The Happiest Place on Earth!?!

[Mike]

Hi all...... i think we do find ourselves living at an interesting time. So many ideas and so easy to access them!

I find it interesting what it is we count and how we measure things. Depending on what "counts" can change perceptions.


Here is an interesting article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/04/costa-rica-happy-...

Costa Rica is the greenest and happiest country in the world, according to a new list that ranks nations by combining measures of their ecological footprint with the happiness of their citizens.

Britain is only halfway up the Happy Planet Index (HPI), calculated by the New Economics Foundation (NEF), in 74th place of 143 nations surveyed. The United States features in the 114th slot in the table. The top 10 is dominated by countries from Latin America, while African countries bulk out the bottom of the table.

The HPI measures how much of the Earth's resources nations use and how long and happy a life their citizens enjoy as a result. First calculated in 2006, the second edition adds data on almost all the world's countries and now covers 99% of the world's population.

NEF says the HPI is a much better way of looking the success of countries than through standard measures of economic growth. The HPI shows, for example, that fast-growing economies such as the US, China and India were all greener and happier 20 years ago than they are today.

"The HPI suggests that the path we have been following is, without exception, unable to deliver all three goals: high life satisfaction, high life expectancy and 'one-planet living'," says Saamah Abdallah, NEF researcher and the report's lead author. "Instead we need a new development model that delivers good lives that don't cost the Earth for all."

Costa Ricans top the list because they report the highest life satisfaction in the world, they live slightly longer than Americans, yet have an ecological footprint that is less than a quarter the size. The country only narrowly fails to achieve the goal of what NEF calls "one-planet living": consuming its fair share of the Earth's natural resources.

The report says the differences between nations show that it is possible to live long, happy lives with much smaller ecological footprints than the highest-consuming nations.

The new HPI also provides the first ever analysis of trends over time for what are supposedly the world's most developed nations, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

OECD nations' HPI scores plummeted between 1960 and the late 1970s. Although there have been some gains since then, HPI scores were still higher in 1961 than in 2005.

Life satisfaction and life expectancy combined have increased 15% over the 45-year period for those living in the rich nations, but it has come at the cost of a 72% rise in their ecological footprint.

And the three largest countries in the world – China, India and the US, which are aggressively pursuing growth-based development models – have all seen their HPI scores drop in that time.

The highest placed western nation is the Netherlands. People there live on average over a year longer than people in the US, and have similar levels of life satisfaction – yet their per capita ecological footprint is less than half the size. The Netherlands is therefore over twice as environmentally efficient at achieving good lives as the US, Nef says.

The report sets out a "Happy Planet Charter" calling for an unprecedented collective global effort to develop a "new narrative" of human progress, encourage good lives that don't cost the earth, and to reduce consumption in the highest-consuming nations – which it says is the biggest barrier to sustainable wellbeing.


Do you think measuring things differently matters?

So...how happy are you? :)

be well..mike

[Laura Gibbs]

Wow, Mike, I find that ABSOLUTELY fascinating. I went to the HPI website, and they have lots of information there, and it is a very user-friendly site. I love this map: how often do you get to see the United States and much of the continent of Africa put into the same category, eh?

I'm all about consuming less... but it's my nature - not some personal choice I have made. So much of America has become about the freedom to do whatever you want (Happy 4th of July!), which is why I am often pessimistic about whether we will ever climb out of this hole we have dug for ourselves!

Anyway, here is the map from their website:

[Anna Billings]

Hi Mike,

This reminds me of another interesting place — the small Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan — where, instead of a gross national product, they focus on gross national happiness. Here's a You Tube link and also a link to a New York Times article on this place.

Cheers,
Anna

[Laura Gibbs]

Someone I know from Oklahoma is teaching in Bhutan this year, along with his family, and is blogging about it here - fascinating!!! :-)

http://mgivelandrsherry.travellerspoint.com/

[Janice Robertson]

If I remind you that statistics can be made to say almost anything, then you'll think that I'm cynical about the article, and I'm actually not, but here are my observations.
1. I've had several (5 that I know of) ex - students who lived a very material lifestyle with what would probably turn out to be a high ecological footprint, who thought they "had it all" and thought they were happy, go off to do volunteer work in developing countries, and they come back "changed" people. After seeing how people live happily and much more simply, they're almost disgusted by the Western lifestyle, and they reject it fiercely. But, prior to their volunteer experience, they would have reported being very happy.
2. I'm also not convinced that life expectancy, beyond a certain age, is as important a factor as it is made out to be. I'm thinking of the number of senior citizens who are whiling away days in nursing homes who will probably live to a decent age, due to the excellent nutrition and care they receive, but have a fairly isolated, lonely, purposeless existence. Contrast that with the grandmother who is still, at 80, helping to prepare the family meal, and has her entire extended family gathered around her during meal times, because they share the fuel for the fire etc.
3. I've worked in some VERY wealthy schools where the students have anything and everything they want... and I'm now in a very needy school, where we have a breakfast program, because the students have so little. I don't have statistics to back me up, but the students in the needy school play together at recess time much differently that the students at my other schools. They seem to share more easily, they are not hung up on clothes or name brands or who is cool and who isn't, and overall, I'd say they're a happier group.
Measurement of important things like happiness is always really tricky. The thing that makes it really difficult, is that I believe some people don't know what real happiness feels like. The school I'm at now - the students get a big smile on their face from something as simple as being allowed an extra long drink (more than a slow count of 5) at the water fountain after a hot, hard game of soccer at recess. Ah... the simple pleasures ...

[Anna Billings]

Hi Janice,

Thank you for your thoughtful post. I agree there is much to be said for the joy available through simpler life styles, especially those that include our living closer to the land, synchronized with the cycles of nature. So much of what we consider to be "improvements" actually take us further away from direct contact with the nourishing vitality of life/nature/the earth.

I also agree that happiness does not lend itself easily to measurement. And so many of the most essential elements of life, learning, growth, and fulfillment also cannot be measured. And yet all of these can be perceived, experienced, and known to be real. Smiles, cooperation, respect, playing together, laughter, compassion, sharing, generosity — certainly we are humanly capable of recognizing these without having to justify, explain, and measure them.

I see an interesting segue between your post here and a recent discussion that Jess posted in the Sustainability group on Fog Catchers. Gives pause to our First World inclination to "help" Third World countries "improve" when they may well have more to teach us through their simpler, more natural, and ultimately more healthy life-styles.

We all have much to learn from one another. :-)