The Good, the Bad, the Ugly: 10 Climate Records Broken in the Past Year

11th January 2018

beautiful-world-scary-world-779x400.jpg (caring dairy picket)

You know us: we like our ice cream and our polar ice caps frozen. Our ice cream’s doing fine…but let’s just say that we’re getting worried about the ice caps. Yes, any way you look at it, it’s been a big year for the climate—a lot of records were broken, both good and bad. Are you ready for a quick review? Let’s go…

 

The Good . . .

  • 1. Lots And Lots of Jobs

    Jobs in renewable energy have been growing at a record pace—they now outnumber fossil fuel jobs in all but nine states. Solar and wind employment is growing fast!

  • 2. Ramping Up Capacity

    It was reported this year that global renewable energy production capacity reached its highest point ever in 2016, as costs continued to decline.

  • 3. The Future Looks Bright

    In March, for the first time ever in the US, wind and solar accounted for 10% of all energy generation. Wanna guess which state produces the most power, in terms of sheer quantity, from renewable energy? Texas.

  • 4. Europe a Shining Example

    Meanwhile, in Europe, Germany broke a record of its own, with renewables generating 35% of all its power in the first half of 2017 (up from 33% last year).



The Bad. . .



The Ugly. . .

  • 8. A Troubling Trend

    We were feeling pretty good about things when global carbon emissions stayed flat for three years. But sadly, and alarmingly, they are now rising again. Why? Blame the use of coal in China and increased pollution from developing countries.

  • 10. The Current Administration

    There’s no doubt about it: the decisions, proposals, and plans we’ve seen from the Trump administration and his climate-denying appointees have done, and will do, serious damage to the environment and the fight against climate change. A record-setting oil-and-gas-lease auction. Abandoning Obama’s Clean Power Plan. A general anti-science stance. The list goes on.

But we know that most of the world’s governments take the threat of climate change seriously. And we know that citizens and activists everywhere are standing together to demand change. We know that the world remains united (with one exception) behind the Paris Climate agreement.

Join the climate movement and let’s make sure that 2018 is a breakthrough year for all the right reasons. You can make a difference. We all can. Let’s start today.