Infographic: United States of the Environment
We can't all have the most organic farms or the lowest air pollution, but every U.S. state is No. 1 in some environmental or public health category ... and No. 50 in another. Here's a look at each state's strengths and weaknesses.

By:

Russell McLendon
Mon, Apr 04 2011 at 1:15 PM
 321
In the spirit of two recent infographics that listed the best and worst of all 50 states — the United States of Awesome and the United States of Shame — MNN is taking another look, this time revealing how each state shines and suffers in regard to science, nature, public health or social justice. Check out the maps below, and for more info (or to be reminded which state is which) see the list of states, stats and sources.
 
 

Click here to learn more about each state's superlatives

 
Sources for "good U.S." map:
 
Sources for "bad U.S." map:
 
 
Also on MNN:

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anonymous
Sarah Dorrance-Minch May 07 2011 at 1:34 PM
I am autistic. So is my husband. So are our four children. So are his relatives. So are a couple of my relatives. This is not a disaster, ecological or otherwise, and I find it deeply offensive that autism in Minnesota and Ohio is lumped in with the cancer that is apparently rampant in New England, and the asthma in New York. We're different, not diseased. And the apparent rise in autism is probably due to better diagnosis, not to environmental factors somehow making autism a new "epidemic." Don't
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go all David Kirby on us.
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anonymous
David Kerby May 10 2011 at 6:11 PM

DERP!

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anonymous
Guest May 06 2011 at 7:44 PM

Autism isn't environment related. It's like saying...you're state is bad because a high percentage of population has down's sydrome, or dyslexia or some other developmental disorder.
The exact cause or causes is/are still unknown but research shows that genetic factors are important.

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anonymous
Jo May 09 2011 at 8:07 PM

Research also claimed that fake breasts were safe until they started breaking open inside of people.

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anonymous
tobi May 06 2011 at 10:42 AM

oh c'mon Delaware has the fewest national parks? really?

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anonymous
jennifer May 10 2011 at 11:43 AM

Yeah that's weird. I know for a fact that Louisiana only has one.

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anonymous
MI May 02 2011 at 7:59 PM

If it's floating in Lake Superior somewhere, I'm going to paddle a raft over and claim it for myself. I'm warning you now so that you have time to come up with another title of environmental excellence.

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anonymous
Fl May 02 2011 at 8:09 PM

I didn't think anyone would miss it....

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anonymous
Ug May 02 2011 at 8:55 PM

How can you be so heartless and ignorant? Of course it'd be missed! People live there and it's an important part of Michigan's water poking-into-ness.

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anonymous
MI May 02 2011 at 8:54 PM

Well, you'd better do a little more thinking next time. Now all those Keweenaw snowbirds and tourists aren't going to have a summer home anymore, so you'll have to keep them year-round.

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anonymous
Fl May 02 2011 at 8:57 PM

Naw, they'd all burn to cinders in the sun after a little while. Fanny packs only protect from a certain amount of sun, you know.

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anonymous
paradigm shift May 02 2011 at 7:08 AM
this reminds me of the funny license plates of all fifty states: i.e IDAHO: we're more than just potatoes, ok, we're not, but they sure are some good potatoes..... what does clean teeth or high ranking 4th graders have to do with saving planet? at all??? we WILL all be dead but most will probably die indirectly and prematurely in the US from coal and fossil fuel.......git r dun. electric rates are next to skyrocket after oil and food as everybody in mcmansion has to turn up A/C at peak time due to
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repeat of last years' RECORD month long global heat wave... we are literally almost at the end NOW..not in grandkids' time...but NOW.
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anonymous
Saxamaphone1 Apr 30 2011 at 1:31 PM

Colorado has the most avalanche deaths... gosh I thought it'd be Florida for sure.

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anonymous
PaGeXIII May 09 2011 at 6:26 PM

No kidding, LOL.
But seriously, the avalanches are just a conspiracy to thin out the herd of Californians that are trying to push their socialist agenda on us.

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anonymous
tabs Apr 29 2011 at 4:58 PM

D.C. doesn't get any love on this map :(

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anonymous
clint May 09 2011 at 4:20 PM

Yeah, but that's probably just because DC isn't a state. I'm surprised you were even able to mention it, seeing as how DC doesn't have representation in congress. :)

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anonymous
Travis Motte Apr 29 2011 at 3:02 PM
This map is the nexus of obtuse, unconsidered cartography and the recent explosion of slapdash, inch-deep "infographic" horseshit cruft. Both forms can be transcendent when done well, and can be just painful when done poorly. The only difference between this and a table of "random, semi-interesting, unsourced factoids" is the graphic depiction of spatial characteristics -- which in this case adds nothing and in itself is visualized fairly poorly. This looks like it was done by a well-meaning but
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short-sighted third-grade social-studies teacher (and its summoning a whole host of disappointment issues that I still have lingering from my early geographic education); when done by the misguided for consumption by children it's, well, forgivable... when done by content-factories for clicks it's sort of an insidious type of cynical perversion of a form I'm quite attached to. Not to shit on the link, though, and thanks for sharing it. (We do have a lot of ozarks, though... no doubting that. Never counted them, but I bet it's at least... one.)
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anonymous
L May 03 2011 at 11:48 PM

Haha!

I had a good laugh at the Ozark mention too.

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anonymous
name-required Apr 29 2011 at 11:55 AM

Texas leads the country in cancer risk from hazardous air pollutants and its air is by far the dirtiest. And when we look at the pollution per capita, Texas is one of the, if not the most polluted places in the world.

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anonymous
Justin May 10 2011 at 10:02 AM
Wow Fat Chick, er I mean FACT CHECK, you sure are Factual. Where do you get your factual information? According to your OPINION I need to throw my wife and kids into a Prius and get out of this place before my skin dissolves! Have you ever been to Texas, or do you get your fact based information from the Huffington Post? You could add your facts to the chart above and ALL of the North East states with high cancer RATES (which are based on FACTS with cited verifiable sources) would be superseded
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by "dirtiest and most polluted places in the world" aka.. (according to Fat Chick)....Texas. JUSTIN from TEXAS
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anonymous
Mary-Lou Apr 29 2011 at 10:51 AM

Get a life--can`t you just relax and go with the flow, enjoy what life you have left.

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anonymous
hater 1 Apr 30 2011 at 8:55 AM

"haters" isn't possessive in this context.. lose the apostrophe

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anonymous
Ap O'Strophe May 01 2011 at 9:48 AM

The tragedy here is that it's not even an apostrophe - it's that backwards-apostrophe thing (`).

And don't even get me started on the whole slash-backslash thing.

Also, TIL: don't criticize anything, ever, because eventually, you'll be dead.

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anonymous
trev Apr 29 2011 at 4:29 AM

most ozarks lol, can't stop laughing

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anonymous
Savanah Apr 28 2011 at 2:33 PM

I like how Illinois has "Most Nuclear Power" then "Most Toxic Waste Accidents" and Iowa has "Most Organic Hogs" and "Most Hog Waste"....DUH. xD

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