Image credit: Jack Dempsey and NREL/DOE

Written by Renee Cho and published on May 10, 2009, at SolveClimate.

Green jobs go far beyond the hands-on renewable energy and energy efficiency work that the Obama administration emphasizes with each new project and grant announcement.

To deal with the effects of climate change, jobs will be springing up across the spectrum of research and development, fueled by billions of dollars in Department of Energy grants and scientific funding provided by the economic recovery program and proposed through the Markey-Waxman bill’s National Climate Change Adaptation Program and Fund.

As Energy Secretary Steven Chu likes to say, borrowing from hockey great Wayne Gretzky:

“The United States should skate to where the puck is going to be.”

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Basically, a new product line from big company Oilily looks suspiciously similar, from fabric to shape to the smallest facial features, to an old product line that independent small crafter Rosa Pomar has been lovingly producing on her own for years.

The photo to the left is from the Oilily Summer of Love baby girl layette. The doll shown here is shockingly identical to the beautiful dolls that Pomar has been creating for years–see here for examples of her dolls from 2007.

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The Chinese coal industry is known for its lucrative returns: the China Shenhua Energy Co. gained 65% from July to September, and many investors claim they can’t afford not to be in China. In fact, 20% of Shenhua’s stock is held by U.S. investors — one of whom is the Teachers Retirement System of Texas.

But China’s coal is also a huge polluter. According to the New York Times, China uses more coal than the US, the EU, and Japan combined, contributing an enormous amount of CO2 to the atmosphere. Coal-fired plants emit more than 60 different hazardous air pollutants. The large amounts of sulfur dioxide produced by Chinese coal cause acid rain, which pollutes water sources. But because of China’s rapidly advancing economy, the country needs energy — fast and cheap. Coal-fired plants are much cheaper and quicker to build than natural gas, nuclear, or hydroelectric plants, and it’s widely available.

China’s booming coal industry is also harmful to its citizens, producing so much sulfur dioxide that the World Bank estimated 400,000 premature deaths happen each year due to pollution-related illnesses. Not only that, but as much as 40% of air pollution in South Korea and Japan is believed to originate in China, and many experts believe that pollution from China is reaching the western part of the United States.

Do Texas teachers know where their pensions are coming from? For that matter, are other teacher retirement systems investing in Chinese Big Coal? I checked out Missouri’s Public School Retirement System, in which my husband and I have each invested. With my little financial knowledge, I was able to determine that PSRS has invested with Merrill Lynch, which is a shareholder in Shenhua. Just how much of my money is in coal remains to be seen. Looks like it’s time to work towards divestment…

Source: Associated Press

Agriculture

Climate change will affect agriculture by altering growing seasons, changing rainfall patterns, and enabling new invasive species to flourish, all of which will eventually impact our food distribution.

Specialists in agronomy, pest and water management, and food distribution will be needed to map out the best ways to mitigate and acclimate to these changes.

Ecology

Climate change will have dramatic disruptive effects on our ecosystems, resulting in migrating tree species in our forests, loss of wetlands, expansion of the subtropics and accompanying droughts, ocean acidification, and changes in stream temperatures and flows, all of which will impact our plant and animal species.

The loss of habitat and the introduction of invasive species could change patterns of dominance and survival, and likely result in a loss of biodiversity. To understand the gestalt these changes will bring and manage them, we will need more conservationists and environmental scientists specializing in chemistry, biology, marine biology, aquatic biology, botany, forestry, soil, freshwater, wetlands, natural resources and ecology restoration.

Education

Arguably most important of all, there is and will continue to be a need for teachers trained in science, environment, ecology and sustainability to help the next generation learn to think about our world and their relationship to it in a sustainable way.

The good news is that more and more college students are already turning to studies geared towards climate change, environment, and sustainability on the undergraduate level.

The New York Times reported that 38 percent more students minored in environmental studies at Boston College this year than in 2003, and Iowa State University’s enrollment in environmental studies and environmental science jumped 50 percent between 2003 and 2008.

Because Fordham University also experienced a 50 percent increase in demand for environmental majors within the last five years, it established two new environmental majors in Environmental Science and Environmental Policy starting this fall.

Also beginning this fall, the University of Montana’s Climate Change Studies Program will offer one of the country’s first undergraduate degree programs devoted to global climate change.

