Bush’s Environmental Stewardship Bumps Bottom of Barrel

Well, among “civilized” nations at least. We do much better than, say, North Korea, but we’re behind Botswana. The NY Times presents this for your environmental dismay:

Nations Ranked as Protectors of the Environment
By Felicity Barringer, January 24, 2005, The New York Times

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 - Countries from Northern and Central Europe and South America dominated the top spots in the 2005 index of environmental sustainability, which ranks nations on their success at such tasks as maintaining or improving air and water quality, maximizing biodiversity and cooperating with other countries on environmental problems.

Finland, Norway, and Uruguay held the top three spots in the ranking, prepared by researchers at Yale and Columbia Universities. The United States ranked 45th of the 146 countries studied, behind such countries as Japan, Botswana and the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, and most of Western Europe.

The lowest-ranking country was North Korea. Among those near the bottom were Haiti, Taiwan, Iraq, and Kuwait. …

The report is based on 75 measures, including the rate at which children die from respiratory diseases, fertility rates, water quality, overfishing, emission of heat-trapping gases and the export of sodium dioxide, a crucial component of acid rain. …

He also said a system that rated Russia, whose populated western regions have undergone extraordinary environmental degradation, as having greater environmental sustainability than the United States had inherent weaknesses.

At [number] 33, Russia's ranking, Mr. Esty said, is in large part a consequence of the country's vast size. While it "has terrible pollution problems" in the western industrial heartland, he said, its millions of unsettled or sparsely settled acres of Asian taiga mean "it has vast, untrammeled resources and more clean water than anywhere in the world.” So, he added, "on average, Russia ends up looking better than it does to someone who lives in western Russia."

Because such differences make many countries inherently difficult to compare, he said, this report also analyzed seven clusters of similar countries; in this analysis, the United States ranked slightly below the halfway point among 24 members of the Organization of American States. …

There’s more at the link above.

Silly me, once upon a time I thought that the major damage that Dear Leader would inflict, given four more years, would be via appointments to the courts. He’s destroying the environment; Reichsfuhrer Rumsfeld has his own private intelligence corps and army, free of any oversight; the New Deal is in real jeopardy; our once respected nation is internationally regarded with contempt. What’s next?