Olympic Gold Medal Tally Green-ness Index - India #1, Ethiopia #2, Indonesia #3

Billions of us have seen the performances of the marvellous athletes at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The top 15 countries in terms of 5 or more Gold medals were the host nation China (#1, 51 Gold medals), the US (#2, 36), Russia (#3, 23), the UK (#4; 19; the next Olympic host nation), Germany (#5, 16), Australia (#6, 14), South Korea (#7, 13), Japan (#8, 9), Italy (#9, 8), France (#10, 7), Ukraine (#11, 7), the Netherlands (#12, 7), Jamaica (#13, 6), Spain (#14, 5) and Kenya (#15, 5).

However we must ask the question: how GREEN were the efforts of the successful Gold Medal-winning countries?

Clearly winning Gold is not vital for human survival – it can be seen in today's starving world as a national pride indulgence and involved significant national investment (apparently up to $100 million dollars for each Gold Medal won by Australia). Winning Gold was clearly expensive in terms of dollars and hence in terms of greenhouse gas pollution in a global carbon-based energy system. However it is a major research project to determine the precise investment in Gold Medals for every country.

One initial approach to “How Green were the Gold Medal Winners?†is to determine the Olympic Gold Medal Tally per capita. In terms of “Gold Medals won per million of population†Jamaica (2.222) was #1 followed by Bahrain (#2, 1.326), Estonia (#3, 0.775), New Zealand (#4, 0.763), Mongolia (#5, 0.749) and Australia (#7, 0.697). India (0.00091) came last (for a very detailed and documented analyses see “Beijing Olympic Gold Talley per head of populationâ€).

India’s last position should be a matter of some pride to Indians because it is indicative of a humanity that says that huge investment in sport for Gold medals is an unconscionable indulgence in a world in which 16 million people die avoidably each year from deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease (see “Global avoidable mortalityâ€). This interpretation of the Beijing Olympics Gold Medal Tally is provided in an article “India TOPS humanity-indicative Olympics Population/Gold Medals list of Gold medal-winning nationsâ€.

However, a further key part of our “Green-ness†analysis should take per capita greenhouse gas pollution into account. A better relative measure of how “greenhouse gas dirty†each national Olympic Gold Medal tally is would be to multiply the “Gold medals per million of population†by the “annual per capita greenhouse gas pollution†to get a an Olympic Gold Medal Extravagance Index (Profligacy Index or Excess Index).

Thus, for example, in terms of (A) “2008 Gold Medals per million of 2005 population†[Gold], New Zealand (0.763) just beat Australia (0.697) but according to the US Energy Information Administration, the ( “2005 per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution in tonnes per person per year†[CO2] was 9.37 for New Zealand and 20.24 for Australia. Multiplying A by B yields a Gold MedalxCO2 Pollution (gold medals.tonnes CO2) [GoldxCO2] score of 7.149 for New Zealand and 14.107 for Australia.

For a detailed breakdown of Beijing Olympics involvement by country see: http://au.sports.yahoo.com/olympics/countries/#K ; for 2005 population data see G.M. Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1905†and http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com ; for the latest on the Beijing Olympics medal tally see Yahoo ; and for “2005 annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution in tonnes per person per yearâ€.

The superb 2008 Beijing Olympics finished with China leading the World in the Olympic Gold Medal tally (51 Gold) but coming second in Total Medals (100) to the US (36 Gold medals, 110 Total Medals). However, in terms of “Gold Medals per Million of Population†China (0.039) was BELOW the World average (0.046) whereas the US (0.120) was ABOVE the World average.

Please note that this article continues on the next page:

Using this data I have set out below the Total Gold Medals, the Total Medals, the “Gold Medals per Million of Population†[Gold], the “2005 annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution in tonnes per person per year†[CO2] and the “Gold Medals per capita x annual tonnes of fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution per capita†[GoldxCO2] for all the participants in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. For clarity, I have grouped the countries in 4 categories. Please note that the LAST number given for each country is “Gold Medals per million people x annual tonnes of fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution per capita†[GoldxCO2].

