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发表于 2007-7-17 08:15
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Happy Iceland leaves Britain out in the cold
Britain is worse at translating its use of natural resources into long and happy lives for its people than two-thirds of its European counterparts, an alternative economics study has revealed. It is also burning up more fossil fuels for less "wellbeing" than it did 40 years ago.
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: A) G W j3 a# E. uThe New Economics Foundation (NEF), a think-tank, today publishes a Happy Planet Index that ranks European countries according to a combination of life expectancy, life satisfaction and carbon footprint. It shows no link between the amount of resources a country consumes per head and the wellbeing of its population.
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Britain languishes at 21st out of 30 countries on NEF's measure, because it has one of the highest per capita carbon footprints, behind only Luxembourg, Estonia and Finland, but only mid-table scores for both life expectancy and satisfaction.
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. C+ X! o- [: K- @人在德国 社区Iceland tops the Happy Planet index for Europe thanks to abundant renewable natural resources and high-ranking scores on the two happiness measures. Northern European countries such as Denmark and Sweden are highly efficient at treading lightly but happily on Earth.6 q6 B( k$ n+ o6 |) A
' ^ w: {+ ^/ dAndrew Simms, NEF's policy director, said: "These findings question what the economy is there for. What is the point if we burn vast quantities of fossil fuels to make, buy and consume ever more stuff, without noticeably benefiting our wellbeing?"
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( g8 U$ J; X; J7 EThe Happy Planet Index is a break from traditional economic analysis because it attempts to combine objective and subjective criteria to understand the relationship between "experienced wellbeing" and a country's material circumstances. It contrasts with measures such as the UN's Human Development Index, which uses life expectancy, education and gross domestic product (GDP) to predict wellbeing.
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5 [1 K* e' i% Y, }7 [5 rBritain, like all of Europe, is getting worse at translating resource use into fulfilling lives, NEF found. Since the early 1960s, the UK has had modest improvements in life expectancy but life satisfaction has declined by around 6pc. Over the period, Britain's per capita carbon footprint has soared by more than 50pc.$ ~& ^5 t! H: B! Y; s
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# r/ n3 b/ O' }- h人在德国 社区Iceland tops the Happy Planet index for Europe6 k \2 j2 Y6 j. [
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. p" ]9 X) E% _If everyone in the world consumed at the same rate as Britain today, it would take about three planets like Earth to give the necessary resources, NEF said. Yet almost a third of respondents to a recent BBC poll said they would prefer to live in the 1960s than today.; E6 Z- O5 l; E* c r7 Q& e
. A5 e) U) E0 X) \7 K' O8 E- wA NEF survey of consumption patterns of 34,000 Europeans and their levels of personal satisfaction found no difference between happiness of the most profligate users of natural resources and those living the most sustainable lives.
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9 n8 B$ m' f8 V, l, ers238848.rs.hosteurope.deIt found a sense of wellbeing was determined largely by income equality, trust within the population and voluntary and political engagement. Scandinavian countries scored highly on all three, NEF said. |
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