9 Incredibly Important Things That Happened In 2013 That Most People Aren’t Talking About

[progressoid]

9 Incredibly Important Things That Happened In 2013 That Most People Aren’t Talking About

2. The Tea Party became a major advocate for solar energy.

In Georgia, the Tea Party has teamed up with clean energy advocates to bring more solar energy to the state, over the objections of utility giant Southern Co. Tea Party, advocates are motivated not by reducing carbon emissions but by adding more competition to the energy market and reducing prices. Still, the atypical coalition could be a game-changer as renewable producers seek access to energy markets.

...


5. More people died in America from suicide than car accidents.

While mass shootings frequently land on the front page, many more people die of suicide each year. Data released in this year, covering 2010, found that for the first time more people died from suicide (38,364) than car crashes (33,687). While suicide is frequently associated with teenagers and the elderly, the growth has been fueled by “middle-aged Americans.” Experts speculate the rise might be attributable to middle-aged people “coping with the stress of caring for aging parents while still providing financial and emotional support to adult children.”

...

8. Vaccine conspiracy theories created localized epidemics of deadly, previously eradicated diseases.

In one Texas town a measles outbreak was traced to a mega-church pastor who preached against vaccines. Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, more 1,200 people contracted measles. The outbreak was traced to “the country’s extensive Bible Belt where the majority of fundamentalist Protestants do not believe in having their children vaccinated.”

more...http://thinkprogress.org/media/2013/12/19/3088881/9-incredibly-important-things-that-happened-in-2013-that-most-people-arent-talking-about/#

[Egalitarian Thug]

1. K&R Two more incredibly Important and almost universally ignored...

3. American cities criminalized homelessness.
(at least the tenth year in a row this has been ignored)

4. Thousands of people who worked their entire lives had their pensions stolen.
(Over half a century of this one. Maybe now that more of the comfortable are the victims, this will get some notice)

[hfojvt]

2. on the plus side

deaths from car crashes are WAY down.

"According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) early projections, the number of traffic fatalities fell three percent between 2009 and 2010, from 33,808 to 32,788. Since 2005, fatalities have dropped 25 percent, from a total of 43,510 fatalities in 2005. The same estimates also project that the fatality rate will be the lowest recorded since 1949, with 1.09 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, down from the 1.13 fatality rate for 2009. The decrease in fatalities for 2010 occurred despite an estimated increase of nearly 21 billion miles in national vehicle miles traveled."

That's sorta the other side of that "more suicide than car accident deaths".

[oldandhappy]

3. Thank you.

We get glimpses of these stories but never featured. Thank you. The suicide thing is awful. Well, most are awful, but I responded to that one.

[indepat]

4. When we would visit my grandparents in the late 30s, I always played with a boy of my age who lived

near-by. He was one of seven people who died in 1940 during a diphtheria outbreak in that isolated rural community: his mother had not made him get the vaccination because he was afraid the shot would hurt. And 73 years later, I still wonder if he would be alive today had he gotten that vaccination.

[Scurrilous]

5. K & R