Welcome to Planet Days, a green newsletter for a greenwashed Planet. Thank you to Sam Liptak for editing this morning’s post.
If you’re new to Planet Days, every other week I send out a three-minute read on what it means to go green — ranging from topics on air-conditioners and lawns to college football and baseball.
🐟 I recently returned from a weeklong trip through Denmark, Sweden, and Finland — three countries historically ranked among the world’s happiest. Today, I explore if that happiness has anything to do with climate action.
For the sixth year in a row, Finland topped the world happiness list, just ahead of Denmark and Iceland. Fellow Nordic countries Sweden and Norway ranked sixth and seventh, respectively.
Which raises the question: Is there something in the Scandinavian water that makes people so damn happy?
Much has been written about this trend, but it mostly comes down to Nordic countries ranking high in all six of the World Happiness Report metrics: GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and corruption.
The report’s authors admit as much:
“There seems to be no secret sauce specific to Nordic happiness that is unavailable to others. There is rather a more general recipe for creating highly satisfied citizens: Ensure that state institutions are of high quality, non-corrupt, able to deliver what they promise, and generous in taking care of citizens in various adversities… On a cultural level, arguably the most important factor is to generate a sense of community, trust, and social cohesion among citizens.”
But often overlooked is how sustainable practices — through investments in public transit, clean energy, and blue and green spaces — can also create this happiness.
In other words, the same practices that drive social cohesion and make people happy may also be good for the Planet.
At the risk of being the American who goes to Scandinavia once and finds the key to happiness, I did notice some striking similarities between three cities I visited this month: Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Helsinki. And one doesn't even have to dive into social welfare or healthcare systems to find them.
I’m talking public transit, baby.
Take Copenhagen, one of the world’s most bike-friendly cities, where bikes outnumber cars by more than five-to-one, and 41% of commutes are on two wheels. Combined with a frequent and reliable intercity rail system, there's little reason to drive anywhere.
Not to be outdone, in Stockholm, where trains and buses operate solely on renewable energy, the government is converting streets into pedestrian-only zones or bike lanes, while rezoning areas to reduce traffic and slash emissions. And in Helsinki, walking, cycling and public transport account for 77% of all journeys.
This heavy investment in green infrastructure not only creates cleaner cities; it creates social cohesion and communal trust at the heart of this happiness index:
It’s incredibly difficult to make social connections behind the wheel and separated by lanes of traffic, whereas it’s much easier to be part of a community on a bus or a train.
As an anti-car, pro-train guy, I hate putting too much stock in electric vehicles. But happiness in cities is also linked to lower levels of noise and air pollution, a transformation partially driven by switching from gas-powered to electric vehicles:
And three Nordic countries are adopting EVs faster than anywhere else: Norway (all-electric vehicles made up 80% of passenger vehicle sales in 2022), Iceland (41%), and Sweden (32%).
That’s compared to China (22%), the European Union (12%), and the United States (6%).
Energy production isn’t as clearly linked to happiness. But Nordic countries are at the forefront of green electricity, too: Iceland (100% electricity production from renewables in 2022), Norway (99%), Denmark (84%), Sweden (68%), and Finland (55%). Meanwhile, the U.S. is at 23%, and the global average is around 30%.
My annoying insistence to link everything to the U.S. isn’t solely rooted in American bias. It’s the reality that such carbon-friendly practices need to happen in high-emitting countries for any of this to matter.
Nordic countries together make up less than .04% of global carbon emissions, so nothing they do will move the needle on international climate goals. They can, however, show heavy emitters — like the U.S., China, or other European countries — how to cut carbon and even boost happiness while they’re at it.
That last part is key. If greener policies mean happier voters, politicians are more likely to favor them. And though not all sustainable practices are universal, happiness is.
So next time you ask, “What’s the key to happiness?” start by looking north. The answer to a happier, and greener, life is not far out of reach.
Great post and excellent points. I think population size is a big factor in all of the above, too. When your entire country has fewer people than one New York City, it makes sense that so many social systems would become more manageable at that scale.
soooo jealous! England is meant to be a fairly good place for public transport, but when my partner and I went to Amsterdam this year we were SHOCKED(!!!) at the level of public transport, bikes, trams, buses, trains. We barely saw any cars and it was wonderous.