Graduate programs in this area traditionally focused on either environmental sciences or environmental policy, but today

“We have to generate scientists who have an appreciation for the practical applications, and policy people who make policy based on sound science,” said Dr. Dibs Sarkar who established Montclair State University’s new Ph.D. program in Environmental Management in January.

Montclair State’s holistic program, which aims to bridge the gap between science and policy, integrates key elements of physical, chemical, biological, social and management practices into the study of natural and human environments.

Columbia University’s new 12-month Climate and Society Master’s degree claims to be the first program to integrate climate science with the impacts of climate effects on society. It incorporates aspects of earth sciences, earth engineering, international relations, political science, sociology, and economics with interdisciplinary and practical applications.

The combination of climate understanding with pragmatic skills will likely produce new professional niches. For example, last summer, Climate and Society alumna Arame Tall worked with the International Federation of the Red Cross in her native Senegal. Because she was able to forecast severe storms for the upcoming rainy season, Tall helped the IFRC raise money in advance and get disaster relief supplies in place before the heavy rain hit.

The new two-year Global Climate and Environmental Change Master of Science program at the University of California at Riverside, based on initial fieldwork in the Sierras, focuses on the interface between disciplines such as geology, chemistry and forestry because it has proven difficult to develop an accurate picture of climate change by knitting various scientific fields together with past, present and future climate systems.

The UC Riverside program will train students in the techniques of analyzing and theories of climate change to gather precise climate records, which are critical to making useful and accurate computer model predictions about climate change.

“In order for there to be jobs, we need to have a new understanding of what needs to be learned, studied and changed,” said Martin Kennedy, the program’s director.

Law schools, which have traditionally taught environmental law through existing laws, such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, and previous interpretations of them, are also beginning to focus on climate change with an eye on evolving regulations in government and the private sector.

Pace Law School’s new Climate Change track within its Master of Laws in Environmental Law program combines academics with practical experience.

The new Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School will work with government and the private sector to develop the framework to shape environmental regulations, and train future lawyers in climate change law.

Undergraduate and graduate climate change programs will no doubt multiply in years to come, especially if the Markey-Waxman bill’s provision for grants to universities to develop more programs in climate change mitigation makes it through Congress.

And as the Obama administration and Congress put together regulations and legislation to address climate change, the career opportunities, both domestic and global, can only increase.

See also:

Where are the Green Jobs?

Green Power’s Challenge: Willing Workers, Few Training Programs

Green Jobs Champion Hilda Solis Gets Secretary of Labor

A Norwegian company called Renewable Energy Corporation (REC) will build the complex, which will be completed in different stages to incorporate wafer, cell, and module production. REC already operates the world’s current largest solar plant in Norway, which produces about 650 megawatts of energy annually.

A solar manufacturing plant would be the first of its kind in Southeast Asia, and REC looked at 200 locations before settling on Singapore. A combination of tax incentives, grants, and a skilled workforce were some of the reasons REC liked it. Likewise, Singapore officials are thrilled about playing center stage in the world’s rush to clean technology. Ko Kheng Hwa of the Economic Development Board explained:

The project will be a ‘queen bee’ to attract a hive of solar activities to Singapore — big companies and young start-ups engaged in research and development, manufacturing and innovation, as well as the supplier ecosystem… This investment will be a tremendous boost to our national drive to develop the solar industry.

Once completed in 2010, the capacity of all the products the plant produces will generate up to 1.5 gigawatts (GW) of energy each year — that’s compared to the total global industry output of 2 GW in 2006. That large of an impact, combined with the 3,000 expected jobs, shines a new light on an emerging area of the world hungry for innovative and clean technology.

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Agriculture

Climate change will affect agriculture by altering growing seasons, changing rainfall patterns, and enabling new invasive species to flourish, all of which will eventually impact our food distribution.

Specialists in agronomy, pest and water management, and food distribution will be needed to map out the best ways to mitigate and acclimate to these changes.

Ecology

Climate change will have dramatic disruptive effects on our ecosystems, resulting in migrating tree species in our forests, loss of wetlands, expansion of the subtropics and accompanying droughts, ocean acidification, and changes in stream temperatures and flows, all of which will impact our plant and animal species.

