Bad news, guys: America doesn’t score too well on the “Happy Planet Index”
posted at 6:01 pm on June 27, 2012 by Erika Johnsen
The “Happy Planet Index,” a project of the New Economics Foundation (an influential think tank with a 50-strong staff and a multi-million dollar budget) aims to assess the wellbeing of the planet and its inhabitants by “measuring what really matters: the extent to which countries deliver long, happy, sustainable lives for the people that live in them.” [You can't see it, but I have one eyebrow raised in extreme skepticism right now.] The measurements for what matter, apparently, include markers of how fulfilled people feel and how much of an ecological footprint they leave on the planet. …Doesn’t this just put us wealthy, out-of-touch Westerners with our mundane, materialist ideas of human happiness to shame?
Yes, it all sounds so lovely, doesn’t it?
I’m always amazed by the hubris of environmentalists who think that they possess the knowledge to engineer the “green” society of their wildest pipe dreams, in which humans manage to both leave the earth completely untouched but can still enjoy a happy and pleasant standard of living. Not only do they think we can and should bring this eco-trendy utopia about through fiat, but they also think it’s perfectly okay to impose their green religion on developing countries that would hugely benefit from economic growth and affordable energy.
The selfish disregard for the very real material hardships of others is unfathomable, and I will denounce unadulterated eco-junk like this until my dying day. Matthew Sinclair sums it up perfectly in the WSJ (I highly recommend reading the entire op-ed): Cuba comes in at twelfth place on the index, but how, exactly, are we to believe Cuba is a “happy” country when people flee from its shores in droves and most definitely not the other way around?
In what league does Iraq beat Britain, Haiti beat the United States, and Afghanistan beat Denmark? Political corruption? Violent crime? Temperature? No, welcome to the weird and wonderful world of the Happy Planet Index. It is a little window into the way many environmentalists think. …
Countries with high living standards tend to use more natural resources. That’s why instead of being praised as having a dynamic economy and being the least corrupt country in Africa, Botswana comes at the bottom of the Happy Planet Index. It scores a pitiful 22.6, way below the Democratic Republic of the Congo (30.5) and Zimbabwe (35.3). Botswana’s people might enjoy a much higher standard of living, but that means a larger ecological footprint. …
Happiness economics has similar problems. It works by asking people how satisfied they are with their lives. To assess “experienced well-being,” the Happy Planet Index uses a question called the “Ladder of Life” from the Gallup World Poll. It asks respondents to imagine a ladder, where zero is the worst possible life and 10 is the best possible life, and report the step of the ladder on which they feel they currently stand.
The problem with a question like that is that your horizons might be a little more limited if you’ve grown up in a war-torn village in Afghanistan instead of prosperous, stable and connected Denmark. The average inhabitant of Copenhagen can probably imagine a more impressive life than the average inhabitant of Kabul, and that means a much higher bar for the real lives to meet.
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Why would he do that? If it is a wind company then, ipso facto, it can’t be a tea party outfit. They are against that sort of thing.
Lily on May 14, 2013 at 8:05 PM
Are you thinking the laws are supposed to be enforced equally?
Only in another time, before progressives came to power.
MTF on May 14, 2013 at 8:05 PM
Big Wind kills eagles!
No news on it at eleven.
Liam on May 14, 2013 at 8:05 PM
That walked right up to Chevy Chase’s meltdown in Christmas Vacation. :)
Ex-cellent.
Axe on May 14, 2013 at 8:07 PM
More free stuff for Libtards—PILLOWS!
hillsoftx on May 14, 2013 at 8:08 PM
…can we get JugEars and Carnival Carney to kiss a couple of those blades?
KOOLAID2 on May 14, 2013 at 8:12 PM
This shows the Sierra Club and the other environmentalists are just so full of BS. It is OK to sacrifice for their political aims. Anyone who honestly donates to these lying bastards out of a true concern for the environment have been taken. This is the same political ideology responsible for the deaths of over 100 million people in the 20th century all for expediency. I think we should hang them all. That would cut way back on CO2 emissions.
Zelsdorf Ragshaft on May 14, 2013 at 8:14 PM
I saw an eagle flying once, up close. It changed me forever. Neither here nor there.
Anyway, problem solved.
Axe on May 14, 2013 at 8:15 PM
The ends justify the means.
OldEnglish on May 14, 2013 at 8:15 PM
Breaking news, huh?
Sorry, all of these “administration scandals” breaking right now are just the same old crap we’ve been seen since Obama ascended to the white house.
Timin203 on May 14, 2013 at 8:18 PM
As symbols of America, Obama and his worshippers are fine with seeing eagles destroyed.
malclave on May 14, 2013 at 8:22 PM
Sometimes ya gotta sacrifice a few eagle eggs to make a socialist utopian omelet….
dentarthurdent on May 14, 2013 at 8:22 PM
What goes “Whoosh, Whoosh, Whoosh, WHAP”
“Whoosh, Whoosh, Whoosh, WHAP“?
I’ll let you finish the punchline. Have fun, especially if the trolls show up.
CBP on May 14, 2013 at 8:28 PM
Scrumpy on the war-path.
OldEnglish on May 14, 2013 at 8:36 PM
Remember those Mexican Americans in Cali whose farms and lives the EPA destroyed to protect a fish?
