Meg Appleby's carbon footprint: government

1. Overview
2. Government

• -2.24 tons

  Forests

  The forests component of your footprint covers emissions removed from the atmosphere by forests. We're working on letting you add forested land to your profile—for now we credit all Americans with an equal share of the total emissions removed by all the forests growing on US soil.

• 2.65 tons

  Services

  The services component of your footprint covers emissions from public services. It includes emissions from all the government services that US citizens benefit from and are responsible for—everything from schools and streetlights to the IRS and Air Force. Each of us bears a slice of responsibility for these public goods, so we assign all Americans an equal share of the total emissions from government services.