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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2009
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Costa Rica Tops 'Green and Happy' List; US 114th

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(Newser) – Costa Rica is the happiest, most ecologically friendly country on earth, according to the New Economics Foundation’s Happy Planet Index. The US, on the other hand, came in 114th out of 146, the Guardian reports. The index ranks countries both on the happiness of their citizens and the environmental footprint they leave. Latin American countries dominate the top of the list, while African nations populate the bottom.

Costa Ricans report the highest life satisfaction and live slightly longer on average than Americans, all with a fraction of the environmental footprint. The index “suggests that the path we have been following is, without exception, unable to deliver all three goals: high life satisfaction, high life expectancy, and 'one-planet living,’” says the report’s lead author.

Residents carry bags of Olive Ridley sea turtle eggs harvested at Ostional beach on the northern Pacific coast of Costa Rica, Sunday, Nov. 18, 2007.
Residents carry bags of Olive Ridley sea turtle eggs harvested at Ostional beach on the northern Pacific coast of Costa Rica, Sunday, Nov. 18, 2007.   (AP Photo/Kent Gilbert)
People carry bags of Olive Ridley sea turtle eggs to wash in the ocean at Ostional beach on the northern Pacific coast of Costa Rica, Monday, Nov. 19, 2007.
People carry bags of Olive Ridley sea turtle eggs to wash in the ocean at Ostional beach on the northern Pacific coast of Costa Rica, Monday, Nov. 19, 2007.   (AP Photo/Kent Gilbert)
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Sabrina
Jul 4, 09 2:14 PM CDT
Oh yes, here we are the proud and boastful U.S. and just like our fantastic Medical System we rate at the top *Oh what? We are not the top? In either one? Then we must be near the top...*what? We are number 117? OMG!! *goes and attempts to pry at the Right Wing God of everything only to discover the Rush monument melted since it was built of Oxicotton and the flood from Katrina washed it away. **Wakes to discover it was a nightmare caused by reading of the disasters caused by the 8 year reighn of the prince of Anti-green realizing it is now over and in time perhaps we might regain our sanity. Reply
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Reader64481089
Jul 4, 09 2:15 PM CDT
Funny, accurate and point taken.Well put
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Snowleopard
Jul 6, 09 6:13 PM CDT
well said. it's one thing to be proud of your country - it's another thing to be arrogantly delusional about its superiority in every facet of life. The U.S. isn't perfect (just as no person is without any faults), and can in fact, learn a thing or two from other nations from time to time.
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Fondue
Jul 4, 09 6:04 PM CDT
An interesting side note on Costa Rica: "On December 1, 1948, President José Figueres Ferrer of Costa Rica abolished the country's army after victory in the civil war in that year. In a ceremony in the Cuartel Bellavista, Figueres broke a wall with a mallet symbolizing the end of Costa Rica's military spirit. In 1949, the abolition of the military was introduced in Article 12 of the Costa Rican Constitution." Reply
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toje
Jul 4, 09 7:59 PM CDT
4.5 million people. 85% white. Good luck scaling that up to 300 million people of truly disparate cultural demographics. Absolutely stupid comparison. Reply
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