I wonder if anyone has asked them about this.
29Victor on May 14, 2013 at 8:37 PM
Transforming America..
Say hello to America’s new national bird.
The Buzzard.
Electrongod on May 14, 2013 at 8:39 PM
Ya know, it’s almost as if everyone connected with this administration is on a mission to harass and intimidate everyone and everything that Bark doesn’t support or that doesn’t support him.
I mean come on, what next, the IRS will start using their power to intimidate hundreds of Tea Party non profits, the DOJ will decide to seize phone records of private companies, or HHS will try to force medical companies to fund BarkyCare?
Bishop on May 14, 2013 at 8:45 PM
Nawwwww – couldn’t possibly happen. Why, this is the most transparent administration EVAHHHHH…. Remember?
dentarthurdent on May 14, 2013 at 8:49 PM
There is a huge wind farm about 50 miles south of here. I have a cousin who lives in the area. Locals often refer to the windmills as the “birdchoppers”.
novaculus on May 14, 2013 at 8:51 PM
This outrage is on a par with NOW not complaining about the mistreatment of women in the muslim world.
birdwatcher on May 14, 2013 at 8:55 PM
I have a relative who was part of an environmental impact survey team examining the effects of a reasonably large ‘wind farm’ in Nevada. [something like 70+ turbines] A nondisclosure agreement was part of the hiring process. Couldn’t tell me the results of their 3 month study but judging by photos on the camera, these machines wack a LOT of animals.
The Sierra Clubers and PETA pukes don’t know squat about this pogrom. And if they DO their silence is defening.
Missilengr on May 14, 2013 at 9:02 PM
defening = deafening
Missilengr on May 14, 2013 at 9:04 PM
Other than beatings, night disappearances and work camps, how is this any different than other dictator regimes?
Taxpayer money subsidizes crap that can’t stand on its own, lawmakers don’t live by their own rules, and the govt. chooses who and what to fuk with. And those that get that great honor are hounded by very powerful forces.
arnold ziffel on May 14, 2013 at 9:05 PM
I would imagine, that like MaryJo Kopechne, these noble birds would be thrilled to know that, by by their tragic deaths, they too can promote the progressive cause!
Forward, Comrades!
Lily on May 14, 2013 at 9:12 PM
Common scum like us wouldn’t dare pee in the woods within ten miles of a bald eagle for fear of going to Federal prison.
Dr. ZhivBlago on May 14, 2013 at 11:00 PM
Whether it’s selective enforcement of immigration laws, selective enforcement of IRS regulations, selective enforcement of voting laws, selective waivers for Obamacare, selective enforcement of EPA regulations, etc. we are rapidly becoming a country in which the statue of Justice is no longer blind. Did I mention Congress exempting itself from the laws they pass?
Equal protection under the law is being eroded for political gain or to further political agendas, or to provide political favors.
The American people better wake up soon. Sooner or later you will be in one party’s or the others political correctness sights and subject to selective enforcement because of who you are and not what you’ve done. And whether you benefit from or are harmed by selective enforcement, in the end it will be very bad for everyone.
BMF on May 15, 2013 at 7:42 AM
At least the delisting of the gray wolf was successful.
I saw a juvenile out of place gray wolf here years ago in SW ND. He was just traveling through.
I see a lot of bald eagles in the spring here in ND & northern SD.
They’re young eagles. A lot of Golden Eagles as well.
They often set up camp for a few months on the big cutbank south of our house.
ND has lots of windmills. And all I hear is how we need more of them.
Even after a whooping crane was ground up in one.
And I thought it was kind of amusing that the wind mill people were leaving until they got an extension, so NOW they’re building some more.
Enviros have never cared about the environment bcs if they did, they would attempt to study & understand it & most of the stuff they support they would no longer support.
Badger40 on May 15, 2013 at 8:00 AM
an extension on their Federal Welfare $$, that is.
Badger40 on May 15, 2013 at 8:00 AM
At this point, what difference does it make?
LoganSix on May 15, 2013 at 8:33 AM
Maybe that’s the point of letting the windmills kill predatory birds–they won’t be eating fish!
/sarc off
Wind turbines, especially the generator boxes on them, attract predatory birds. To a bird brain, a flat box on a high pole with a bird’s eye view of prey below seems like an ideal nesting site to keep eggs and chicks out of harm’s way, and an ideal hunting ground.
But wind turbines usually have vanes to keep them pointed upwind (for maximum efficiency), and predatory birds instinctively take off upwind in order to develop enough lift under their wings. So the birds take off through the plane of the spinning blades, and one poorly-timed jump can kill an adult bird, and leave defenseless chicks to starve in the nest.
If the government wanted to protect predatory birds from wind turbines, it could mandate that wind turbine manufacturers take steps to discourage birds from nesting on them, such as:
1) Ensuring that the generator boxes have steep sloping sides and pointy tops, with no flat surfaces which could support a nest;
(2) Using constant ultrasound (inaudible to humans) irritating to birds to scare them away from the turbines (although this also may be irritating to dogs or wildlife which hear higher frequencies than humans do).
Steve Z on May 15, 2013 at 10:38 AM
As a hunter, I know you’re better off shooting a person, than shooting a Bald Eagle.
But hunters aren’t peddling some phony balony energy scam.
JackM on May 15, 2013 at 11:16 AM