The loss of habitat and the introduction of invasive species could change patterns of dominance and survival, and likely result in a loss of biodiversity. To understand the gestalt these changes will bring and manage them, we will need more conservationists and environmental scientists specializing in chemistry, biology, marine biology, aquatic biology, botany, forestry, soil, freshwater, wetlands, natural resources and ecology restoration.

Education

Arguably most important of all, there is and will continue to be a need for teachers trained in science, environment, ecology and sustainability to help the next generation learn to think about our world and their relationship to it in a sustainable way.

The good news is that more and more college students are already turning to studies geared towards climate change, environment, and sustainability on the undergraduate level.

The New York Times reported that 38 percent more students minored in environmental studies at Boston College this year than in 2003, and Iowa State University’s enrollment in environmental studies and environmental science jumped 50 percent between 2003 and 2008.

Because Fordham University also experienced a 50 percent increase in demand for environmental majors within the last five years, it established two new environmental majors in Environmental Science and Environmental Policy starting this fall.

Also beginning this fall, the University of Montana’s Climate Change Studies Program will offer one of the country’s first undergraduate degree programs devoted to global climate change.

Graduate programs in this area traditionally focused on either environmental sciences or environmental policy, but today

“We have to generate scientists who have an appreciation for the practical applications, and policy people who make policy based on sound science,” said Dr. Dibs Sarkar who established Montclair State University’s new Ph.D. program in Environmental Management in January.

Montclair State’s holistic program, which aims to bridge the gap between science and policy, integrates key elements of physical, chemical, biological, social and management practices into the study of natural and human environments.

Columbia University’s new 12-month Climate and Society Master’s degree claims to be the first program to integrate climate science with the impacts of climate effects on society. It incorporates aspects of earth sciences, earth engineering, international relations, political science, sociology, and economics with interdisciplinary and practical applications.

The combination of climate understanding with pragmatic skills will likely produce new professional niches. For example, last summer, Climate and Society alumna Arame Tall worked with the International Federation of the Red Cross in her native Senegal. Because she was able to forecast severe storms for the upcoming rainy season, Tall helped the IFRC raise money in advance and get disaster relief supplies in place before the heavy rain hit.

The new two-year Global Climate and Environmental Change Master of Science program at the University of California at Riverside, based on initial fieldwork in the Sierras, focuses on the interface between disciplines such as geology, chemistry and forestry because it has proven difficult to develop an accurate picture of climate change by knitting various scientific fields together with past, present and future climate systems.

The UC Riverside program will train students in the techniques of analyzing and theories of climate change to gather precise climate records, which are critical to making useful and accurate computer model predictions about climate change.

“In order for there to be jobs, we need to have a new understanding of what needs to be learned, studied and changed,” said Martin Kennedy, the program’s director.

Law schools, which have traditionally taught environmental law through existing laws, such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, and previous interpretations of them, are also beginning to focus on climate change with an eye on evolving regulations in government and the private sector.

Pace Law School’s new Climate Change track within its Master of Laws in Environmental Law program combines academics with practical experience.

The new Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School will work with government and the private sector to develop the framework to shape environmental regulations, and train future lawyers in climate change law.

Undergraduate and graduate climate change programs will no doubt multiply in years to come, especially if the Markey-Waxman bill’s provision for grants to universities to develop more programs in climate change mitigation makes it through Congress.

And as the Obama administration and Congress put together regulations and legislation to address climate change, the career opportunities, both domestic and global, can only increase.

See also:

Where are the Green Jobs?

Green Power’s Challenge: Willing Workers, Few Training Programs

Green Jobs Champion Hilda Solis Gets Secretary of Labor

Innovest, an investment research firm, launched the study in order to better understand the effect of sustainability upon potential business investment. What they found was a much more substantial difference than most had predicted. In fact, the report found that, "In the longer term, the out-performance potential will become even greater as the capital markets become more fully sensitized to the financial and competitive consequences of environmental and climate change considerations”.

While this may be great news for some, it does not mean happy days for all. The report noted that the ’strong and postive’ correlation between a business’s performance and its sustainability was not necessarily true for every sector of business.

Further, the report found that potential investors are having difficulties figuring out which companies are truly sustainable. Because of inadequate reporting methods, investors have to do a substantial amount of leg work to figure out which companies have a comprehensive sustainability program in place, and this may be a deterrent in future investing. As the report notes, disclosure information is notoriously unreliable, inconsistently reported across companies and over time, and generally not validated by independent third parties… Emissions data alone provides less than 25 percent of the information a sophisticated investor requires."

