ESI Dashboard: Contents

A   ESI Dashboard
Creator's Choice - as calculated by CIESIN and presented at the Davos World Economic Forum in January 2001 by Yale & CIESIN (the ranks in the following figures may differ marginally from the original).

B   Overall ESI: Comparison USA/Belgium
Finding the U.S. on rank 11, and Belgium on rank 80, caused a considerable media echo. Obviously, Belgium has a "natural handicap", due to her high population density. But one should investigate further...

C   Vive les Belges!?
The breakdown for Belgium's weakest cluster, "Reducing Environmental Stresses", and one of the most important Dashboard features: the Linkage Analysis, which allows a quick check how indicators are linked to each other (linear regression analysis)

D   Cluster A: Systems
The Environmental Systems index shows perhaps most clearly the disadvantage of a densely populated country like Belgium

E   Cluster B: Stresses
By far the worst result for Belgium: last rank for stresses (in PSR speak: pressures). Surprisingly, the more densely populated Netherlands rank considerably higher.

F   Cluster C: Human Vulnerability
The Vulnerability cluster shows both the U.S. and Belgium in dark green, but the African countries are in trouble. India is somewhere in the middle (but maybe an income distribution indicator would tell another story).

G   Cluster D: Capacity
The capacity of a nation to solve environmental and other problems is measured in this cluster. Among the OECD countries, Mexico and Greece do not perform so well, but here Belgium is strong: rank 20...

H   Cluster E: Global Stewardship
Within the Global Stewardship cluster, the U.S. have a red spot: "Protecting the International Commons". This indicator includes, inter alia, CO2 emissions. The low weight of CO2 in the ESI was among the points most often criticised by NGOs and experts.