Group A (countries with 2 or more Gold medals) included China (51 Gold, 100 Total Medals, 0.039 Gold Medals per Million of Population [Gold], 4.07 tonnes CO2 per person per year [CO2], 0.159 GoldxCO2), US (36, 110, 0.120, 20.14, 2.417), Russia (23, 72, 0.162, 11.88, 1.925), the UK (19, 47, 0.319, 9.55, 3.046), Germany (16, 41, 0.194, 10.24, 1.987), Australia (14, 46, 0.697, 20.24, 14.107 ), South Korea (13, 31, 0.268, 10.27, 2.762), Japan (9, 25, 0.070, 9.65, 0.676), Italy (8, 28, 0.140, 8.03, 1.124), France (7, 40, 0.115, 6.59, 0.758), the Ukraine (7, 27, 0.146, 7.30, 1.066), Netherlands (7, 16, 0.429, 16.44, 7.053), Jamaica (6, 11, 2.222, 4.22, 9.377), Spain (5, 18, 0.121, 9.60, 1.162), Kenya (5, 14, 0.152, 0.28, 0.043), Belarus (4, 19, 0.408, 6.26, 2.554), Romania (4, 8, 0.180, 4.45, 0.801), Ethiopia (4, 7, 0.053, 0.06, 0.00318), Canada (3, 18, 0.094, 19.24, 1.809), Poland (3, 10, 0.078, 7.38, 0.576), Hungary (3,10, 0.307, 5.98, 1.836), Norway (3, 10, 0.656, 11.40, 7.478), Brazil (3, 15, 0.016, 1.84, 0.031), Czech Republic (3, 6, 0.294, 11.02, 3.240), Slovakia (3, 6, 0.555, 6.96, 3.863), New Zealand (3, 9, 0.763, 9.37, 7.149), Georgia (3, 6, 0.596, 1.01, 0.602), Cuba (2, 24, 0.175, 2.91, 0.509), Kazakhstan (2, 13, 0.130, 13.04, 1.695), Denmark (2, 7, 0.371, 9.38, 3.480), Mongolia (2, 4, 0.749, 2.75, 2.060), Thailand (2, 4, 0.031, 3.65, 0.113), North Korea (2, 6, 0.087, 3.21, 0.279), Argentina (2, 6, 0.051, 3.71, 0.189), Switzerland (2, 6, 0.279, 6.13, 1.710), and Mexico (2, 3, 0.019, 3.75, 0.071).

Group B (countries gaining only 1 Gold Medal) included Turkey (1 Gold Medal, 8 Total Medals, 0.014 Gold Medals per Million of Population [Gold], 3.30 tonnes CO2 per person per year [CO2], 0.046 GoldxCO2), Zimbabwe (1, 4, 0.077, 0.97, 0.075), Azerbaijan (1, 7, 0.117, 4.62, 0.541), Uzbekistan (1, 6, 0.037, 4.39, 0.162), Slovenia (1, 5, 0.505, 8.34, 4.212), Bulgaria (1, 5, 0.129, 6.78, 0.875), Indonesia (1, 5, 0.0044, 1.57, 0.0069), Finland (1, 4, 0.192, 10.00, 1.920), Latvia (1, 3, 0.441, 3.66, 1.614), Belgium (1, 2, 0.096, 13.10, 1.258), Dominican Republic (1, 2, 0.111, 1.95, 0.216), Estonia (1, 2, 0.775, 14.17, 10.982), Portugal (1, 2, 0.099, 6.15, 0.609), India (1, 2, 0.00091, 1.07, 0.000974), Iran (1, 2, 0.014, 6.96, 0.0974), Bahrain (1, 0, 1.326, 36.58, 48.505), Cameroon (1, 0, 0.39, 0.023), Panama (1, 0, 0.309, 4.56, 1.409), and Tunisia (1, 0, 0.100, 2.21, 0.221).

Group C (countries gaining no Gold medals but which nevertheless scored Bronze and/or Silver medals) and Group D (containing countries which gained no medals at all) have Gold scores of 0 and GoldxCo2 scores of 0. However for comparative purposes I have listed below their numbers of non-Gold medals as well as “2005 annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution in tonnes per person per year†[CO2] (NA means not available).

