Korea, among worst environmental performances

KMPL (May 8, 2010) – The Environment Institute of the University of Adelaide in Australia, in collaboration with the National University of Singapore and Princeton University, recently conducted a comprehensive study on the environmental impacts of most countries in the world. The study then ranked the countries with the worst performances, and on the national level, South Korea doesn’t fare well.

Seven indicators of environmental degradation were used in the study. These were: natural forest loss, habitat conversion, fisheries and other marine captures, fertilizer use, water pollution, carbon emissions from land use, and species threat.

Using these indicators, two categories were formed to show how individual nations rank in terms of environmental degradation. The first category shows a proportional environmental impact index in which the impact is measured compared to the total amount of resources available. The second category displays an absolute environmental impact index that measures total environmental degradation at a global scale.

In the first category, South Korea ranks second; that is, Korea has the second worst environmental impact relative to the amount of natural resources available in the country. Singapore has the worst impact in this category. Behind Korea, Qatar, Kuwait, Japan, Thailand, Bahrain, Malaysia, the Philippines, and the Netherlands make up the rest of the top ten.

In the category that measures absolute environmental impact on the global scale, Brazil has the worst impact, followed by the United States, China, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, India, Russia, Australia, and Peru.

The study found no evidence to support the Kuznets curve hypothesis, which suggests that increased national wealth correlates with access to modern clean technology, and therefore increases national environmental awareness, which then results in a decline of environmental degradation.

The study was led by Professor Corey Bradshaw, the Environment Institute’s Director of Ecological Modelling. “The environmental crises currently gripping the planet are the corollary of excessive human consumption of natural resources,” said Professor Bradshaw. “There is considerable and mounting evidence that elevated degradation and loss of habitats and species are compromising ecosystems that sustain the quality of life for billions of people worldwide.”

The study was published by the online peer-reviewed science journal PLoS ONE.

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Adapted from journal material: Corey J. A. Bradshaw, Xingli Giam, Navjot S. Sodhi, Stephen Willis. Evaluating the Relative Environmental Impact of Countries. PLoS ONE, 2010; 5 (5): e10440 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0010440