According to the "world green list", the UK is ranked fifth best for general environmentalism in the world. The US, of course, falls far behind the rest at 28.
According to the judges:
"Good governance emerges as as a critical driver of environmental performance," the report said...The top score in air quality was earned by Uganda...The US had the best water quality in the world, but was ranked low on energy. On individual issues, the UK scored highly on environmental health but did not score highly on greenhouse gas emissions, or air quality.
The top scores in sustainable energy were in Uganda, Laos, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
I don't know if they're still eating people in Uganda, but they do in the Democratic Republic of Congo, specifically UN representatives. The Congo is in a state of chaos, with a civil war that has taken millions of lives.
Are these environmentalists suggesting that this is the sort of good governance we should copy in the US?
[Link thanks to Norm Geras]
I don't know, since the Guardian didn't publish the results and I'm too lazy to look for them. But, given the Guardian's history of cherry picking, I'd guess that they scored pretty high.
Okay, I did the heavy lifting. Uganda and the Congo scored low overall, 57th and 39th, and would have probably fared far worse if their economies were in decent enough shape to support industry.
So it looks like you didn't have much of a point after all.
Cannibalist Congo scored 39th out of 124 countries. According to the windbag's assessment, that makes their 'governing' much better than average. It makes this civil-war torn nation only slightly worse than the USA.
Of course, the Congo would have fared far worse if the economy was functioning well enough to feed and clothe the people.
Surveys like this give environmentalism a bad name. I wonder if cannibalism brought their score up, as a form of inventive recycling. I wouldn't put it past these greens.
I see. So, in your opinion, what does account for good national environmental practices if not good government? Keeping in mind that most of the top scorers on this index are not the Congo or Uganda, that is.