Group C (countries gaining no Gold medals but which nevertheless scored Bronze and/or Silver medals) included Armenia (6 non-Gold medals, “2005 annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution in tonnes per person per year†[CO2] 3.22), Sweden (5 non-Gold medals, 6.53), Croatia (5, 4.77), Lithuania (5, 3.87), Chinese Taipei (4, 12.53), Greece (4, 9.67), Nigeria (4, 0.82), Austria (3, 9.55), Ireland (3, 10.98), Serbia (3, 4.85), Algeria (2, 2.71), Bahamas (2, 13.46), Trinidad and Tobago (2, 35.51), Colombia (2, 1.36), Kyrgyzstan (2, 1.03), Morocco (2, 1.19), Tajikistan (2, 1.06), Chile (1, 4.14), Ecuador, (1, 1.79), Iceland (1, 10.74), Malaysia (1, 6.49), Netherlands Antilles (1, 50.20), Singapore (1, 30.25), South Africa (1, 9.56), Sudan (1, 0.29), Vietnam (1, 0.96), Afghanistan (1, 0.03), Egypt (1, 2.09), Israel (1, 10.36), Mauritius (1, 3.26), Moldova (1, 1.65), Venezuela (1, 5.99), and Togo (1, 0.44).

Group D (containing countries which gained no medals at all) included Albania (0 Medals, “2005 annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution in tonnes per person per year†[CO2] 1.22), American Samoa (0, 10.34), Andorra (0, NA but cf Spain 9.60), Angola (0, 1.74), Antigua/Barbuda (0, 8.53), Aruba (0, 10.46), Bangladesh (0, 0.28), Barbados (0, 5.16), Belize (0, 3.32), Benin (0, 0.30), Bermuda (0, 9.53), Bhutan (0, 0.14), Bolivia (0, 1.35), Bosnia-Herzegovina (0, 3.94), Botswana (0, 2.23), British Virgin Islands (0, 3.87), Brunei Darusallam (0, 17.84), Burkina Faso (0, 0.09), Burundi (0, 0.05), Cambodia (0, 0.04), Cape Verde (0, 0.68), Cayman Islands (0, 8.68), Central African Republic (0, 0.08), Chad (0, 0.02), Comoros (0, 0.15), Congo [brazzaville] (0, 1.47), Cook Islands (0, 3.12), Costa Rica (0, 1.42), Cyprus (0, 11.30), Côte D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) (0, 0.37), Democratic Republic of the Congo [Zaire] (0, 0.04), Djibouti (0, 4.09), Dominica (0, 1.54), El Salvador (0, 0.92), Equatorial Guinea (0, 9.20), Eritrea (0, 0.17 ), Fiji (0, 1.50), Gabon (0, 3.55), Gambia (0, 0.19), Ghana (0, 0.30), Grenada (0, 2.71), Guam (0, 0.30), Guatemala (0, 0.90), Guinea (0, 0.14), Guinea-Bissau (0, 0.27), Guyana (0, 2.07), Haiti (0, 0.21), Honduras (0, 0.99), Hong Kong (0, 10.88), Iraq (0, 3.76 ), Jordan (0, 3.24), Kiribati (0, 0.31), Kuwait (0, 32.84), Laos (0, 0.17), Lebanon (0, 4.22), Lesotho (0, 0.10), Liberia (0, 0.18), Libya (0, 9.27), Liechtenstein (0, NA, but cf Austria 9.55), Luxembourg (0, 26.79), Macedonia (FYROM) (0, 3.94), Madagascar (0, 0.14), Malawi (0, 0.07), Maldives (0, 2.19), Mali (0, 0.06), Malta (0, 7.59), Marshall Islands (0, NA but cf Micronesia 1.10), Mauritania (0, 0.85), Micronesia (0, 1.10), Monaco (0, NA but cf Italy 8.03), Montenegro (0, 4.85), Mozambique (0, 0.11), Myanmar [burma] (0, 0.30), Namibia (0, 1.32), Nauru (0, 13.51), Nepal (0, 0.11), Nicaragua (0, 0.79), Niger (0, 0.10), Oman (0, 9.90), Pakistan (0, 0.77), Palau (0, NA but cf Micronesia 1.10 ), Palestine (0, NA but cf Jordan 3.24), Papua New Guinea (0, 0.79), Paraguay (0, 0.61), Peru (0, 1.12), Philippines (0, 0.89), Puerto Rico (0, 9.97), Qatar (0, 61.94), Rwanda (0, 0.08), St Kitts/Nevis (0, 3.42), Saint Lucia (0, 2.22), St Vincent and Grenadines (0, 1.70 ), Samoa (0, 0.77), San Marino (0, NA but cf Italy 8.03 ), Sao Tome and Principe (0, 0.52), Saudi Arabia (0, 15.61), Senegal (0, 0.46), Seychelles (0, 11.36), Sierra Leone (0, 0.20), Solomon Islands (0, 0.35), Somalia (0, 0.09), Sri Lanka (0, 0.60), Suriname (0, 4.04), Swaziland (0, 1.00), Syria (0, 2.70), Tanzania (0, 0.11), Timor Leste (0, NA but cf Indonesia 1.57), Tonga (0, 0.44), Turkmenistan (0, 10.06), Tuvalu (0, NA but cf Kiribati 0.31), Uganda (0, 1.75), United Arab Emirates (0, 33.73), Uruguay (0, 1.75), Vanuatu (0, 0.46), US Virgin Islands (0, 147.68), Yemen (0, 0.83) and Zambia (0, 0.22 ).

