{"id":27309,"date":"2011-12-28T19:41:12","date_gmt":"2011-12-29T00:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetsave.com\/?p=27309"},"modified":"2011-12-28T19:41:12","modified_gmt":"2011-12-29T00:41:12","slug":"green-not-so-green-news-of-the-year-2011-top-10-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/articles\/green-not-so-green-news-of-the-year-2011-top-10-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Green (& Not So Green) News of the Year (2011 Top 10 List)"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
2011 was a big year for the environment, in some good ways and some bad ways. Here’s a quick run-down of the top 10 stories of the year, in my opinion:<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n 1. Tremendously high levels of\u00a0carbon emissions continue to warm Earth.<\/strong> Despite efforts to switch to clean energy, increase energy efficiency, and use more sustainable transportation, rapid economic growth in China and other countries coupled with weak efforts to cut staggering per capita emissions in world-leading countries like the U.S. leave us in a worse off situation year after year. The costs of taking climate action necessary to avert tremendous societal catastrophe rise as we delay strong climate action.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n 2. Activists come alive — shut down Keystone XL pipeline; join in Occupy movement.<\/strong> With the increasing urgency of the matter, and governmental and citizen inaction, those most informed on the matter are turning to their last resort, strong direct action<\/a>. The biggest green activism story of the year was clearly the blocking of a shoe-in climate disaster, the Keystone XL oil pipeline from the tar sands of Canada to the Gulf of Mexico coast. Over 1,000 activists were arrested in front of the White House over the course of weeks in the summer for protesting the pipeline, and over 10,000 circled the White House<\/a> in November to oppose \u201cthe fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the planet.\u201d This green activist spirit also made up a significant part of the Occupy<\/a> protests happening around the U.S. and around the world. Continuing on with this direct action movement, and making it stronger and stronger, seems to be our last resort for address climate change now, before we are out of time.<\/p>\n