What’s Up, Earth?

It’s been quite a year for the environment. There’s been good … bad … and really bad… Check out our list of some of the top local, national and international environmental happenings of 2019.

Emissions and fossil fuel use continue to skyrocket, leading to ever greater disasters. Greta Thunberg, Sunrise, and Extinction Rebellion and the young continue to lead the resistance. Climate strikes and boycotts of polluters are sprouting up everywhere. Climate justice and a just transition is becoming the central theme of the resistance.

Deforestation continues everywhere, worsening in places with little democracy and a history of genocide against the Indigenous. The murder of forest protectors increases while all over the world people are coming to realize we must protect the forest and the people who live there.

The extinction catastrophe and insect apocalypse (400,000 species fact extinction) are becoming ever greater threats to our planet’s ecosystem.

There is more plastic in the oceans, but more and more places, including cities in Rhode Island, are banning more and more kinds of plastic.

In 2019, the governor and the Rhode Island General Assembly did absolutely nothing to improve the health of the environment and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

The people stopped Invenergy from building a fracked gas power plant in Burrillville. Solar Farms are destroying forests in RI, but solar and wind are providing greater amounts of energy, and new investment and new jobs in green energy exceed that of investment in fossil fuels.

Joe Paolino’s plan to kick bus riders and the poor out of Kennedy Plaza and the DOT’s efforts to steal money from bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure are incredibly stupid and short-sighted. Resistance to the misguided plans is powerful.