Which Group did your country belong to and how well did it do?

Of the 55 Gold Medal-winning countries (Groups A and a total of 37/55 i.e. 67% have been involved in the occupation of other countries in the post-1945 era (mostly associated with European and American colonialism and imperialism). For a detailed history of the US contribution to this criminality see William Blum’s “Rogue Stateâ€. For a detailed history and “body count†of this horrendous burden of war, occupation, devastation and genocide imposed by imperialist powers since 1945 see “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1905â€. 1990-2005 avoidable deaths (excess deaths, deaths that should not have happened) in non-European countries total 1.2 billion, this including a Muslim Holocaust involving 0.6 billion avoidable deaths.

In contrast, all the Medal-free Group D countries (with the exception of Peru and Saudi Arabia and the tiny European principalities of Andorra, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco and San Marino) have been subject to overwhelmingly European and American colonial occupation and its horrendous consequences in the post-war era. Further, there are many countries in the other Groups that have been subject to foreign occupation and malignant foreign (mainly American) intervention in the post-1945 era.

The huge impact of European colonial occupation and post-colonial neo-colonialism is reflected in the vastly lower annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution in these countries (except, Nigeria and Indonesia aside, for those with big tourism or oil industries).

One can sum the 1950-2005 excess deaths in all the countries occupied by foreign occupiers in the post-war era – for a country-by-country analysis see: http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.com/2008/08/body-count-global-avoidable-mortality.html . Most of the perpetrators have been European countries and are listed below alphabetically with both their number of Gold Medals from the 2008 Beijing Olympics and their “body count†of 1990-2005 excess deaths in the countries they occupied as major occupiers for some time in the post-war era (excluding Germany and Japan as occupied countries): Australia (14 Gold, 2.1 million in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands); Belgium (1 Gold, 36.0 million); Ethiopia (4 Gold, 1.8 million in Eritrea); France (7 Gold, 142.3 million); Indonesia (1 Gold, 0.694 million in Timor Leste); Iraq (0 Gold, 0.1 million in Kuwait); Israel (0 Gold, 23.9 million); Netherlands (7 Gold, 71.6 million); New Zealand (3 Gold, 0.04 million in Samoa); Pakistan (0 Gold, 52.2 million in Bangladesh); Portugal (1 Gold, 23.5 million); Russia (23 Gold, 37.1 million); South Africa (0.7 million in Namibia); Spain (5 Gold, 8.6 million); Turkey (1 Gold, 0.05 million in Cyprus); the UK (19 Gold, 727.4 million); and the US (36 Gold, 82.2 million).

