The Worst Environmental Impacts in the World

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Evaluating the Relative Environmental Impact of Countries (16 page pdf, PLoS ONE, 1 May 2010)

This is Environment Week in Canada and we have picked a report that highlights the relative state of the environment world- wide.

This article provides highlights of the impact on the environment in various countries using a new indicator that takes into account how much resources are available in each country. It also provides an insight into how the societies of each country respect their natural environment.

Key Quotes:

“environmental impact that rank countries by their proportional (relative to resource availability per country) and absolute (total degradation as measured by different environmental metrics) resource consumption, deforestation, pollution and biodiversity loss.“

“a country’s consumption, pollution and land-use trends relative to opportunity reflect, at least to some degree, its citizens’ attitude to environmental stewardship globally.“

“populous countries currently undergoing rapid economic development such as China, India and Indonesia might have the fastest increases in environmental impact and are thus the regions where improved environmental protection policies stand to benefit the most people.“

“Brazil, USA, China, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, India, Russia, Australia and Peru had the highest absolute impact“ (lower ranks=higher negative impact)

PD           PGR         GOV                GNI          NFL         HBC                MC          FER         WTP                THR        CO2         aENV

1 Brazil    166          114          95                 159          1              3              30                 3              8              4              4                 4.5

2 USA      156          139          20                 167          21            211.5       3                 1              2              9              1                 5.9

3 China    64            149          129                 166          216          36            1                 -               1              6              2                 6.7

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9 Australia 209        127          11                 152          10            7              47                 9              31            11.5         18                 15.2

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12 Canada                204          141          10                 155          133.5       6              19                 7              16            71            10                 19.8

Rank codes: population density (PD), population growth rate (PGR)

governance quality (GOV), Gross National Income (GNI)

natural forest loss (NFL), natural habitat conversion (HBC)

marine captures (MC), fertilizer use (FER)

water pollution (WTP), threatened species (THR)

carbon emissions (CO2), absolute composite environmental (aENV)

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