For all the green thinking people out there, the 2010 Environmental Performance Index was released on January 28, 2010 to show with of world’s countries are the greenest so to speak. the 2010 Environmental Performance Index was based on a research conducted by Environmental Law & Policy at Yale University and The Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) of Columbia University in collaboration with World Economic Forum
in Geneva, Switzerland and Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in Ispra, Italy. The 2010 Environmental Performance Index is their third release and is being revisited every two years after initial research started in 2006.
Not surprisingly, Iceland is the undisputed world leader when it comes to “addressing pollution control and natural resource management” as stated in the 2010 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) press release. What does surprise me is the presence of Costa Rica in top 4 placements which contains countries with EPI scores between 85 and 100. Iceland scored 93.5 point and remains the only country with more than 90 points. Switzerland scored second with 89.1 points, Costa Rica ranked third with 86.4 points and top scores list is concluded with Sweden which scored 86.0 points.
Aside from surprisingly high scoring Costa Rica which is a very rough and vastly unsafe country, other than a few tourist trap spots, I was also surprised to see Denmark all the way down at spot #32, scoring mere 69.2 EPI points. Denmark has been ranking for many consecutive years as a country with highest standards of living in the world but surprisingly, they don’t seem to focus on the environment as much as I would like to think. Switzerland on the other hand that’s been hanging right behind Denmark in ranks of quality living is only a few points behind Iceland making it both environmentally friendly and high standard of living providing country.
My home country of Canada is way below Denmark yet. Shame on us. I know many Canadians think green and use reusable bags and what not, but we drive cars everywhere, public transport is a joke, idling is normal and oil field multibillion dollar companies only care about profits, not the environment, so I’m not that shocked Canada failed a bit on the 2010 Environmental Performance Index list.
I have been to Slovakia and can confirm that it is an amazingly green country with great laws in place ensuring protection of their beautiful forests and people always eager to preserve their stunningly jaw-dropping nature. Slovakia is one of the finest countries in the world and if you haven’t visited yet, you’ll be up for a pleasant surprise once you do. People and the country itself are amazing. You won’t find that anywhere else – except from maybe Iceland.
United States of America ranks worse than Canada on the 2010 Environmental Performance Index list. Perhaps for many Americans it could be surprising their country got this high because as it is with Canada, there is more than too much room for improvements when it comes to environment protection. Industrialized countries are known for being world’s biggest polluters so seeing Canada and the USA this low on the list is not all that shocking. Greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution were main contributors to low ranks of our countries, but we didn’t go all that down thanks to forest sustainability and provision of safe drinking water.
I’m glad to see Cuba in top 10, even though I’m surprised Slovakia ranks below Cuba. I have visited both countries and would definitely consider Slovakia greener than Cuba. Slovakia is not a communist country anymore so profit often goes before health and many food producers dope up their produce to speed up and boost sales. This doesn’t take place in Cuba which is likely why their life expectancy and child mortality rates are some of the lowest in the world and quite possibly why it outranked Slovakia on the 2010 Environmental Performance Index. However water in Cuba is vastly unsafe which must have contributed immensely in loss of many points so seeing Cuba this high on the list is amazing.
Bhutan is another major surprise. This Asian country located on the slopes of the Himalaya mountains has been closed to foreigners for a long time and has only recently opened but restricts tourists rigorously making for an extremely exclusive feel for those who get a chance to visit it. These restrictions are in place to ensure that Bhutan’s nature and culture live on hence it’s surprising to see them all the way down at spot #68 – even lower than the Dominican Republic.
Speaking of the Dominican Republic – it’s another country I have visited and while there are places with pristine nature protected by the government, I didn’t find it all that green. However is anyone surprised that their neighbor – Haiti is one of the worst ranking countries on the 2010 Environmental Performance Index. It only proves exactly what I have said about Haiti before – it is one of the biggest shitholes on the planet and channeling millions of dollars to them after the earthquake may not be the smartest of ideas. Given how ridiculously corrupt Haiti is, the money will not find its way to where it’s meant to go. Most of it will disappear in the hands of corrupt officials, the rest will be stolen. And don’t forget to check out the difference between forestation on the border separating Haiti from the Dominican Republic. The reason why Haiti ranks at the bottom of the Environmental Performance Index will be instantly clear.
The 2010 Environmental Performance Index took into account 25 different metrics to derive their rankings from. 163 countries were put into test in 10 categories including air quality, environmental health, biodiversity and habitat, water resource management, fisheries, forestry, climate change and agriculture. More information about the 2010 Environmental Performance Index can be found on Yale University website HERE.
Here’s another internet superstar. Kate McAlpine has a YouTube profile under the nick Alpinekat and her call to fame? Kate McAlpine raps about particle physics and the 17 mile circumference machine called Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which is about to starts up on September 10, 2008.
You probably didn’t understand a thing of what I just said in that last sentence and neither do I. This is what I was able to learn about it (Kate McAlpine kind of explains it with her rap) – there’s a particle physics lab close to Geneva in Switzerland known as CERN. They’ve been working for 14 years on a machine called Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which they believe will find new particles, such as Higgs boson that give subjects weight characteristics, or the dark matter – the source of gravity, or antimatter that is believed to cancel matter. I’m as clueless about it as you are. Don’t ask…
Kate McAlpine is a 23 year old chick who raps about that stuff. She’s young and hot and all, but where’s the booty. Alpinekat, if you’re going to rap, show some booty or else it’s the waste of time. Regardless of how hot you are. You got to shake some of that booty, oil it up and show it in slim thong. What do you think rap is for? Science?
Kate McAlpine is getting popular on YouTube, though. She uploaded her video Large Hadron Rap a month ago and it already had over 600 000 views. That’s from an unknown author. I know that Chris Crocker can get 600k views in a manner of hours, but he’s Britney Spears’ gay twin sister. That gives him advantages.
BTW – I didn’t last through entire rap. I could not find any booty in it for over a minute so I got bored. Let’s just hope Kate McAlpine gets the memo and takes off some clothes next time. Ans let’s hope that Large Hadron Collider doesn’t get us owned when it’s turned on (did I just use words “hardon” and “turned on” in a single sentence?). I’ve already paid for a trip to Cuba I’m taking later this year.
Jetman Yves Rossy is a 48 year old crazy dude from Switzerland who pushes insanity to a whole new level. See, the dude takes joy in jumping off small plane wearing a pair of mechanical, jet fueled wings and then he just soars over the Alps like an eagle.
Fusion Man, as Yves Rossy refers to himself, had a media exhibition today in town of Bex, Switzerland where he showed what he can do. He was taken by a plane up to the sky, jumped off when he was 2500 meters high, spread his mechanical wings, turned jets on and glided above the Alps at 300 km/h. Gnarly video is below and it looks sick.
Yves Rossy says it’s like “flying in an airplane, but without an airplane”. Steering is entirely done by positioning the body and there is just protective leather wear, jet wings and the pilot (Jetman) himself.
I have no doubt that flying with jet fuel powered wings must be a fantastic feeling, but I think I’d poop myself right away. And imagine you’d hit a bug. I mean – that’s the real speed you’re flying at and you have got no windshield in front of yourself. Even a small sized bug has got to hurt when nailed into at 300 km/h. And don’t even get me on colliding with a bird. But I guess having massive balls like Yves Rossy has, minor annoyances like birds attacking you is nothing.
The limits of a man are being pushed to infinity and beyond. What comes next? Taking off the ground like a superman?
