The United States ranks pathetically low on list of greenest nations

The United States ranks a measly No. 26 among the world’s nations when it comes to environmental performance. That’s according to a new report from researchers at Yale and Columbia, an annual ranking of how well countries protect both ecosystems and human health.

The U.S. falls in between Canada and the Czech Republic, and well below such world superpowers as Estonia, Malta, Luxembourg, and Latvia. Who is No. 1? One of those annoying Scandinavian countries, of course. Scandies took slots No. 3 and 4 too.

Is this what a certain unnamed presidential candidate who resembles an old orange covered in seagull hair means when he talks about the need to “make America great again”? I guess he’s right: We have some work to do.

Here are the issues and indicators the researchers assessed:

2016 Environmental Performance Index

And here are the top 30 countries:

1. Finland
2. Iceland
3. Sweden
4. Denmark
5. Slovenia
6. Spain
7. Portugal
8. Estonia
9. Malta
10. France
11. New Zealand
12. United Kingdom
13. Australia
14. Singapore
15. Croatia
16. Switzerland
17. Norway
18. Austria
19. Ireland
20. Luxemboug
21. Greece
22. Latvia
23. Lithuania
24. Slovakia
25. Canada
26. The United States of America
27. Czech Republic
28. Hungary
29. Italy
30. Germany