Junk Statistics

Here's a great example of junk statistics. Define the criteria to favor your point of view, then merely conduct the poll and prove yourself right:

Costa Rica is world's greenest, happiest country

Costa Rica is the greenest and happiest country in the world, according to a new list that ranks nations by combining measures of their ecological footprint with the happiness of their citizens.

The HPI measures how much of the Earth's resources nations use and how long and happy a life their citizens enjoy as a result.

NEF says the HPI is a much better way of looking the success of countries than through standard measures of economic growth. The HPI shows, for example, that fast-growing economies such as the US, China and India were all greener and happier 20 years ago than they are today.

Oh yes, those Indians and Chinese were so much happier mired in grinding, starving poverty. Ever notice how those who rhapsodize about the beauty and dignity of poverty do so from the cushy confines of a luxurious first-world country? When's the last time you heard a poor woman schlepping water two miles uphill extolling the virtues of green starvation?

This is pure twaddle. Statistics show a positive correlation between a country's prosperity and the state of its environment. There is no documented correlation between being green and being happy.

World's happiest and greenest country? Reminds me of the late night commercial hawking some washed-up singer's records by screaming "he's sold more records than Elvis and The Beatles combined!" To which the wag replies, "Yeah, because Elvis and The Beatles never combined to make a record."

Guardian