to relatively poor performance on
previous rankings. Although that sounds good, when the rankings were
presented, Gus Speth, dean of Yale's School of Forestry and Environmental
Studies, stressed that "no country is on a sustainable trajectory.
To view the report, go to www.yale.edu/esi