Forbes

How green is your state? That can be a hard question to answer on your own. You're familiar with your neighborhood's recycling programs and maybe even your city's environmental efforts; but, what has your state done for the earth lately?

A recent article in Forbes might help answer that question. They've come up with a list, in pictures, of America's greenest (and least green) states.

According to the article, to get these results, Forbes ranked the states on a per-capita basis in six equally weighted categories: carbon footprint, air quality, water quality, hazardous waste management, policy initiatives and energy consumption, and they used data from the following sources: the American Lung Association's 2007 State of the Air Report, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy's energy efficiency scorecard, U.S. Green Building Council, the Energy Information Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Transportation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and the Sierra Club.

In other words, they were thorough.

We honestly didn't think we'd be surprised by the results; however, we kind of are. Take a look for yourself: Does your state fall about where you imagine it should in the rankings? Ours (California) sure doesn't!

Image via forbes.com