Surprising Truths

Recently, I've been reading a book by Gregg Easterbrook called "The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse". It's filled with facts that challenge our perceptions, and just for that reason, I'd recommend it. Many of us enjoy being a contrarian, but in this case reality backs Mr. Easterbrook up, and so I'm sure I'll be using a few of his points.
Did you know, for instance, that,

Environmental trends for Western Europe are also almost entirely positive, though Europe trails America in most categories of improvement. Despite the common perception that Europe is environmentally advanced compared to the United States, U.S. environmental rules are stricter than European Union rules--Paris has worse smog than Houston [who are the worst in the U.S.], for example, and the Mississippi is far cleaner than the Marne. Generally, Europe lags about ten years behind the United States in ecological cleanup...

Surprised?