The folks at Innovest think that the method of disclosure is a pretty big obstacle for investors looking for a truly green company. As founder Matthew Kieman puts it, "It is increasingly critical that performance-driven investors move beyond simply pressing for greater company disclosure," he said. "We are now seeing them begin to demand the sorts of investment tools, research and products they need to turn mere information into superior investment decisions and performance." Superior investment decisions, indeed! As business owners and conscious citizens, we really need to take measure that would ensure that investors looking to put money into a green company had the resources to make informed decisions. Not only will it be good for green minded investors, it will bonly serve to increase the green business edge.

Agriculture

Climate change will affect agriculture by altering growing seasons, changing rainfall patterns, and enabling new invasive species to flourish, all of which will eventually impact our food distribution.

Specialists in agronomy, pest and water management, and food distribution will be needed to map out the best ways to mitigate and acclimate to these changes.

Ecology

Climate change will have dramatic disruptive effects on our ecosystems, resulting in migrating tree species in our forests, loss of wetlands, expansion of the subtropics and accompanying droughts, ocean acidification, and changes in stream temperatures and flows, all of which will impact our plant and animal species.

The loss of habitat and the introduction of invasive species could change patterns of dominance and survival, and likely result in a loss of biodiversity. To understand the gestalt these changes will bring and manage them, we will need more conservationists and environmental scientists specializing in chemistry, biology, marine biology, aquatic biology, botany, forestry, soil, freshwater, wetlands, natural resources and ecology restoration.

Education

Arguably most important of all, there is and will continue to be a need for teachers trained in science, environment, ecology and sustainability to help the next generation learn to think about our world and their relationship to it in a sustainable way.

The good news is that more and more college students are already turning to studies geared towards climate change, environment, and sustainability on the undergraduate level.

The New York Times reported that 38 percent more students minored in environmental studies at Boston College this year than in 2003, and Iowa State University’s enrollment in environmental studies and environmental science jumped 50 percent between 2003 and 2008.

Because Fordham University also experienced a 50 percent increase in demand for environmental majors within the last five years, it established two new environmental majors in Environmental Science and Environmental Policy starting this fall.

Also beginning this fall, the University of Montana’s Climate Change Studies Program will offer one of the country’s first undergraduate degree programs devoted to global climate change.

Graduate programs in this area traditionally focused on either environmental sciences or environmental policy, but today

“We have to generate scientists who have an appreciation for the practical applications, and policy people who make policy based on sound science,” said Dr. Dibs Sarkar who established Montclair State University’s new Ph.D. program in Environmental Management in January.

Montclair State’s holistic program, which aims to bridge the gap between science and policy, integrates key elements of physical, chemical, biological, social and management practices into the study of natural and human environments.

Columbia University’s new 12-month Climate and Society Master’s degree claims to be the first program to integrate climate science with the impacts of climate effects on society. It incorporates aspects of earth sciences, earth engineering, international relations, political science, sociology, and economics with interdisciplinary and practical applications.

The combination of climate understanding with pragmatic skills will likely produce new professional niches. For example, last summer, Climate and Society alumna Arame Tall worked with the International Federation of the Red Cross in her native Senegal. Because she was able to forecast severe storms for the upcoming rainy season, Tall helped the IFRC raise money in advance and get disaster relief supplies in place before the heavy rain hit.

The new two-year Global Climate and Environmental Change Master of Science program at the University of California at Riverside, based on initial fieldwork in the Sierras, focuses on the interface between disciplines such as geology, chemistry and forestry because it has proven difficult to develop an accurate picture of climate change by knitting various scientific fields together with past, present and future climate systems.

The UC Riverside program will train students in the techniques of analyzing and theories of climate change to gather precise climate records, which are critical to making useful and accurate computer model predictions about climate change.

“In order for there to be jobs, we need to have a new understanding of what needs to be learned, studied and changed,” said Martin Kennedy, the program’s director.

Law schools, which have traditionally taught environmental law through existing laws, such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, and previous interpretations of them, are also beginning to focus on climate change with an eye on evolving regulations in government and the private sector.

