U.S. consumers rank last in world survey of green habits

from McClatchy Newspapers:



U.S. consumers rank last in world survey of green habits
By Queenie Wong | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 email | print tool nameclose



WASHINGTON — Americans rank last in a new National Geographic-sponsored survey released Wednesday that compares environmental consumption habits in 14 countries.

Americans were least likely to choose the greener option in three out of four categories — housing, transportation and consumer goods_ according to the assessment. In the fourth category, food, Americans ranked ahead of Japanese consumers, who eat more meat and seafood.

The rankings, called "Greendex," are the first to compare the lifestyles and behaviors of consumers in multiple countries, according to the National Geographic Society.

It plans to conduct the 100-plus question survey annually and considers trends more important than yearly scores, said Terry Garcia, executive vice president of National Geographic's mission programs.

"This is not just a one-time snapshot," Garcia said. "Some of the most important information may yet be revealed."

India and Brazil tied for the highest score — 60 points out of a hundred. U.S. consumers scored 44.9.

In between, China scored 56.1, Mexico 54.2, Hungary 53.2, Russia 52.4, Great Britain 50.2, Germany 50.2, Australia 50.2, Spain 50, Japan 49.1, France 48.7 and Canada 48.5. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/36248.html

when you look at the country as a whole.

A population that huge, all burning coal to heat their homes and all beginning to abandon bicycles in exchange for internal combustion engines (even on scooters) will have a much bigger effect on continued global warming than a country with a lower population and worse habits.

Yes, we in the US need to clean up our acts: take more mass transit, transition to higher efficiency, smaller vehicles, cut power use around the home, and generally cut back on the amount of STUFF it takes to keep us happy.

However, we're starting to move in the right direction while China is moving backwards.

I agree with your sentiment that many in the US are moving in a better direction and China (and others like India) may be doing less harm per capita currently but are moving in a harmful direction.

But I think the people would balk at calling it 'backwards' we in the west set the standard by example of what was supposed to be 'forward' development and they are just aiming for that target. Unfortunately the west set a bad example and the people and governments in places like China are making the mistake of following down that path.

But maybe there's hope: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7385955.stm Sounds like there might be a growing groundswell of desire to move in a better direction. The people there have managed the land for many thousands of years and only the last couple of centuries have there been such extreme examples and abilities to do damage, hopefully the respect and understanding most of the people have for the land will bring the momentum back to a better way.

It's a lot of stuff like "How big is your house?," "Do you have heating and AC?," and "How much of your food is imported?"

This article is crappy. It makes it look like Chinese are somehow better at making consumer choices, when it's more an issue of wealth.

You can have my central air when you pry it from my cold, dead hands. :grr:

for hundreds of years with the urban new money, driving SUVs and living in centrally heated and cooled monstrosities in high rises and equalling the most profligate Americans.

That was the other problem I had with this article.

Now, when you compare Americans to people in western Europe, we come up very short, indeed.

Maybe I'm naive, but I bet a lot of them would love to have a detached house with a big yard, even if it meant driving several miles to get food and go to work every day. :shrug:

...First, look at famous quotes from Prince Philip:

<snip>

Prince Philip is married to Queen Elizabeth II of England, making him the Duke of Edinburgh. He is quite famous in Britain for making some rather embarrassing, though often funny, comments. This is a list of fifteen of the best.


1. China State Visit, 1986

If you stay here much longer, you’ll all be slitty-eyed.

2. To a blind women with a guide

“Do you know they have eating dogs for the anorexic now?”

3. To an Aborigine in Australia

“Do you still throw spears at each other?”

4. To his wife, the Queen, after her coronation

“Where did you get the hat?”

5. When asked if he would like to visit the Soviet Union

“The bastards murdered half my family”

6. To a Briton in Budapest

“You can’t have been here that long - you haven’t got a pot belly.”

7. To a driving instructor in Scotland

“How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to get them through the test?”

8. After the Dunblane shooting

“If a cricketer, for instance, suddenly decided to go into a school and batter a lot of people to death with a cricket bat, which he could do very easily, I mean, are you going to ban cricket bats?”

