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Sweden is the healthiest country in the world.
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An indicator for sustainable society
Guess what! According to the survey conducted by the World Conservation Union (IUCN), Sweden came out top in The Wellbeing of Nations. This is a new method to measure the balance between a healthy populations and a healthy environment by analyzing various aspects of development and environmental conservation. This indicator shows the countrys progress towards sustainable societys.
Northern European countries take the top three places
Among 180 countries surveyed in the world, Sweden showed the best performance. The second was Finland and the third, Norway, following Sweden record. Other high performers include, Germany (12th), Denmark (13th), Japan (24th) and USA (27th).
Japan ranked 24th: just above the health line
Its quite difficult to grasp the tendency of the results since this is the first time the survey was conducted. However, the top 27 countries are considered to have a balance between human and environmental health. Even though Sweden, where Rotta is living, achieved the first place, people destroy the environment to maintain their standard of living. It is hard to keep the country healthy, isn't it?
Measuring people and the ecosystem with equal weight
IUCN and International Development Research Center (IDRC) developed the analysis performed in this survey. Rotta's father said that what is unique about this survey is that human beings and the environment are measured equally on the same level. There are many indicators such as Gross Domestic Product, Human Development Index or Environmental Sustainability Index, but most of them favor either human society or the environment. So in this point, the survey is interesting, he said.
By the way, the worst performer was Iraq. And Afghanistan, under US military attack, was ranked 178th. We cannot say that a country and its people are healthy if the government is unstable or in a conflict. I hope that more countries become healthy, and healthy countries become healthier and set an example for other countries.
Reference: Sweden Environment News October issue, 2001 (issued/edited by Lena Lindahl)
Translation : Satoko Fujii(Ecology Symphony Dec 2001)
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