Solar power may be the clean energy solution we're all waiting for, but only as long as it's constructed in an environmentally responsible manner. Five hundred protesters in China besieged a solar-panel manufacturing plant in the city of Haining, after it dumped massive amounts of fluoride into a nearby river, killing fish and livestock.

The company that owns the plant has 10,000 employees and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

“People have a growing awareness of the damage caused by environmental pollution and a growing sense of rights,” [said Ma Jun, the director of the nonprofit Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs in Beijing]. “There are an increasing number of cases that can be characterized as ‘not in my backyard.’”