Climate 411

Today we’re launching a resource for people who want to enter the green job market. Our new Green Jobs Guidebook is a first of its kind, addressing everything from where to get training, to where to find good-paying jobs that help the environment. The guide focuses on California, but much of the information is applicable anywhere in the country.

I co-authored the guide with California Green Jobs Associate Amy Pasciucco. Together we painstakingly researched green employment opportunities and expected salaries, compiled growth projections, and identified the experience and education levels required by employers.

And we didn’t stop there.

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Former President Bill Clinton gave an interesting analysis last night on the Late Show with David Letterman of how we got into our current economic mess. It all started at the beginning of the decade with lots of money to invest and no place to invest it. (For more on this, listen to the excellent report from This American Life on "The Giant Pool of Money".) Since most of the economic activity at this time was in real estate, investment bankers invented something called "mortgage-backed securities". This worked well and they wanted more, so lenders started giving mortgages to people with no ability to repay them – leading to the current mess.

We could have avoided this problem, Clinton said, if government had provided incentives for investment in the next big thing – clean energy.

EDF’s position is that the green economy is our best hope for the future. The incentive we need to make this happen is a cap on global warming pollution.

This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

A month ago, July unemployment, at 5.7 percent, was the highest in four years. The August numbers just came in, and they’re even worse – 6.1 percent unemployment, the highest in five years.

But as I wrote last month, there is a solution: the green economy. Jobs related to new energy technologies are the one area of the market that is growing, and at a rapid pace.

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This post is by Nat Keohane, Ph.D., director of economic policy and analysis at Environmental Defense Fund.

When our media team opened up this morning’s Washington Post, they were delighted to see that Environmental Defense Fund was featured in an article about high energy prices and the connection to climate policy. Delighted, that is, until they read the article – which badly misrepresents our views.

Discussing the potential for perverse incentives from high gas prices in the absence of a cap on carbon, the reporter wrote:

The way to fix that would be a carbon tax or some other mechanism that would reflect the environmental cost of greenhouse gas emissions, Keohane said.

Those of you familiar with climate policy might have just spit out your coffee. EDF calling for a carbon tax? What gives?

In fact, I said nothing of the sort.

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This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

The employment situation in the U.S. is grim. July marked seven straight months of job losses, with no sign of improvement. The July jobless rate of 5.7 percent was the highest in over four years, with 51,000 jobs lost. (As a writer, I can’t help but note that the situation for journalists is especially grim – dubbed the "Midsummer Massacre".)

One bright spot in this generally depressing picture is the green economy. This encompasses much more than employment at renewable energy firms; there’s a whole supply chain that benefits, as well. But even when you consider only the renewable energy jobs, the surge is impressive – especially given the context.

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