The dangerous illusion cast by development rankings
The HinduCalifornia was on fire once again. Countries such as Ireland, Norway and Switzerland that top HDI rankings, are among the world’s biggest resource consumers and carbon polluters per person. This relativist approach masks a fundamental reality: the rest of the world cannot scale up to the lifestyle of high-income countries without severely overshooting the planet’s finite limits. Costa Rica has achieved impressive outcomes — high life expectancy, universal health care, and near-universal literacy — while maintaining a resource footprint that is far lower than that of affluent nations. While neither Costa Rica nor Sri Lanka is perfect, they offer valuable starting points for crafting an alternative development pathway that respects our planet’s limits and upholds social and ecological justice.
History of this topic
Human progress retreats to 2016 levels by COVID, other crises: UN
Al JazeeraDiscover Related