Environment Study a "Wake Up" Call to US

A nation-by-nation study of environmental standards puts the United States, the world's biggest polluter in 28th place, behind most of Western Europe. The authors of the study by two US universities say they hope the American public and government will take note of their findings. New Zealand has come first in an international comparison of environmental performance, with the United States ranked 28th, according to the study by environment experts who hope their findings will put the US government under pressure to join world climate accords. The 2006 Environmental Performance Index, jointly produced by Yale University and Columbia University, puts the US, the world's largest economy, behind most of Western Europe, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia Costa Rica and Chile. The so-called EPI, to be formally presented in Davos, Switzerland, at the World Economic Forum on January 26, ranks Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom two to five respectively. http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,397111,00.html