For the record, neither China (51 Gold medals, Iran (1 Gold medal) nor India (1 Gold medal) have occupied any other country over the last few centuries.

If there were Gold Medals for War, Occupation and Genocide, the leading Gold medallists scoring over 1 million on this 1990-2005 excess mortality score would be, in descending order, the UK, France, the US, Netherlands, Pakistan, Russia, Belgium, Israel, Portugal and Spain … or if Gold, Silver and Bronze were given for “total body count†the UK would get Gold, France the Silver and the US the Bronze (for discussion see “No Medals for War, Occupation and Genocide. Olympic Gold Medal Tally Analyzedâ€).

Those familiar with notoriously corrupt sports such as horse racing know that there are 2 ways of succeeding, specifically (1) by investing money in quality horses, trainers and jockeys and (2) by nobbling the opposition. As outlined above, two thirds of the Gold medal-winning countries have been involved in (1) huge investment in sport (e.g. Australia is reported to have spent $100 million for each of its 14 Gold Medals) and in (2) the occupation and devastation of other countries (mostly impoverished African, Latin American, South Asian and Muslim countries) which in consequence do very poorly at the Olympic Games (e.g. highly successful Gold Medal-winning Australia has been involved in all post-1950 US Asian wars that have been associated – so far - with 25 million Indigenous Asian excess deaths).

The World average for “Gold Medals per Million of 2005 Population†is 302/ 6,450 million = 0.047 but notably the top Gold Medal winner China (0.039) scored below this. The top countries in terms of “Gold Medals per Million of 2005 Population†were Jamaica (2.222), Bahrain (1.326), Estonia (0.775), New Zealand (0.763), Mongolia (0.749) and Australia (0.697). The Gold Medal-winning countries with the lowest scores (in descending order) were Mexico (0.019), Brazil (0.016), Turkey (0.014), Iran (0.014), Indonesia (0.0044) and India (0.00091).

India’s last position in the Olympic Games “Gold Medals per Million of Population†list of Gold medal-winning countries says is consistent with the moral view that huge investment in sport (as reflected in Gold Medals) is utterly unconscionable in a world in which 44,000 people die avoidably each day from deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease (see “Global avoidable mortalityâ€). Saving human life is vastly more important than winning Gold Medals in a technically and morally flawed competition.

In terms of “2005 annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution in tonnes per person per year†China (4.07) is just below the world’s average (4.37).

Multiplying “Gold Medals per Million of 2005 Population†[Gold] by the “2005 annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution in tonnes per person per year†[CO2] gives a GoldxCO2 score that can be seen as a Gold Medal Extravagance Index, Profligacy Index or Excess Index – a measure of how much countries are prepared to pollute our common atmosphere and ocean with carbon dioxide in order to win “Gold Gloryâ€.

The World average for GoldxCO2 is 0.201 and again China (0.159) falls just under this value. The most profligate countries in descending order are Bahrain (48.505), Australia (14.107), Estonia (10.982), Jamaica (9.377), Norway (7.478), New Zealand (7.149) and the Netherlands (7.053). The least profligate Gold Medal winners in terms of GoldxCO2 score in ascending order are India (0.0010), Ethiopia (0.0032), Indonesia (0.0069), Cameroon (0.0230) and Brazil (0.0310).

Hopefully these Gold Medal Extravagance Index figures can restore a sense of balance and humanity to analysis of the Beijing Olympic Games Medal Tally. Some Medals were decided by as little as 0.01 second difference in some events. However there is no doubt that in terms of the “Green-ness†of Gold Medal winners as measured by the GoldxCO2 Extravagance Index, India unequivocally scored Gold, Ethiopia Silver and Indonesia Bronze.

Dr Gideon Polya published some 130 works in a 4 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London, 2003). He has just published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950†(G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://mwcnews.net and http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com);

see also his contribution “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality†in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics†(edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007). He is currently preparing a revised and updated version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History†as biofuel-, globalization- and climate-driven global food price increases threaten a possibly 100-fold greater famine catastrophe than the man-made famine in British-ruled India that killed 6-7 million Indians in the "forgotten" World War 2 Bengal Famine (see recent BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others).