Green Jobs Now Day of Action’s Perfect Timing
October 3rd, 2008 | Posted by WeCanSolveIt
Financial markets have been rocked with volatility these past few weeks, for some, a clear testament to the shaky ground the nation’s economy finds itself on. But despite this anxiety around our economic future, last weekend’s Green Jobs Now Day of Action galvanized people across the country with information and resources for creating a repowered economy through green jobs. The day’s message could not have come at a more perfect time.
In more than 650 events across all 50 states, hundreds of thousands of people came together to learn how jobs supported by an economy powered by clean, renewable energy can lift communities out of poverty and ensure a prosperous, sustainable future for all walks of life.
Flint, MI is ready for green jobs now
In Flint, MI, Kathy Sheller told us how the prospect of a “green collar” economy allowed people in her community to put aside political differences and find common ground on which to build optimism in a town that has been on a long downward slide.
“You can pretty easily tell where people stand politically around here,” she said. But added, “I was amazed to see how Green Jobs Now found a way to bring people from all sides of the political spectrum together around the idea of greening the economy.”
The Flint event, held at the weekend farmers market, highlighted local university sustainability programs and coursework in training for the green collar jobs aimed at turning around the sagging Flint economy.
In Chicago, Naomi Davis from Blacks in Green was deeply gratified to see so many people come together in the area on Chicago’s far south side where Democratic candidate for President Barack Obama began his community organizing career.
“This is an extremely isolated area. The people who live here are surrounded on all sides by toxicity, from landfills, to wastewater treatment facilities, to the Chicago river, that runs right through the community.” She described the hopefulness and the yearning on the faces of many who came from the areas’ Section 8 housing and its crumbling 1920s single-family housing when they learned more at last Saturday’s event. “I saw a level of excitement and optimism that I haven’t found in this community in many, many years,” she told us.
Training youth for green jobs in Los Angeles
In Los Angeles, Alli Starr told us that the National Day of Action rally on Wilshire Boulevard more than doubled last year’s turnout, showing that momentum is building across the nation for an inclusive green economy. “We need real solutions to the climate and economic crisis,” Starr says, “and repowering America with a green economy is a solution that promises long-term stability, and livability, for all of our communities.”
7 Responses to “Green Jobs Now Day of Action’s Perfect Timing”
Boycott ABC and their advertisers.
Here is a letter I sent to ABC on behalf of WeCanSolveIt.
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Because you will not run the WeCanSolveIt, Re-power America ad, my family will not watch ABC television or listen to ABC radio broadcast any longer. Consequently, we will not be seeing any of the advertisements ABC stations show. However, we will be writing to some of your advertisers to explain our position and actions to them.
Siding with the oil and coal industries will be a very costly decision for you.
You really should think about your grandchildren’s future, if not your bottom line.
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I am again going to ask how can you have an intellegent discussion on green jobs without a mention of Nuclear power.
When forced even Barrack acknowledges that we should be discussing this alternative. In the first debate he even acknowledged that he would reconsider his oposition to reprocessing of nuclear fuel.
We cannot meet our current and future energy needs on wind and solar alone.
Concerning nuclear power, it will keep adding to the energy overload on the globe to make the weather worse, bascially, Law of Conservation of Energy being invoked here. Five reports in the last year have been made on different catalysts to split water to get hydrogen using sunlight energy. One report is from China so it may become the clean energy leader, while we keep wasting megabucks on biofuels and increased engine efficiency. Windmills recycle that overload of energy on the globe so we should be taking advantage of that especially if we can get some of it remake coal as it were.
This can be done by using pyrolysis, how Kingsford makes charcoal, of organic wastes and separated fecal matter with added benefits, especially of destroying all germs, toxics and drugs stopping them from seeping out or getting flooded out from dumps. The costs of new dumps without those hazards in them would be 5-10% of many billions of $ now having to be spent to keep those hazards from getting away in present dumps. I have sent the Press at the Alliance an outline of how to set up the pyrolysis program, which also has added benefits of stopping those messes from biodegrading to reemit GHGs needlessly and of getting a chemical mixture for use in making drugs, cosmetics, etc. free of oil.
We need to wake up to the messes of organic wastes and sewage and fecal solids or we may soon be waking up to their stench as they are an ever-expanding problem that municipalities may soon not be able to fund properly in tight times. The sewage systems as presently run waste large amounts of water when the sewage water after some clean-up might serve for steam generation in power plants insuring that germs are destroyed, and boilers may have a usable residue built up that can be turned into fertilizer.
We have several more environmental crises besides global warming and clean energy looming large, but the process outlined here briefly could turn the problems of organic and fecal wastes into a major solution for several crises and develop real green jobs. I hope readers of this blog will call on the Alliance to look at the other environmental crises looming because as I point out we can get some control of several of them by developing the pyrolysis process.
Dr. J. Singmaster, Fremont, CA
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i think its great that people are so into green and being more environmentally friendly the earth needs out help
Conversations on nuclear power have taken place, but don’t deserve much more chatter until a solution to the disposal of their waste is proposed. Shifting to nuclear power would be a dangerous shift from one waste that we don’t know how to control or mediate (carbon dioxide), to another (nuclear waste).
Just remember, when humans began burning coal and putting gasoline in their cars, they had no idea of the extent of the damage that could be caused by the wastes produced. It is hard to speculate how the waste from one of the most volatile compounds could come back to haunt us in the future. We have no idea how to control or even contain nuclear waste, and have no idea what the long term affects of burying it underground could be. Let’s not dig ourselves a bigger grave whilst trying to solve the global climate and energy crisis.
Reply to this Comment
Megan, I don’t share your pessimism on our ability to develop a solution for nuclear waste or your unwillingness to discuss it. There are a lot of bright engineers in the world and we should encourge them to work on the problem.
Let me give everone an idea of what we are up against here in the USA.
In June, 2008 we generated 373 terawatthours (TWh) of electricity. The top five fuels used to generate this power were as follows:
Coal 171 TWh
Natural Gas 84 TWh
Nuclear 70 TWh
Hydro 30 TWh
Renewables 10 TWh
The Renewables breakdown like this
Wind 4.3 TWh
Burning Wood 3 TWh
Burning Waste (refuse) 1.5 TWh
Geothermal 1.3 TWh
Solar 0.1 TWh
Now let me ask again…. How can we replace Coal and Natural Gas (over 70% of our current plant capacity) with a renewable fuel source that currently provides less that 3% of our current plant capacity.
You can check these stats for yourself by going to http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/epm_sum.html