April 22 is Earth Day, when people around the world will march, sign petitions, meet with their elected officials, plant trees and clean up their towns and roads.
Earth Day Network is hoping for 3 billion "acts of green" — plant a tree, stop using pesticides, eat less meat, etc. — by Earth Day's 50th anniversary in 2020.
But how are we doing now? Is Georgia a green state? According to the financial website Wallethub, Georgia has some work to do.
In order to "highlight the greenest states and call out those doing a poor job of caring for the environment," Wallethub recently analyzed all 50 states across three key dimensions: environmental quality, eco-friendly behaviors and climate change contributions.
Those three dimensions were evaluated using 27 relevant metrics, including air quality, green buildings, daily water consumption, methane emissions and more. Each state’s scores were added up, with 100 points possible.
At the top of the chart was Vermont, with a score of 76.35. Vermont was No. 1 for environmental quality, No. 3 for eco-friendly behaviors and No. 25 for climate change contributions.
Rounding out the top five were New York, 75.49; Oregon, 75.24; Connecticut, 73.89; and Minnesota, 73.13.
Georgia finished No. 30, with a score of 53.89. Georgia ranked No. 20 for environmental quality, No. 41 for eco-friendly behaviors and No. 26 for climate change contributions.
Only one Southern state made it into the top half. North Carolina was No. 20, with a score of 60.32.
In fact, seven of the bottom 10 states are in the South.
41. Texas: 46.67
42. Oklahoma: 42.80
43. Mississippi: 42.69
44. Arkansas: 40.09
45. Alabama: 39.99
46. North Dakota: 37.90
47. Wyoming: 36.91
48. Kentucky: 32.23
49. West Virginia: 28.77
50. Louisiana: 23.96
