Optimists in Kiev said the situation had worsened largely because the political class was jockeying before the presidential election, and they pointed out that the country's leaders had always found a way to pull back from the brink.
Oyster overharvesting in the bay after the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which largely missed this area, worsened the situation, as did persistent drought.
Largely because of worsening air quality, Russia has plummeted in the rankings to 106th out of 132.
They rationalized high valuations away by invoking the decoupling argument, which said emerging-market growth would be largely unaffected by worsening conditions elsewhere.
And, for the fourth consecutive year, the United States fell in the rankings — largely because of worsening criticism of the American government — and is now in seventh place.
Using the same cool-minded brinkmanship for which he has become known since his previously minor leftist party, Syriza, emerged from May 6 elections with enough votes to win a mandate to form a government, Mr. Tsipras sought to turn the tables on Europe's leadership, which he largely blames for worsening his country's economic troubles.
Cardiologists and psychiatrists alike agreed his chest pain was largely related to worsening anxiety and depression.
The loophole is wide enough to undermine the whole effort to reform a part of the financial market -- those derivatives traded between financial firms, like AIG, outside of any government oversight -- that's largely blamed for worsening the financial crisis.
The excess mortality in the dronedarone group was largely due to worsening HF (10 dronedarone, two placebo).
As productivity fell and firms' prospects worsened, wages were largely cut or capped.
Mr. Wahid had already handed certain responsibilities to his vice president -- including management of separatist and sectarian violence in Irian Jaya and the Maluku islands -- but she had been largely passive as those crises worsened, he noted.
