©Harper's Magazine

August 2001

Number of the U.N.'s 21 human-rights agreements that have been ratified by the United States : 4

Number of the U.N.'s 31 global environmental agreements that have been : 10

Source: United Nations (N.Y.C.)/Harper's research

Federal funds budgeted this year for cleanup of the Defense Department's hazardous waste : $7,460,000,000

Source: Congressional Research Service (Washington)

Minimum number of hours of blackouts predicted for California this summer : 260

Source: North American Electric Reliability Commission (Princeton, N.J.)

Estimated year in which El Paso, Texas, will exhaust its current sources of water : 2030

Source: Texas Water Development Board (Austin)

Year in which Iceland plans to have ceased all use of fossil fuels : 2030

Source: Energy Authority of Iceland (Reykjav'k)

Number of 21 cruise ships tested by Alaska last summer whose wastewater met federal sewage-treatment standards : 1

Source: Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (Juneau)

Number of U.S. marine sanctuaries where fishing is illegal : 0

Percentage of U.S. coastal waters where this is true : 0.005

Source: Florida Institute of Oceanography (St. Petersburg)

Percentage of U.S. land where hunting is illegal : 3.5

Source: Florida Institute of Oceanography (St. Petersburg)

Estimated number of court decisions citing federal negligence in endangered-species protection that remain unheeded : 270

Source: Center for Biological Diversity (Tucson, Ariz.)

Percentage of these decisions that President Bush has proposed to allow the government to ignore indefinitely : 100

Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Arlington, Va.)

Number of new worker-protection rules whose enactment Bush ordered postponed on his first day in office : 9

Source: A.F.L.-C.I.O. (Washington)/Harper's research

Ratio of the starting salary of an Oklahoma prison guard to the federal poverty level for a family of four : 10:11

Source: Oklahoma Corrections Department (Oklahoma City)/U.S. Census Bureau

Chances that a Mississippi African American opposes removing the state flag's Confederate emblem : 3 in 10

Source: Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University (Starkville)

Duration in decades of an Alabama study that allowed hundreds of syphilitic African Americans to go untreated : 4

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta)

Number of decades between the end of the study and the Alabama legislature's expression of "regret" over it in May : 3

Source: Harper's research

Percentage of Americans who believe that Timothy McVeigh was acting as part of an as-yet-unidentified "larger group" : 40

Source: FOX News/Opinion Dynamics (N.Y.C.)

Age at which Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon enlisted in an underground Jewish paramilitary group in Palestine : 14

Source: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Jerusalem)

Months after his election in February that Sharon criticized Palestinians for "sending children to the front" : 2

Source: Ha'aretz (Tel Aviv, Israel)

Percentage of Palestinians working in Israel last summer who lost their job after Israel's blockade began in October : 70

Source: International Labour Organization (Geneva)

Percentage of the working residents of Del Rio, Texas, who are directly employed in the war on drugs : 20

Source: Texas Observer (Austin)

Estimated percentage of Colombia's cocaine exports controlled by right-wing paramilitary leaders : 40

Source: Colombian National Police (Bogot‡)

Number of right-wing Colombian groups on the United States' designated foreign terrorist list : 0

Number of left-wing Colombian groups on the list : 2

Source: U.S. Department of State/Harper's research

Chance that a member of the European Parliament voted in January to support E.U. participation in Plan Colombia : 1 in 508

Source: European Parliament (Brussels)

Number of domestic U.S. military target-practice sites that are closer to populated areas than the one on Vieques : 6

Source: U.S. Navy

Ratio of the cancer rate on Puerto Rico's main island to that on Vieques : 5:6

Source: Central Cancer Registry (San Juan, P.R.)

Chance that a baby born in Belarus will contract thyroid cancer in his or her lifetime : 1 in 4

Source: Chernobyl Children's Project (Cork, Ireland)

Chances that a teenage boy in Botswana will die of AIDS, given current infection rates : 9 in 10

Source: United Nations (N.Y.C.)

Percentage change since 1998 in the amount Americans spend each year on prescription drugs : +40

Source: National Institute for Health Care Management (Washington)

Estimated number of Americans who died last year from adverse reactions to such drugs : 218,000

Source: American Pharmaceutical Association (Washington)

Rank of being "free of pain" among seriously ill Americans' top priorities regarding care at the end of their life : 1

Rank of being "at peace with God" : 2

Source: Veterans Affairs Medical Center (Durham, N.C.)

Amount the inventor of the yellow "smiley face" had received for it by the time of his death in April : $45

Source: World Smile Corporation (Worcester, Mass.)

Estimated amount Tiger Woods's caddie made last year : $1,000,000

Source: Harper's research

Price of "Invisible Jim," an empty doll-shaped package, from a U.S. toy manufacturer : $3

Source: Big Fun Toys (N.Y.C.)

Price of a pair of stonewashed, sanded, hand-torn jeans from an Italian designer : $2,222

Source: Dolce & Gabbana (Milan)

Price paid at auction in May for a sculpture of Pope John Paul II being struck by a meteorite : $800,000

Source: Christie's (Boston)

Figures cited have been adjusted for inflation and are the latest available as of June 2001.
"Harper’s Index" is a registered trademark.