Pace Law School’s new Climate Change track within its Master of Laws in Environmental Law program combines academics with practical experience.

The new Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School will work with government and the private sector to develop the framework to shape environmental regulations, and train future lawyers in climate change law.

Undergraduate and graduate climate change programs will no doubt multiply in years to come, especially if the Markey-Waxman bill’s provision for grants to universities to develop more programs in climate change mitigation makes it through Congress.

And as the Obama administration and Congress put together regulations and legislation to address climate change, the career opportunities, both domestic and global, can only increase.

See also:

Where are the Green Jobs?

Green Power’s Challenge: Willing Workers, Few Training Programs

Green Jobs Champion Hilda Solis Gets Secretary of Labor

King Corn focuses on co-producers Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis as they move to Iowa, rent an plot of farmland, and attempt to grow an acre of corn using typical industrial methods: genetically modified seeds, nitrogen fertilizers, powerful herbicides, and government subsidies. They show us exactly how industrial corn production works today, from seed to table, in the convoluted journey of a commodity. From Ian and Curt’s one acre, they harvest enough corn to make 57,348 sodas, 3,894 burgers, or 6,726 boxes of cornflakes. And yes, corn is a major ingredient in all of those foods.

The two major corn byproducts King Corn focuses on are high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and beef. The average American consumes 73.5 pounds of HFCS per year, mostly in the form of soda. Ian and Curt talk to a cab driver whose family is plagued by diabetes and who lost 100 pounds, just by cutting soda out of his diet. They also visit a beef feedlot: a large percentage of corn grown in the US goes to feed beef, even though cows’ bodies are not designed to eat corn and it can make them seriously sick and definitely uncomfortable. But, as the panoramic shot of a feedlot populated by 100,000 head of cattle shows, indigestion is the least of most cows’ worries — they barely have room to turn around on their way to the slaughterhouse.

Cheney and Ellis are fairly charming, but leave little impression on the viewers other than they seem like nice guys with whom to share a beer. The time spent on the backstory of their families’ connection to Iowa is unnecessary and detracts from more content Woolf could have included about the impact of corn: namely the environmental impacts of industrial corn production at the scale we’re at right now. Just when I felt the filmmakers were about to talk about the degradation of topsoil, the carbon impacts of CAFOs and corn-fed beef, or the externalities created from industrial agriculture, they skirted away and went in another direction. And although they do inform on the gross use of farm subsidies and how those subsides have changed over time, they neglect to mention the impact of government subsides to American corn farmers on corn farmers in other countries, namely our Mexican neighbors.

However, industrial agriculture is a wicked problem, and the filmmakers do note that they wanted to focus on the food system. In my mind, though, you can’t talk about the problems with the food system without talking about the condition of the land we use to grow our food. With the environment so prominent in current discourse, one would think they would have at least touched on that area.

Despite this, I was entertained and informed, and not just because I’m a born-and-raised Iowa Girl. The vast majority of Americans have no idea how their food is produced, and King Corn gives a general glimpse into what Old MacDonald’s farm has become. If you liked Super Size Me, Sicko, or The Future of Food, King Corn is a hybrid of the three, and well worth checking out. Just don’t expect green themes to be prevalent.

Agriculture

Climate change will affect agriculture by altering growing seasons, changing rainfall patterns, and enabling new invasive species to flourish, all of which will eventually impact our food distribution.

Specialists in agronomy, pest and water management, and food distribution will be needed to map out the best ways to mitigate and acclimate to these changes.

Ecology

Climate change will have dramatic disruptive effects on our ecosystems, resulting in migrating tree species in our forests, loss of wetlands, expansion of the subtropics and accompanying droughts, ocean acidification, and changes in stream temperatures and flows, all of which will impact our plant and animal species.

The loss of habitat and the introduction of invasive species could change patterns of dominance and survival, and likely result in a loss of biodiversity. To understand the gestalt these changes will bring and manage them, we will need more conservationists and environmental scientists specializing in chemistry, biology, marine biology, aquatic biology, botany, forestry, soil, freshwater, wetlands, natural resources and ecology restoration.

Education

Arguably most important of all, there is and will continue to be a need for teachers trained in science, environment, ecology and sustainability to help the next generation learn to think about our world and their relationship to it in a sustainable way.

The good news is that more and more college students are already turning to studies geared towards climate change, environment, and sustainability on the undergraduate level.

