From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Fri May 07 2010 - 08:26:51 EDT
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/291671New top-10 list ranks countries
on extent of ecological damage
By Stephanie Dearing.
Adelaide - The USA, China and Australia all share one thing in common today
-- they have been found to be three of the top-ten most environmentally
destructive countries in the world.
The other countries making the top ten list are Brazil, Indonesia, Japan,
Mexico, India, Russia, and Peru. Of the 228 countries examined, these
countries
"... had the highest absolute impact (i.e., total resource use, emissions
and species threatened)."
The list is a result of research conducted by Corey J. A. Bradshaw, Adelaide
University; Xingli Giam, Princeton University; and Navjot S. Sodhi, National
University of Singapore. Published May 5th in Plos One, Evaluating the
Relative Environmental Impact of Countries (
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0010440)
used rankings
"... based on natural forest loss, habitat conversion, marine captures,
fertilizer use, water pollution, carbon emissions and species threat,
although many other variables were excluded due to a lack of
country-specific data."
Canada ranks 12th in the absolute list. Testing out a controversial
hypothesis called the Kuznets Curve (or EKC hypothesis), the researchers
found there was a correlation between a nation's population and overall
wealth, and the amount of environmental degradation that occurs within that
nation. Most interestingly, the researchers found that the wealthier nations
were the most destructive. As one might expect, high population growth rates
are associated with greater environmental degradation. The Encyclopedia of
Earth says
"The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesizes ... the relationship
between per capita income and the use of natural resources and/or the
emission of wastes has an inverted U-shape. According to this specification,
at relatively low levels of income the use of natural resources and/or the
emission of wastes increase with income. Beyond some turning point, the use
of the natural resources and/or the emission of wastes decline with income."
The researchers actually came up with two top-ten lists; the absolute one
already mentioned. The other list is "proportional" and the ten most
destructive nations on that list are
... Singapore, Korea, Qatar, Kuwait, Japan, Thailand, Bahrain, Malaysia,
Philippines and Netherlands.
Proportional measurements examine environmental degradation "relative to
resource availability per country," whereas the absolute scale measures
"total degradation as measured by different environmental metrics." Both
scales use the same criteria, which are the broad categories of "resource
consumption, deforestation, pollution and biodiversity loss." The ten best
proportionally ranked countries are Eritrea, Suriname, Lesotho,
Turkmenistan, Gabon, Kazakhstan, Mali, Vanuatu, Chad and Bhutan. The ten
best according to the absolute ranking are Tonga, St. Kitts & Nevis, Gambia,
St. Vincent Grenadines, Swaziland, Barbados, Djibouti, Grenada, St. Lucia,
and Antigua & Barbuda. The researchers intend the ranking to inform policy
decision making at the state level. The release of the rankings in Australia
dovetailed with an announcement from Australia's Environment Minister, Peter
Garrett that there are only 50 Orange-bellied Parrots left. The remaining
parrots are expected to die off in the next three to five years, reports the
Sydney Morning Herald.
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----