It may be controversial, but it’s the best we’ve got. The Environmental Performance Index provides a way to numerically rate each of the globe’s countries by their overall greenness, or lack thereof. Not surprisingly, Switzerland is first, the U.S. is 39^th, while China is down at #105 and India comes in at 120^th.

The EPI rates everything from air, water, health of its citizens, agriculture, impact on climate change, ecosystem vitality, among others. This type of sustainability reporting was produced by a group of top environmental scientists with grants from major foundations.

EPI’s findings quantify a situation we all know exists: how can the less populated, wealthy, developed countries demand that the other less developed countries follow suit in drastically reducing carbon emissions to save the planet and become a green economy? Especially those like China and India who are giving birth to a middle class numbering in the hundreds of millions. Many countries that did poorly on the EPI are producing consumer goods for U.S. shelves that are exported since we don’t want to build them here and it is dramatcally cheaper. The classic NIMBY (not in my backyard) scenario, indeed.

The time is now for ALL countries to accept that their economies must take a bit of a haircut in the name of ecological living. How much value will the super stringent vehicle emissions regulations in California have when on the other side of our world, millions of new drivers will be putting cars and trucks on the road that have antiquated pollution control systems? We need to bear in mind that our relatively small population of around 330 million is absolutely dwarfed by India and China’s billions. Soon enough, these countries carbon emissions will make the Western world appear miniscule. Without comparable cleanup standards and subsidies in the Chinas, Indonesias, and Indias, what’s the point for the rest of us to drive hybrids and acquire solar panels?

This clearly needs to be a worldwide effort, with everybody putting aside their own immediate priorities for the greater good. This is not strictly magnanimous, nor is it the naive rantings of a tree hugger. If we don’t ALL clean it up, and soon, it will be a moot point – by the year 2050 or even sooner in my opinion.

Two key confabs – the G20 conference in Pittsburgh, which is happening as we speak, and the revisiting of the Kyoto accord (let’s hope the U.S. signs this time) which is slated for Copenhagen in December – will hopefully be the first major steps in a global initiative to this end. While economic concerns need to be balanced with environmental policy, we may not have the luxury of arguing about it for 10 or 15 years for it will be too late.