The New York Times reported that 38 percent more students minored in environmental studies at Boston College this year than in 2003, and Iowa State University’s enrollment in environmental studies and environmental science jumped 50 percent between 2003 and 2008.

Because Fordham University also experienced a 50 percent increase in demand for environmental majors within the last five years, it established two new environmental majors in Environmental Science and Environmental Policy starting this fall.

Also beginning this fall, the University of Montana’s Climate Change Studies Program will offer one of the country’s first undergraduate degree programs devoted to global climate change.

Graduate programs in this area traditionally focused on either environmental sciences or environmental policy, but today

“We have to generate scientists who have an appreciation for the practical applications, and policy people who make policy based on sound science,” said Dr. Dibs Sarkar who established Montclair State University’s new Ph.D. program in Environmental Management in January.

Montclair State’s holistic program, which aims to bridge the gap between science and policy, integrates key elements of physical, chemical, biological, social and management practices into the study of natural and human environments.

Columbia University’s new 12-month Climate and Society Master’s degree claims to be the first program to integrate climate science with the impacts of climate effects on society. It incorporates aspects of earth sciences, earth engineering, international relations, political science, sociology, and economics with interdisciplinary and practical applications.

The combination of climate understanding with pragmatic skills will likely produce new professional niches. For example, last summer, Climate and Society alumna Arame Tall worked with the International Federation of the Red Cross in her native Senegal. Because she was able to forecast severe storms for the upcoming rainy season, Tall helped the IFRC raise money in advance and get disaster relief supplies in place before the heavy rain hit.

The new two-year Global Climate and Environmental Change Master of Science program at the University of California at Riverside, based on initial fieldwork in the Sierras, focuses on the interface between disciplines such as geology, chemistry and forestry because it has proven difficult to develop an accurate picture of climate change by knitting various scientific fields together with past, present and future climate systems.

The UC Riverside program will train students in the techniques of analyzing and theories of climate change to gather precise climate records, which are critical to making useful and accurate computer model predictions about climate change.

“In order for there to be jobs, we need to have a new understanding of what needs to be learned, studied and changed,” said Martin Kennedy, the program’s director.

Law schools, which have traditionally taught environmental law through existing laws, such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, and previous interpretations of them, are also beginning to focus on climate change with an eye on evolving regulations in government and the private sector.

Pace Law School’s new Climate Change track within its Master of Laws in Environmental Law program combines academics with practical experience.

The new Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School will work with government and the private sector to develop the framework to shape environmental regulations, and train future lawyers in climate change law.

Undergraduate and graduate climate change programs will no doubt multiply in years to come, especially if the Markey-Waxman bill’s provision for grants to universities to develop more programs in climate change mitigation makes it through Congress.

And as the Obama administration and Congress put together regulations and legislation to address climate change, the career opportunities, both domestic and global, can only increase.

See also:

Where are the Green Jobs?

Green Power’s Challenge: Willing Workers, Few Training Programs

Green Jobs Champion Hilda Solis Gets Secretary of Labor

Findings from a new report examining insurance companies’ responses to climate change were released at the International Association of Insurance Supervisors last week. The study found that an increasing number of companies are implementing initiatives to reduce the risk of climate change’s impacts and reduce the emissions that cause the problem.

"From Risk to Opportunity 2007: Insurer Responses to Climate Change" was commissioned by Ceres, a U.S. group of investors and clean energy supporters that also directs the Investor Network on Climate Risk, which manages more than $4 trillion in assets. Mindy S. Lubber, President of Ceres, explained the report’s findings:

Insurers are beginning to respond to global warming – and not just by withdrawing from coastal markets with high financial exposure. We’re seeing a rapid proliferation of products that will reduce climate-related financial losses, as well as the pollution causing global warming. Yet, insurer responses to date are not nearly sufficient given the scale of the challenge. We need more insurers, especially U.S. insurers, to step up.

Indeed, Europe’s largest insurer, Allianz, said that climate change may increase insured losses from extreme events in an average year by 37 percent within a decade. Karolinska medical university in Sweden predicts cardiovascular health problems to rise along with global temperatures.

