2010 year in review

It is that time of year again to take a look back at what happened and who was effected most by what. Unfortunately much of what happened in 2010 will be repeated in the future.

Deciding on what story is the headline for 2010 is actually fairly easy. The front page goes to climate change. It seems more people have experienced some effects of climate change this year than any other year. In very rough numbers 50% of the global population has experienced some effects from flooding to price spikes of essentials. Between $220 Billion and $ $230 Billion has been spent to recover this year draining coffers and giving reluctant governments the first big taste of the pound of cure.

Story #2 goes to WikiLeaks. As this saga continues to unfold we see the US government doing its best to seem like it is doing nothing because it goes against the founding principals of the country, and at the same time mounting an aggressive attack trying to put a lid on the leaks.

Story #3 is all about nuts with nukes. Between North Korea, Iran, and a few other countries, the people who are mentally unstable with the most powerful weapon known to man is most certainly a news item.

Story #4 goes to the Haiti earthquake that killed many more people than it should have. 230,000 people died mostly because of poor construction work that would have toppled with an earthquake with half the strength of a 7.0.

Story #5 we can not talk about or we will be listed on page 5 million on search engines again if we talk about it. So we can only say, fire, books, and small churches in Florida.

Story #6 goes to the shifting of the terrorist hub from Afghanistan to Yemen. The US is having some effect in their crusade in Afghanistan, and now news grabbing attacks are coming from Yemen that include toner cartridges filled with explosives along with a few others.

Story #7 goes to those body scanners that show all to the operator. The secondary story is even that the scans are shown in a way that provides some minimal level of dignity, Photoshop can undo all of that in just a few clicks.

Story #8 goes to the slow economy and the slow recovery. Once again this all comes back down to the price of oil eating up the money needed to stimulate the economy. Also the failure of politicians to acknowledge that simple fact. Perhaps that will be in one of the WikiLeaks cables.

Story #9 goes to discovery. Several new species have been discovered in the most remote parts of the planet (being far from humans) and some species thought to be extinct have been found in very limited numbers (far from humans) and extremely endangered.

Story #10 goes to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The effects of that spill will be felt for decades to come.

Story #11 goes to self serving people with power. The desire to increase the gap between the classes by lack of education to the masses is seen in many countries around the planet, and each time we see that we somehow feel a bit more diminished as a species.

Story #12 must clearly go to the Chinese government’s very public meltdown. When the world’s most prestigious award the Nobel Peace prize was issued to someone they had in jail for the very same reason, it was a very sad display as they resisted the notion that they were too wrapped up in themselves and lost track of what direction the rest of the world was moving.

2011 lies ahead and we can only hope for a good year, but based on the trend of dots, expect it to be about the same or worse.


One Response to 2010 year in review

  1. You missed some of the most important news:

    Story 13- Chilean miners saved

    Story 14- The upcoming Sovereign debt crisis. Papering over losses and ignoring debt will come back to bite, and hard. Just as you can’t become sober by drinking more, you cannot get your way out of a debt problem by spending more.

    -Jeff