TED Talk of the Week: The Happy Planet Index
Nic Marcs is a statistician who measures the happiest countries in the world. Departing from the traditional method of measuring the success of a nation via economic growth and production, Marcs wants to encourage folks to look at prosperity in a different way. He is intent on switching the focus to happiness, personal well being and clean environmental practices. As the founder of the Centre for Well-Being at the UK think tank New Economics Foundation (NEF), he devised the Happy Planet Index. The Index ranks the extent to which countries around the globe produce long, happy, sustainable lives for the people that live in them, while taking into consideration the human ecological footprint.
READ THIS: A Map of Happiness Around the World [INFOGRAPHIC]
In this TED Talk of the week, Marcs takes the glass half-full approach by concentrating on abundance, and figuring out how to maximize the happiness in the world. He steers away from the doom and gloom approach that highlights scarcity, and provides actual tools and standards to gauge the satisfaction of the world’s citizens, in tandem with caring for the environment. Marcs encourages the business world and the environmental movement to make a value shift and prioritize the happiness and health of people and planet over material goods. Get ready to be inspired.
