For the first time in five years, the United States has been dethroned from top spot in clean energy investment. The surprise, though, is which country beat us… China!
- A magical green land.
China managed to shrug off the fat green target on its back and surpass us in clean energy investment by nearly twofold. Chinese investment was $34.6 billion last year, which is more than a 50% increase from the previous year. America, with a GDP almost twice that of China’s, scraped up a paltry $18.6 billion.
This probably has something to do with our prioritization of energy production over protecting the environment for the first time ever, as charted by a recent Gallup poll.
For the past three years, public opinion has been less and less concerned with the environment and more concerned with energy production; opinion converged in March of last year, with the environment ahead by one frail percentage point. This year’s data put energy production ahead by seven percent.
But what are the implications? Obama’s recent announcement regarding new offshore drilling initiatives stems from this very data, and it likely won’t be the last that prioritizes energy production over the environment. And considering the two oil spills leaking 19,870 gallons of crude oil into the ocean just this week, threatening hundreds of miles of coastal wildlife, this is maybe not such a good thing.
Way to go, America… We finally have a president who listens to us, and we tell him we want to kill dolphins.