Tag Archives: Iceland

Finland is world’s happiest country, U.S. discontent grows: U.N. report

People enjoy a sunnny day at the Esplanade in Helsinki, Finland, May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Finland is the world’s happiest country, according to an annual survey issued on Wednesday that found Americans were getting less happy even as their country became richer.

Burundi came bottom in the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s (SDSN) 2018 World Happiness Report which ranked 156 countries according to things such as GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, social freedom, generosity and absence of corruption.

Taking the harsh, dark winters in their stride, Finns said access to nature, safety, childcare, good schools and free healthcare were among the best things about in their country.

 

FILE PHOTO: Finland's flag flutters in Helsinki, Finland, May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins/File Photo

FILE PHOTO: Finland’s flag flutters in Helsinki, Finland, May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins/File Photo

“I’ve joked with the other Americans that we are living the American dream here in Finland,” said Brianna Owens, who moved from the United States and is now a teacher in Espoo, Finland’s second biggest city with a population of around 280,000.

“I think everything in this society is set up for people to be successful, starting with university and transportation that works really well,” Owens told Reuters.

Finland, rose from fifth place last year to oust Norway from the top spot. The 2018 top-10, as ever dominated by the Nordics, is: Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Netherlands Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and Australia.

The United States came in at 18th, down from 14th place last year. Britain was 19th and the United Arab Emirates 20th.

One chapter of the 170-page report is dedicated to emerging health problems such as obesity, depression and the opioid crisis, particularly in the United States where the prevalence of all three has grown faster than in most other countries.

While U.S. income per capita has increased markedly over the last half century, happiness has been hit by weakened social support networks, a perceived rise in corruption in government and business and declining confidence in public institutions.

“We obviously have a social crisis in the United States: more inequality, less trust, less confidence in government,” the head of the SDSN, Professor Jeffrey Sachs of New York’s Columbia University, told Reuters as the report was launched at the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

“It’s pretty stark right now. The signs are not good for the U.S. It is getting richer and richer but not getting happier.”

Asked how the current political situation in the United States could affect future happiness reports, Sachs said:

“Time will tell, but I would say that in general that when confidence in government is low, when perceptions of corruption are high, inequality is high and health conditions are worsening … that is not conducive to good feelings.”

For the first time since it was started in 2012, the report, which uses a variety of polling organizations, official figures and research methods, ranked the happiness of foreign-born immigrants in 117 countries.

Finland took top honors in that category too, giving the country a statistical double-gold status.

The foreign-born were least happy in Syria, which has been mired in civil war for seven years.

“The most striking finding of the report is the remarkable consistency between the happiness of immigrants and the locally born,” said Professor John Helliwell of Canada’s University of British Columbia.

“Although immigrants come from countries with very different levels of happiness, their reported life evaluations converge towards those of other residents in their new countries,” he said.

“Those who move to happier countries gain, while those who move to less happy countries lose.”

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Additional reporting by Reuters television in Finland; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Bardarbunga Volcano Erupts In Iceland; Tavurcur In Papua New Guinea

Volcanoes on opposite ends of the world erupted on Thursday.

The Bardarbunga volcano in Iceland, which has been the subject of close monitoring by seismologists since a series of earthquakes began weeks ago, finally broke through the ice covering with what the Iceland Met Office called a “fissure eruption.”

The volcano had erupted under the ice earlier this week leading to an aviation warning but it was canceled when the volcano’s activity appeared to cease.  The latest eruption reportedly has lava spewing to the surface but “has not shown signs of volcanic ash.”

Despite the lack of ash, the aviation warning level has been raised to red and flights are being diverted around the volcano’s area.

Aviation experts have also placed a warning over the Tavurcur volcano in Papua New Guinea following an eruption Thursday.

The Volcanic Ash Advisory Center has been monitoring the ash cloud and providing updates to airlines.  The cloud of ash has been drifting southwest since the eruption.

“The volcanic eruption reached the top of the atmosphere at 50,000 feet which is the same height as which planes travel,” said meteorologist Ian Shepherd  “It’s too early to say at this point if the ash cloud will reach Australia but it was a significant eruption.”

Iceland Warns Massive Volcano Under Glacier Might Erupt

Icelandic officials are warning airlines worldwide that one of the world’s largest volcanoes is likely in the process of erupting.

The volcano alert level of Bardarbunga has been raised to “orange” which means “heightened or escalating unrest with increased potential of eruption” according to Iceland’s volcanic scale.  The Met Office, located in the capital city of Reykjavik, says that over 250 tremors have been recorded since midnight local time.

The volcano is 15.5 miles wide and rises about 6200 feet above sea level.  The volcano last erupted in 1996, melting the glacier above it and spewing ash and molten lava.

Iceland’s last major eruption, the 2011 Grimsvotn volcanic event, caused flight cancellations across Scotland, England and Germany because of volcanic ash in the atmosphere.  The massive Eyjafjallajokull volcanic eruption in 2010 caused over 100,000 flights in Europe and across the Atlantic to be cancelled out of fear of glass particles from the eruption damaging aircraft engines.