Partha Gangopadhya and Mark Zreika 2015
GANGOPADHYAY-ZREIKA INDEX OF UNSUSTAINABILITY (GZIU)
In modern sciences sustainability is the capacity of a system to endure; in ecology “it is how biological systems remain diverse and productive indefinitely”. There are a plenty of examples: long-lived and healthy rainforests and healthy Great Barrier Reef represent sustainable biological systems. In more general terms, sustainability is the endurance of systems and processes. One of the major planks of sustainability is social sustainability: social sustainability is concerned with the durability of human society. Social sustainability calls forth peace, security and social justice for all within a system by curbing poverty, destitution, conflicts and violence. GZIU applies the face-recognition technology to devise an index of unsustainability to rank nations in terms of their threats to social sustainability. In Table 1, we provide the ranks and values of GZIU of the least unsustainable 20 nations. These are the nations that provide the best opportunity to social sustainability to mankind. In Table 2, we provide the ranks and values of GZIU of the most unsustainable 20 nations. These are the nations that pose the greatest threat to social sustainability and our collective efforts should pivot on global policies in reducing social unsustainability of these bottom 20 nations to make our globe more sustainable.
TABLE 1:
Top 20 Nations: In terms of G-Z Index of Unsustainability (Social)
| Nation | GZIU | Rank |
| Iceland | -2.074191362 | 1 |
| Switzerland | -1.883435832 | 2 |
| Denmark | -1.835121766 | 3 |
| Sweden | -1.812083053 | 4 |
| Finland | -1.789434325 | 5 |
| Norway | -1.76219768 | 6 |
| New Zealand | -1.701062535 | 7 |
| Canada | -1.633968373 | 8 |
| Singapore | -1.606350359 | 9 |
| Austria | -1.567926858 | 10 |
| Netherlands | -1.559559129 | 11 |
| Australia | -1.498479523 | 12 |
| United Kingdom | -1.336971406 | 13 |
| Germany | -1.272782061 | 14 |
| Ireland | -1.231050772 | 15 |
| United States | -1.178116269 | 16 |
| France | -1.175724113 | 17 |
| Qatar | -1.16427139 | 18 |
| Cyprus | -1.122996891 | 19 |
| Japan | -1.121321163 | 20 |
TABLE 2:
Bottom 20 Nations: In terms of G-Z Index of Unsustainability (Social)
| Nation | GZIU | Rank |
| Belarus | 0.872055263 | 133 |
| Niger | 0.910521173 | 134 |
| Cote D’Ivoire | 0.946805466 | 135 |
| Haiti | 0.959273746 | 136 |
| Myanmar | 0.962913383 | 137 |
| Pakistan | 0.980452259 | 138 |
| Libyan Arab Jamahiri | 1.111532163 | 139 |
| Chad | 1.159479412 | 140 |
| Sierra Leone | 1.179907191 | 141 |
| Equatorial Guinea | 1.183438373 | 142 |
| Turkmenistan | 1.193111828 | 143 |
| Mali | 1.233454501 | 144 |
| Congo, the Democratic | 1.260464666 | 145 |
| Zimbabwe | 1.265774504 | 146 |
| Nigeria | 1.322004945 | 147 |
| Korea, Democratic | 1.324458713 | 148 |
| Afghanistan | 1.341038997 | 149 |
| Somalia | 1.37019056 | 150 |
| Yemen | 1.431070157 | 151 |
| Sudan | 1.462011756 | 152 |
| Iraq | 1.574273636 | 153 |