Wired News has the report of a new study from Purdue University that lists the top carbon footprint producing cities in the United States.
Oddly enough Phoenix is not on the list. But tiny Jim Thorpe, just north of Bethlehem PA where I lived before moving to Phoenix is on the list at number 12…
Who knew that my move to the 5th largest city in the US was going to play a significant role in my part of reducing my carbon footprint!
Here’s the list. Where’s your city?
- Harris, Texas (Houston), 18.625 million tons of carbon per year
- Los Angeles, Calif. (Los Angeles), 18.595
- Cook, Ill. (Chicago), 13.209
- Cuyahoga, Ohio (Cleveland), 11.144
- Wayne, Mich. (Detroit), 8.270
- San Juan, N.M. (Farmington), 8.245
- Santa Clara, Calif. (San Jose), 7.995
- Jefferson, Ala. (Birmingham), 7.951
- Wilcox, Ala. (Camden), 7.615
- East Baton Rouge, La. (Baton Rouge), 7.322
- Titus, Texas (Mt. Pleasant), 7.244
- Carbon, Pa. (Jim Thorpe), 6.534
- Porter, Ind. (Valparaiso), 6.331
- Jefferson, Ohio (Steubenville), 6.278
- Indiana, Pa. (Indiana), 6.224
- Middlesex, Mass. (Boston metro area), 6.198
- Bexar, Texas (San Antonio), 6.141
- Hillsborough, Fla. (Tampa), 6.037
- Suffolk, N.Y. (New York metro area), 6.030
- Clark, Nev. (Las Vegas) 5.955″
Read the rest here.
Phoenix isn’t on the list?! Is that possible? There’s so much urban sprawl and lack of mass transit here…huh. Strange!
I know – I was stunned as well to see that Phoenix didn’t make the list. Even more so when I saw that Jim Thorpe had. Jim Thorpe is a little town of maybe 10,000 people at the southern edge of the Poconos. I used to go hiking and biking up there every fall when the leaves were changing.
Apparently though the issue is that Phoenix has a very low level of manufacturing and/or power plant production facilities – the sort of thing that would be dumping huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. Jim Thorpe does have power facilities (for New York City primarily). And Houston is one giant chemical plant.