This document is designed to give the reader an overview of national environmental quality in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Mexico. While the indicators include many local or regional environmental issues, such as the air quality of selected cities, the goal of this study is to provide a big picture of general environmental trends in these countries.

Objectives of the study

This document is designed to give the reader an overview of national environmental quality in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Mexico. While the indicators include many local or regional environmental issues, such as the air quality of selected cities, the goal of this study is to provide a big picture of general environmental trends in these countries.

This report does not attempt to develop indicators for global controversies such as tropical rainforest deforestation, climate change, and bio-diversity.

Much of the data in this report comes from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Environmental Data Compendium 1997. Where OECD survey results were unavailable, data were supplemented by information from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Environment Canada, the Department of Environment Transport Regions (DETR) in the United Kingdom or other official government sources.

The indicators are divided into primary and secondary categories. Within each category, there are several subsections. Primary environmental indicators include information about air quality, water quality, natural resources, land use and condition, and solid wastes. These indicators provide direct information about environmental quality. The secondary indicators include often cited environmental measures such as carbon-dioxide emissions, oil spills, numbers of wildlife species, use of pesticides, and toxic releases. These indicators are considered secondary since they provide only indirect information about environmental quality.