The report, prepared by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the Earth Institute at Columbia University, showed Syria, Afghanistan and eight sub-Saharan countries as the 10 least happy places on earth to live. The top 10 this year were Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Finland, Canada, Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia, and Sweden. Denmark was in third place last year, behind Switzerland and Iceland. The bottom 10 were Madagascar, Tanzania, Liberia, Guinea, Rwanda, Benin, Afghanistan, Togo, Syria and Burundi. The United States came in at 13, the United Kingdom at 23, France at 32, and Italy at 50. Here: #8. NEW ZEALAND: A woman dives from a platform into a giant air bed at a park in Palmerston North September 29, 2011. (Photo by Marcos Brindicci/Reuters)

Tourists enjoy blooming cherry blossoms at China Pharmaceutical University on March 22, 2021 in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province of China. (Photo by Yang Bo/China News Service via Getty Images)

“Cassowaries are large, flightless birds related to emus and (more distantly) to ostriches, rheas, and kiwis”, writes Olivia Judson in the September issue of National Geographic magazine. How large? People-size: Adult males stand well over five foot five and top 110 pounds. Females are even taller, and can weigh more than 160 pounds. Dangerous when roused, they’re shy and peaceable when left alone. But even birds this big and tough are prey to habitat loss. The dense New Guinea and Australia rain forests where they live have dwindled. Today cassowaries might number 1,500 to 2,000. And because they help shape those same forests – by moving seeds from one place to another – “if they vanish”, Judson writes, “the structure of the forest would gradually change” too. (Photo by Christian Ziegler/National Geographic)

New electric cars for sale are seen parked at a distribution center of the Changan automobile company in southwestern China's Chongqing municipality on March 24, 2024. (Photo by AFP Photo/China Stringer Network)

A resident (unseen) uses a belt to get vegetables in Wuhan, in China's central Hubei province on March 13, 2020. China reported just eight cases of the coronavirus on March 13, with no new domestic infections outside the epicentre of Hubei province. (Photo by AFP Photo/China Stringer Network)

Women sells vegetables at Kaporo market in Conakry, Guinea Monday, September 13, 2021. (Photo by Sunday Alamba/AP Photo)

Giant panda Shuixiu's two babies are pictured at their room in Shenshuping base of China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda on November 3, 2021 in Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province of China. (Photo by An Yuan/China News Service via Getty Images)