This morning I received a colorful book in the mail. It is The Atlas of Climate Change: Mapping the World’s Greatest Challenge by Kirstin Dow and Thomas Downing.[1] Largish in format, so as to accommodate many maps of the world, but counting only a bit more than one-hundred pages, it gives the reader a nice picture of what is going on and what may come to pass around the globe. The last few pages contain a table with quite a bit of data on close to two-hundred countries in the world. One column in the table is dedicated to the Human Development Index rating compiled by the United Nations in 2005. It scores countries according to their income, social equality, and provision made for education and health. According to the authors, countries with higher scores are more likely to have the resources needed for climate change adaptation. At once I checked Croatia (0.841), and then I looked around for the highest and lowest values of the index. These turned out to be for Norway (0.963) and Sierra Leone (0.298). Just to place Croatia within a group of similar countries, I looked for those that were up to twenty points above or below. The first group includes, in ascending order, Kuwait (0.844), Bahrain (0.846), Qatar and Slovakia (both 0.849), Lithuania (0.852), Estonia (0.853), Chile (0.854), and Poland (0.858), while the second includes, in descending order, Uruguay (0.840), Costa Rica (0.838), Latvia (0.836), St. Kitts and Nevis (0.834), and Seychelles (0.821). Seeing that these “neighboring” countries describe Croatia’s position on the planet quite well, I was more than satisfied with my search. Smack between Uruguay and Kuwait!

Addendum I (December 7, 2007)

Realizing that the United Nations must have updated the Human Development Index since my new atlas was published, today I searched the World Wide Web. It did not take me long to find what I was looking for. The highest and lowest values of the index, compiled in 2007, are reported for Iceland (0.968) and Sierra Leone (0.336), respectively. As I expected, there has been some improvement in the case of Croatia (0.850). But then I checked the old “neighborhood.” Here I will list only the countries within a ten-point range above and below Croatia. In ascending order, the countries ranking above it are Uruguay (0.852), Latvia (0.855), and Estonia (0.860). And the countries ranking below Croatia, in descending order, are Costa Rica (0.846), Bahamas (0.845), and Seychelles (0.843). Uruguay and Latvia have done well in a couple of years, at least with respect to Croatia. Anyhow, it is now smack between Uruguay and Costa Rica!

Addendum II (January 14, 2009)

In the latest compilation of the Human Development Index, released by the United Nations in December 2008, Croatia falls between Latvia and Argentina. Uruguay and Costa Rica are now behind it. I am kind of pleased to learn about this improvement, but I am also a bit surprised by it. Has Croatia really progressed so much in one single year? I sincerely doubt it.

Footnote

1. London: Earthscan, 2006.