The smog in Los Angeles was so bad in the 1960s that people sometimes kept their children home from school. Littering in America became such a serious problem that, in the early 1970s, people saw anti-littering ads on television
While dirty air and the littering problem may have improved modestly in the United States, the issue of the environment worldwide has become one of the most serious problems facing humankind. Last year was one of the hottest on record worldwide, tying 2016. And scientists believe the problem will worsen. Global warming will make certain parts of the world uninhabitable, either because of temperatures or flooding caused by rising oceans.
America has been trying “green” solutions to help the environment, but fitfully. More people own electric cars each year. Some people recycle. Solar panels on homes have been installed with greater frequency.
Eachnight looked at how green each state is. It ranked states by several yardsticks to pick the best. These included air quality, water quality and renewable energy. Specifically, the list was comprised of an index based on “air quality, water quality, soil quality, motor gasoline consumption in barrel, and renewable energy consumption.”
Study author Jasmin Lee commented: “It’s fascinating to assess the data on how green each state is and see the considerable variation in factors such as renewable energy usage and gasoline consumption across each state.”
The greenest state, based on the index, was Oregon. It ranked particularly high on renewable energy, with about 46% of the state’s energy comes from that source. Oregon received an index score of 37.76.
Washington, Hawaii and Maine followed (see below). In last place, Delaware had a score of 15.85.
These are the 20 greenest states:
- Oregon (37.76)
- Washington (37.09)
- Hawaii (36.08)
- Maine (32.39)
- Vermont (30.08)
- South Dakota (29.88)
- Montana (28.76)
- Iowa (27.21)
- Idaho (26.83)
- Alabama (25.33)
- Ohio (25.23)
- North Dakota (24.75)
- New Hampshire (24.65)
- Nebraska (23.96)
- New York (23.69)
- Alaska (23.58)
- California (23.51)
- Minnesota (23.22)
- Oklahoma (22.41)
- South Carolina (22.30)
Click here to see 30 easy ways to be more environmentally friendly.
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