Let it rain: why there's more to wellbeing than the weather

Dave Powell

15 June 2012

Am I happy?

Hmm. Well, I'm laid up with a knackered foot, and last night my cat threw up on me. Neither did much for my general demeanour. And it's raining, again.

But despite all that, I reckon I'm ticking along OK. About 7 out of 10, I'd say.

Not to overstate my importance in the scheme of things, but I reckon that's a pretty decent analogy for the whole of the UK.

The broken foot? That's the economy, limping along, cursing and muttering.

The cat vomit? Take yer pick: start with the antics of the self-styled "greenest government ever" - here's the latest. Hardly a week goes by without a new torrent of moggy sick, metaphorically speaking, landing in our laps.

And the rain? Well, that's the rain.

But believe it or not, we're still a pretty chipper lot. That's not just my opinion. It's backed up by sums: the Happy Planet Index.

The brainy folks at the New Economics Foundation have put data from the world into a spreadsheet and asked it which countries are doing the best in terms of what they call "sustainable wellbeing".

They aren't interested in which country has the biggest GDP or the best Royal Family. Instead it's "a new measure of human progress [which] measures what matters: the extent to which countries deliver long, happy, sustainable lives for the people that live in them."

This means that countries where people have longer, happier lives, and lower impacts on the planet, do the best. Remarkably, the UK's up towards the higher end of things - better than most other developed countries.

But before we start getting our flags out and sailing around on boats, two things to note.

Firstly, we're well behind the front-runners - Latin American countries like Costa Rica, where good lives don't cost the Earth.

Secondly, no country is actually doing very well in absolute terms. As a globe, we're still decidedly Eeyore-ish.

Watch this space for updates from colleagues at the Rio+20 sustainable development conference, where we hope big steps will be taken towards improving the lives of everyone, everywhere, and putting the world on a sustainable course.

As for me, I'll be here in jolly old England, standing on one leg in the garden in the rain, and somehow managing to keep a smile on my face.

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