Collective decision-making under uncertainty: Australia is the 3rd happiest of all

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Australia is the 3rd happiest of all

Costa Rica is the first.

The result is intriguing. I cannot find the original study but the index was calculated with "an equation that weighs life expectancy and people's happiness against their environmental impact."

I don't think Australians have a small environmental impact and they live super long. So they must be super happy to be the 3rd on the list.

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My name is Shuang Liu and I work for CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences as a research scientist. Three key words that summarize my background are: problem-solving, the science-policy interface, and interdiciplinarity.

Trained as an ecological economist as a PhD student (Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, University of Vermont), I take solving real-world problems as the ultimate goal of my research (and yes, they did tell me publication is also important). So I have been working at the science-policy interface (so far mostly in the areas of ecosystem services and biological invasions) with my knowledge and training in biology, ecology, economics, public participation, and group facilitation.

Looking into the future, what intrigues me most is how we make collective decisions under uncertainty. Just think about our experience so far with GMOs, biological invasions, and of course climate change... This blog records the journal of my research in this direction.