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The Executive Director's Perspective.. . a etltl~eess vs. nvirn ena usai a pity he Global Competitiveness Report 2000 was recently published by the Worid Economic Forum and Harvard University Center for International Development. This report defines three indexes that rank nations of the world under the four categories of Growth Competitiveness, Current Competitiveness, Economic Creativity, and Pilot Environmental Sustainability. The Growth Competitiveness ranking measures factors that contribute to the future growth of an economy measured as the rate of change of GDP per person. The top five countries in this category are: United States, Singapore, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Ireland. The Current Competitiveness index relies on factors that strengthen high current productivity. The five countries are Finland, United States, Germany, Netherlands, and Switzerland. The Economic Creativity Index is a blend of the Innovation, Technology Transfer, and Startup. Indexes. The top five countries are United States, Finland, Singapore, Luxembourg, and Sweden. To those involved in environmental matters, the Pilot Environmental Sustainability Index may be most interesting. Nations are ranked on the basis of their success in achieving economic growth without exceeding resource consumption. thresholds in air and water quality, rates of:pollution, human vulnerability to environmental impacts, and social and institutional capacity to respond to environmental threats. This category also takes into account global stewardship, a measure of the extent to which a country is actively working to mitigate global environmental problems, rather benefiting or "free riding" on the efforts of others. The top five countries are Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Finland, and Sweden. Where is the United States? Number l6! While the researchers use these findings to help explain continued global poverty, these results clearly show the United States to be the world leader in economic growth, competitiveness, and creativity, at the expense of envu-onmental degradation.. Because of the magnitude of the United States economic system, even a slight improvement in our stewardship can make huge improvements in global environmental impacts. Environmental interests and organizations have a real and daunting challenge in convnlcing both goverrunE~nt and global business interests that sustainable environmental conditions are good for everybody -but mostly" ;_ ourselves! 1 ~~~r~tli~c 1)irct~~nr _ ,,~ .~ ~~ The Freshwater Society's Board of Directors '~ recognized M.Boyd Burton with the "Water is Life" ~ . award at a recent board meeting. Board Chairman ' ~~ John Packard honored Dr. Burton for his years of ~ dedicated service to the Society as Board Treasurer, ~ j ' Interim President, and several other positions. 7 n ~ 1~ 4 ~ ~ i;.+~ ~. 1 ~ ~ d! ~ Tlurnk you for your continued support, Boy F ._ ~ ~ tq 2g i_ _._ _ ~ _-._. .. .._ r .. ~I FACETS Winter 2002