The United States ranks a measly No. 26 among the world’s nations when it comes to environmental performance. That’s according to a new report from researchers at Yale and Columbia, an annual ranking of how well countries protect both ecosystems and human health.

The U.S. falls in between Canada and the Czech Republic, and well below such world superpowers as Estonia, Malta, Luxembourg, and Latvia. Who is No. 1? One of those annoying Scandinavian countries, of course. Scandies took slots No. 3 and 4 too.

Help Grist raise $25,000 by September 30 to further advance our climate reporting

Is this what a certain unnamed presidential candidate who resembles an old orange covered in seagull hair means when he talks about the need to “make America great again”? I guess he’s right: We have some work to do.

Here are the issues and indicators the researchers assessed:

Grist thanks its sponsors. Become one.

And here are the top 30 countries:

  1. Finland
  2. Iceland
  3. Sweden
  4. Denmark
  5. Slovenia
  6. Spain
  7. Portugal
  8. Estonia
  9. Malta
  10. France
  11. New Zealand
  12. United Kingdom
  13. Australia
  14. Singapore
  15. Croatia
  16. Switzerland
  17. Norway
  18. Austria
  19. Ireland
  20. Luxemboug
  21. Greece
  22. Latvia
  23. Lithuania
  24. Slovakia
  25. Canada
  26. The United States of America
  27. Czech Republic
  28. Hungary
  29. Italy
  30. Germany