Americans finish 14th — out of 14 — in a new survey of consumers' progress toward making sustainable choices in their daily lives.

The Greendex survey, which talked to 14,000 consumers, calls itself the first to assess consumers' actions, rather than nations'. It was commissioned by National Geographic and conducted by the international polling company GlobeScan. Results were weighted toward the choices consumers actively make, but included those influenced by climate or the availability of green choices.

Consumers in Brazil and India ranked highest, followed by other less wealthy countries China, Mexico, and Hungary. After Americans, the lowest scores went to Canadians and the French, which seems to suggest quite clearly — or perhaps to confirm the obvious — that affluent people are less careful about how they spend their money.

In these instances, that might mean that, for example, people are more likely to choose where they live based on where they most often need to be, instead of living far from where they work, because it's nicer, or there's more space, or whatever. That might also mean that they live in less space. Richer people, meanwhile, have more cars, and drive in them alone more often.

I hadn't previously thought of it, but I see this as a parallel to this recent post about SUV owners bailing out of their cars, even if they have to eat some of the remaining payments. (That Globe story, btw, ran in a package with a story about the steep rise public transit ridership, also brought on by the spike in gas prices.) People who don't choose environmentally sound choices based on principle will do so based on economic necessity.

Bring on the carbon tax!