9. To a student who had been trekking in Papua New Guinea

“You managed not to get eaten, then?”

10. To Elton John after hearing Elton had sold his Gold Aston Martin

“Oh, it’s you that owns that ghastly car - we often see it when driving to Windsor Castle.”

11. On the London Traffic Debate

“The problem with London is the tourists. They cause the congestion. If we could just stop tourism, we could stop the congestion.”

12. To the President of Nigeria, dressed in traditional robes

“You look like you’re ready for bed!”

13. Unknown

“If you see a man opening a car door for a woman, it means one of two things: it’s either a new woman or a new car!”

14. On key problems facing Brazil

“Brazilians live there”

15. To the matron of a hospital in the Caribbean

“You have mosquitos. I have the Press”


Okay, and here is his role at WWF:

<snip>
HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh


Profile
The Duke of Edinburgh is the patron of many organisations, including WWF and the Duke of Edinburgh Award. The Duke was the first President of WWF-UK from its foundation in 1961 to 1982, and President of WWF-International from 1981 to 1996. He is now President Emeritus for WWF.
It has become only too apparent that the world's tropical rainforests are critically endangered.
In the case of South East Asia, the forests are essential for the survival of the rich diversity of plants and animals, including such special species as elephants, rhinos and orang-utans. Equally important, they are of critical importance for the goods and services they provide for the local people.

For the conservation of natural forests to have any chance of success, it requires the maintenance of very large blocks of inter-connected forest.

There is only one place on the planet where sufficiently large areas of the Indo-Malay forests of Southeast Asia could be conserved on such a scale. It straddles the trans-boundary highlands of Indonesia and Malaysia, and reaches through the foothills into adjacent lowlands and to parts of Brunei.
<MORE>

http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/asia_pacific/our_solutions/borneo_forests/about_borneo_forests/borneo_prince_phillip.cfm

A lot of inbreeding in that family, and I guess he got the short end of the DNA when it came to intelligence...and he ain't much on looks either.

I'll delete mine if I can.

You'd think National Geographic would figure out how to factor in the cultural differences.

EX: How often, if at all, do you consume each of the following types of food and beverages?

They then claim the Japanese eat more meat than Americans.

The typical japanese serving of meat is 2-4 ounces and it is usually cooked together with freshly grown local organic vegetables.

Added on edit:

It is oriented towards americans totally. It takes the policies and programs that have developed in high consumption US and asked low consumption cultures if they have done these things. If you don't have a oven/range, or dryer, or all your televisions are as energy efficient as our energy star rating, how do you respond when asked if you've switched or planned to switch to more efficient appliances?

Horrible.

You could just as easily come up with a series of questions like

*How many times a year do you eat whale meat?

*How many tons of coal, firewood, and dung do you burn in your home per year?

*Does your sewage go to the treatment plant or directly into the river?

*Do you a) recycle, b) send your garbage to the landfill, c) burn your garbage in your back yard, or d) throw your garbage by the side of the road?

or any number of other questions where Americans are pretty good but people in other countries would do horribly.

And for the record, I have never eaten whale meat, I don't heat my house, my sewage goes to the treatment plant, and I recycle/send garbage to the landfill. What do I win? :shrug: :D

I understand.

We Canadians like to think we're "green" but we're the world's largest consumers of energy per person in the world.

Of course, it has to do with our northern location, but other northern nations do much better.

We need to re-examine our whole approach to energy production and efficiency. "Culture" is no excuse.

But we can't bury our heads in the sand and expect that blue recycling bins are going to solve all of our problems.

For the record, the tip of to me was the claim that Japanese eat more proteins (meat and fish) than we do. I know that is a false claim. So I looked closer and the survey sucks. It is something obviously crafted by a person with no knowledge of how to do a proper survey.

> It is something obviously crafted by a person with no knowledge of
> how to do a proper survey.

It is something crafted by a person for *readers* who have no knowledge
of how to do a proper survey and who will thus swallow any old crap on
the premise that "They printed it so it must be the truth."

:shrug:

the White House! The leadership since then has only gotten worse.