I wrote about the summary report of the Living Planet Index last week and thought it much less apocalyptic than the Guardian headline writers. It is, of course, full of facts 'n' figures which make absorbing reading. There are a few surprises as well. I was struck by Figure 10 which shows the average ecological footprint in global hectares per person per country, in 2012.
The Americans and Australians come out of this badly, of course. Their figures are over 7 global hectares per person. Even the saintly Canadians are at this level, along with the Belgians (must be all that hot air coming out of the EU HQ). But so are the Swedes. The Swedes! T H E S W E D E S ! !
And where is the UK? Well, our levels are between 3.5 and 5.25 gha / person. Some might call that a result – although the difference between 3.6 and 5.2 is considerable, as is the difference between 3.6 and 1.0. Still, we're ahead of the Finns, Germans, Danes and Irish (all of whom do as badly as the Saudis and the Russians).
Something to weigh in the balance in the Brexit talks, perhaps.
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