How much happiness do we get for our planet plundering? Is it possible to rethink the status quo at this point in human history, especially considering the alternative?
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The Happy Planet Index (HPI) is the leading global measure of sustainable well-being.
The HPI measures what matters: the extent to which countries deliver long, happy, sustainable lives for the people that live in them. The Index uses global data on life expectancy, experienced well-being and Ecological Footprint to calculate this.
The index is an efficiency measure, it ranks countries on how many long and happy lives they produce per unit of environmental input.
The 2012 HPI report ranks 151 countries and is the third time the index has been published.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sZPYI8BfnBs]
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That’s a great post that deserves a wide distribution! Well done, Paul
I hope that we can get away from the GDP as means of measuring a nation’s success as soon as possible. And the HPI is great alternative. Although, for some reason, I can’t shake the feeling that the name needs to be better in order for it to be taken seriously. Am I crazy?
LOL. The small Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan recently convened a conference on a “Gross National Happiness”index. Maybe you like the sound of that one better. Here’s more info: http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2012-04-06/talking-happiness
Yeah, that’s a bit better 🙂
I went to read the article. It is great to see people from around the world having these discussions.