The 20 most environmentally courageous countries

I’m just putting the finishing touches to my latest book ‘Leaders Behaving Badly: What happens when ordinary people show up; stand up and speak up’ and given that we’ve just had pretty much a final warning from the UN with regard to climate change; thought I’d share a short extract from the book with regard to countries that are taking the warnings seriously and another country that is basically sticking a finger up at the warnings..

The 20 most environmentally-friendly countries

  1. Finland – EPI rating: 90.68
  2. Iceland – 90.51
  3. Sweden – 90.43
  4. Denmark – 89.21
  5. Slovenia – 88.98
  6. Spain – 88.91
  7. Portugal – 88.63
  8. Estonia – 88.59
  9. Malta – 88.48
  10. France – 88.2
  11. New Zealand – 88
  12. United Kingdom – 87.38
  13. Australia – 87.22
  14. Singapore – 87.04
  15. Croatia – 86.98
  16. Switzerland – 86.93
  17. Norway – 86.9
  18. Austria – 86.64
  19. Ireland – 86
  20. Luxembourg – 86.58

The UK places 12th, with an EPI score of 87.38. The US is 26th, with 84.26. Bosnia and Herzogovina has the worst rating of any European country, placing 120th with a score of 63.28 – below the likes of Iraq, Syria, Libya and China. 

Florida Legislators OK Plan to Dump Sewage Into Drinking-Water Aquifers

Miamians get nearly all of their drinking water from the Biscayne Aquifer, a clean source of natural H2O that stretches underground from the southern tip of the state north to Palm Beach County. This being Florida, developers, utility companies, and scammers of all stripes are constantly devising new and ingenious ways to contaminate the aquifer. The water system already faces serious threats from sea-level rise and saltwater leaking from Florida Power & Light’s Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station. Now the state Legislature has decided to allow companies to dump “treated” sewage into drinking-water sources. Linda Young, the director of the Clean Water Network of Florida, says the bill is essentially a gift to property developers, who can continue to overbuild homes that suck aquifers dry. “The development community does not want to talk about limiting growth or development,” she tells New Times.

“We’re growing at 1,000 people per day again, and our tourism is growing all the time. But there’s not enough water or enough places to responsibly dispose of our sewage effluent. So this is something they’ve wanted to do for a long time. This is their answer for not having enough water for all the people moving here.” At issue is the wastewater-treatment process itself. As the Tampa Bay Times noted last week, any water injected into a state aquifer would need to meet federal drinking-water standards. But environmentalists warn that these standards don’t go nearly far enough: The water would, for example, still be full of pharmaceutical runoff.

So there you have it. Some countries have been taking action for many years; and yet the USA goes backwards on a daily basis. So incredibly sad.

Ann Andrews CSP – Speaker, Author, Profiler, Life Member NSANZ 

Author: Lessons in Leadership: 50 ways to avoid falling into the ‘Trump’ trap

Author: Leaders Behaving Badly: What happens when ordinary people show up, stand up and speak up

You can also take a really simple ‘Leadership Test’ right here

References:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/maps-and-graphics/most-and-least-environmentally-friendly-countries/

https://www.usabreakingnews.net/2018/03/florida-legislators-ok-plan-to-dump-sewage-into-drinking-water-aquifers/

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