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Thu 06 01 2022
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Online shopping threatens climate goals for rich countries

by bernt & torsten

If we just were simple snowmen we would not have to be worried about online shopping threatening climate goals. Do you know that the countries of the world are ranked according to environmental goals, it is called the Sustainable Development Index. Take a look and see how your country is ranked.

This index also includes how large consumption-based carbon dioxide emissions we account for per capita. This means that your home-clicked clothes from India-Bangladesh and electronics from China are included.

So despite the fact that the products are produced in other countries, it is the country that buys them that is responsible for the climate bill. That is not entirely unreasonable.

But what does this mean? According to other indices such as the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Index, your country may have a completely different ranking, the difference between the indices is that different data is included, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Index shows how far a country has come in achieving its global goals towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals while The Sustainable Development Index (SDI) measures the ecological efficiency of human development.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Index does not include the resources we consume. It is generally easier for rich countries to get high on this index. It also gets weird, because the rich countries consume the earth’s resources the most. In rich countries, it consumes a lot, and imports goods with a large carbon footprint.

There are always problems with different measures of durability. But that does not mean that we should continue as usual with satisfaction. Rather, the latest measurement should be an alarm clock. We have a penchant for pointing out other nations as environmental criminals but seem to have very little interest in being self-critical.

It is in human nature not to want to see their own shortcomings, but now it is becoming more difficult to ignore them. I wish we were just simple snowmen.

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