Happy Planet Index-or Economics as if People & Planet Matter

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Happy Planet Index-or Economics as if People & Planet Matter

Unread postby Paul Kemp » Sun Jan 08, 2012 4:11 am

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Happy Planet Index (or Economics as if People and the Planet Mattered)
by Annie Leonard
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Last week, I finally got to meet the people at the New Economics Foundation, whose motto is “economics as if people and the planet mattered.”

These are the guys in London who create the fascinating Happy Planet Index, or HPI, which evaluates countries based on 3 components: their level of health, level of well-being and rate of resource consumption. Basically, the HPI is a measure of how effectively a country converts resources into human well being. As you can see from the HPI map, some countries do this very efficiently and some countries – like mine – less so.

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The cool thing about the Happy Planet Index is that is demonstrates that good lives don’t have to cost the earth; it’s not inevitable that we trash the planet and each other in order to have good, happy, long lives. There are some countries in which people achieve high levels of happiness and health while using a fraction of the resources as do other countries with similar levels of well being.

The Happy Planet Index, like Gross National Happiness and the Genuine Progress Indicator, are ways to measure how a society is doing beyond just its rate of economic activity. Today, the primary measure of how a city, country or the whole planet is doing is the Gross Domestic Product, or GDP. The problem with limiting our measuring to economic activity is that we miss a lot of crucial information on what life is actually like for real people. The quality of education, environmental health, stress levels, income inequity, trust in government, social fabric, vibrancy of the culture are all things missed by measuring economic indicators alone.

Gross National Product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.” — Robert F. Kennedy


Unlike the GDP, the Happy Planet Index identifies health and a positive experience of life as universal goals. You know, that really shouldn’t seem so radical, yet it is. Can you imagine how very different our economic policies would be if their overriding goal was to promote health and well being, rather than increased economic activity?

Crunching data from all over the world, the latest Happy Planet Index concludes that: It is possible to live long, happy lives with a much smaller ecological footprint than found in the highest-consuming nations. For example, people in the Netherlands live on average over a year longer than people in the U.S. and have similar levels of life satisfaction – and yet their per capita ecological footprint is less than half the size. Even more dramatic is the difference between Costa Rica and the U.S. People in Costa Rica also live slightly longer than those in the U.S., and report much higher levels of life satisfaction, and yet have a consumption footprint which is less a quarter than those in the U.S.

Clearly, my country – the U.S. – does not fare well on measures like the Happy Planet Index. We simply use and waste way too much stuff.

But when I see data like this, I feel hopeful. One of the good things about rating so low on the scale is that the only place to go is up. We could do things so much better.

With a good mix of humility and curiosity - plus a sense of urgency that today’s ecological situation requires – we can learn much from other countries about living longer, healthier, happier lives with less consumption. Check out the Happy Planet Index to see where your country falls and to get ideas on living better with less.

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by Annie Leonard July 13, 2011


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The Story of Stuff Project


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Paul Kemp
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Re: The Story of Broke - Unveiling the Big Lie

Unread postby Paul Kemp » Sun Jan 08, 2012 5:27 am

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The Story of Broke (2011)
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Want to know what a Trillion Dollars looks like?

Unread postby Paul Kemp » Sun Jan 08, 2012 5:44 am

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What does one TRILLION dollars look like?
by Pagetutor.com

All this talk about "stimulus packages" and "bailouts"...

A billion dollars...

A hundred billion dollars...

Eight hundred billion dollars...

One TRILLION dollars...

What does that look like? I mean, these various numbers are tossed around like so many doggie treats, so I thought I'd take Google Sketchup out for a test drive and try to get a sense of what exactly a trillion dollars looks like.

We'll start with a $100 dollar bill. Currently the largest U.S. denomination in general circulation. Most everyone has seen them, slighty fewer have owned them. Guaranteed to make friends wherever they go.

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A packet of one hundred $100 bills is less than 1/2" thick and contains $10,000. Fits in your pocket easily and is more than enough for week or two of shamefully decadent fun.

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Believe it or not, this next little pile is $1 million dollars (100 packets of $10,000). You could stuff that into a grocery bag and walk around with it.

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While a measly $1 million looked a little unimpressive, $100 million is a little more respectable. It fits neatly on a standard pallet...

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And $1 BILLION dollars... now we're really getting somewhere...

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Next we'll look at ONE TRILLION dollars. This is that number we've been hearing so much about. What is a trillion dollars? Well, it's a million million. It's a thousand billion. It's a one followed by 12 zeros.

You ready for this?

It's pretty surprising.

Go ahead...

Scroll down...









Ladies and gentlemen... I give you $1 trillion dollars...

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(And notice those pallets are double stacked.)

So the next time you hear someone toss around the phrase "trillion dollars"... that's what they're talking about.


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