Working out on my oyster
boat this week, I've been slurping my catch and wondering what sort of
future lies ahead for those of us who work in industries already being
impacted by climate change.
Some like me will be the first to experience the negative effects: I
run a small organic oyster farm that faces extinction within the next
40 years because my oysters will not survive rising carbon emissions. Friends of mine are firefighters already facing hotter and more frequent wildfires.
LAS VEGAS, Nevada - Hosting his second
annual all-star gathering of clean energy proponents at University of
Nevada, Las Vegas on Monday, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of
Nevada called for "a new revolution ... a clean energy revolution" to
restore American prosperity and global leadership.
Comparing the National Clean Energy Summit 2.0 to the original
American Revolution, Reid told participants why the date of the
meeting, August 10, is important to him.
Van Jones may have one of the hottest assignments in the Obama
administration -- selling the notion of a new "green-collar" economy --
but in a country burdened with a 9.4 percent unemployment rate, it's
not easy.
WASHINGTON -- Van Jones defies environmentalist stereotypes. He's not the earthy-crunchy, Birkenstock-wearing type. Nor is he a contemporary and corporate version -- a hedge fund-fueled entrepreneur looking to make millions by building wind farms and solar-powered corporate headquarters.
"Oh these nights. My blessed bounty of dreams."
-- Luci Tapahonso, Blue Horses Rush In
The bounty of green job dreams is one step toward becoming a reality on the Dinetah-Navajo Nation. Thanks to the indefatigable work of the Navajo Green Economy Coalition and Navajo Nation Speaker Lawrence T. Morgan, among many others, the Navajo Nation Council voted to create the Navajo Green Economy Commission on July 21st.
Can the North Bay achieve a modern version of the New Deal to revive the region’s economy and promote a sustainable green future?
The obstacles are huge — and so are the imperatives. A massive recession is boosting unemployment, while severe pollution continues to fuel global warming. The need for a Green New Deal is greater than ever.
Create jobs. End the recession. Save the environment. What else can
transforming our fossil fuel economy to a clean energy economy do? How
about create unprecedented employment opportunities for women? Readers
of Linda Hirshman’s recent New York Times editorial may think
this is a dubious claim. She sparked a debate over the gender bias in
Obama’s stimulus plan by asking, “Where are the new jobs for women?”
She makes a good point. Transitioning to a clean-energy economy has the
makings of a decent jobs program.
Doug Pibel's interview with Van Jones
was conducted March 10, 2009, on the day Van was announced as special
advisor at the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
Doug Pibel: There were rumors over the weekend that you were going to Washington to become another Czar. What is the actual job title?
CALIFORNIA CITY, Calif. - One man in the classroom earned more than
$100,000 framing tract homes during the building heyday. Another
installed pools and piloted a backhoe. Behind him sat a young father
who made a good living swinging a hammer in southern Utah.
But
that was before construction jobs vanished like a fast-moving dust
storm in this blustery high desert. Hard times have brought them to a
classroom in Kern County, about 120 miles northeast of Los Angeles, to
learn a different trade. Tonight's lesson: how to avoid death and
dismemberment.
At the first Good Jobs, Green Jobs conference, held in Pittsburgh a year
ago, advocates of green energy bemoaned their inability to get a modest
renewable-energy tax credit through Congress over the opposition of the
Bush administration. The idea of addressing the economic, energy and
environmental crises through green jobs seemed a distant
vision. So did the idea that a labor-environment coalition around
green jobs could reach beyond the fringes of the two movements.
