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Noor · Joined: 06 May 2009 Posts: 152

Published last week, the Happy Planet Index ranked the UAE in 123rd place out of 143 nations.

The report was compiled by the independent British think-tank the New Economics Foundation (NEF). It analysed life expectancy and general life satisfaction and set them against each nation�s carbon footprint. It is heavily weighted to take into account responsible environmental behaviour.

Despite the clear differences in lifestyle, several war-torn or politically unstable nations such as Burma (39th place), Sudan (121st) and Iraq (79th) outscored the Emirates on the happiness scale.

The happiest place on the planet was Costa Rica; Zimbabwe scored the lowest.

Saamah Abdallah, a lead author of the Happy Planet Index, attributed the UAE�s disappointing score to the nation�s consumption of natural resources, which is among the world�s heaviest per capita.

�The UAE does badly simply because of the ecological footprint, where it�s consuming resources as if there were four and a half planets,� Mr Abdallah explained.

�That�s perhaps not surprising when you have a country on top of an oil reserve.�

Mr Abdallah, who lived in Dubai for five years, noted that the UAE had the third-highest per capita carbon dioxide emissions in the world, a ranking corroborated by those in the environmental field in the UAE. However, he also pointed out that life expectancy was quite high at 78.3 years, based on 2005 data.

More: http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090714/NATIONAL/707139834/1010

Happy Planet: http://www.happyplanetindex.org

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

So... this "happiness" scale has little to do with the happiness of the citizens, but with how happy the planet supposedly is with their use of resources?? Rolling Eyes

And how much time, energy, resources, paper, etc was used to compile this rather meaningless survey on an intangible.

VS

Never Ceased To Be Amazed · Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 3:14 am Post subject:

And speaking of the Happiness Index in the U.A.E. might I quote from the Egypt Board:

Woohoo Exclamation

� (Never Ceased To Be Amazed Corporation, Inc.)

NCTBA � (Never Ceased To Be Amazed Corporation, Inc.)

Noor · Joined: 06 May 2009 Posts: 152

From the HPI website:

The Index doesn�t reveal the �happiest� country in the world. It shows the relative efficiency with which nations convert the planet�s natural resources into long and happy lives for their citizens. The nations that top the Index aren�t the happiest places in the world, but the nations that score well show that achieving, long, happy lives without over-stretching the planet�s resources is possible.

The HPI shows that around the world, high levels of resource consumption do not reliably produce high levels of well-being, and that it is possible to produce high well-being without excessive consumption of the Earth�s resources. It also reveals that there are different routes to achieving comparable levels of well-being. The model followed by the West can provide widespread longevity and variable life satisfaction, but it does so only at a vast and ultimately counter-productive cost in terms of resource consumption.

http://www.happyplanetindex.org/learn/index.html