Some specific initiatives offered by companies around the globe include:

• Green building credits
• Drought protection
• Incentives for investing in renewable energy (London-based Willis Holdings will cover potential underproduction of wind power)
• Clean transportation (The Japanese company Sompo gives premium discounts to policyholders who drive low-emitting cars)

All in all, the report found 422 examples from 190 insurers, reinsurers, brokers, and insurance organizations from 26 nations. That’s more than double the number of products found in a similar report barely over a year ago. I was surprised to learn that forty percent of the initiatives are from U.S. companies, although not surprisingly only a small minority of companies overall are exploring how climate change may affect business or are offering products to mitigate it.

With billions of dollars lost this year from unprecedented flooding and windstorms in Europe and wildfires in the U.S., some are nervous that climate change threatens the entire industry’s long-term viability. While the products from a handful of companies certainly won’t slow the consequences on their own, they must multiply to be part of the global solution that includes private sector involvement, government leadership, and consumer response.

Agriculture

Climate change will affect agriculture by altering growing seasons, changing rainfall patterns, and enabling new invasive species to flourish, all of which will eventually impact our food distribution.

Specialists in agronomy, pest and water management, and food distribution will be needed to map out the best ways to mitigate and acclimate to these changes.

Ecology

Climate change will have dramatic disruptive effects on our ecosystems, resulting in migrating tree species in our forests, loss of wetlands, expansion of the subtropics and accompanying droughts, ocean acidification, and changes in stream temperatures and flows, all of which will impact our plant and animal species.

The loss of habitat and the introduction of invasive species could change patterns of dominance and survival, and likely result in a loss of biodiversity. To understand the gestalt these changes will bring and manage them, we will need more conservationists and environmental scientists specializing in chemistry, biology, marine biology, aquatic biology, botany, forestry, soil, freshwater, wetlands, natural resources and ecology restoration.

Education

Arguably most important of all, there is and will continue to be a need for teachers trained in science, environment, ecology and sustainability to help the next generation learn to think about our world and their relationship to it in a sustainable way.

The good news is that more and more college students are already turning to studies geared towards climate change, environment, and sustainability on the undergraduate level.

The New York Times reported that 38 percent more students minored in environmental studies at Boston College this year than in 2003, and Iowa State University’s enrollment in environmental studies and environmental science jumped 50 percent between 2003 and 2008.

Because Fordham University also experienced a 50 percent increase in demand for environmental majors within the last five years, it established two new environmental majors in Environmental Science and Environmental Policy starting this fall.

Also beginning this fall, the University of Montana’s Climate Change Studies Program will offer one of the country’s first undergraduate degree programs devoted to global climate change.

Graduate programs in this area traditionally focused on either environmental sciences or environmental policy, but today

“We have to generate scientists who have an appreciation for the practical applications, and policy people who make policy based on sound science,” said Dr. Dibs Sarkar who established Montclair State University’s new Ph.D. program in Environmental Management in January.

Montclair State’s holistic program, which aims to bridge the gap between science and policy, integrates key elements of physical, chemical, biological, social and management practices into the study of natural and human environments.

Columbia University’s new 12-month Climate and Society Master’s degree claims to be the first program to integrate climate science with the impacts of climate effects on society. It incorporates aspects of earth sciences, earth engineering, international relations, political science, sociology, and economics with interdisciplinary and practical applications.

The combination of climate understanding with pragmatic skills will likely produce new professional niches. For example, last summer, Climate and Society alumna Arame Tall worked with the International Federation of the Red Cross in her native Senegal. Because she was able to forecast severe storms for the upcoming rainy season, Tall helped the IFRC raise money in advance and get disaster relief supplies in place before the heavy rain hit.

The new two-year Global Climate and Environmental Change Master of Science program at the University of California at Riverside, based on initial fieldwork in the Sierras, focuses on the interface between disciplines such as geology, chemistry and forestry because it has proven difficult to develop an accurate picture of climate change by knitting various scientific fields together with past, present and future climate systems.

The UC Riverside program will train students in the techniques of analyzing and theories of climate change to gather precise climate records, which are critical to making useful and accurate computer model predictions about climate change.

“In order for there to be jobs, we need to have a new understanding of what needs to be learned, studied and changed,” said Martin Kennedy, the program’s director.

Law schools, which have traditionally taught environmental law through existing laws, such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, and previous interpretations of them, are also beginning to focus on climate change with an eye on evolving regulations in government and the private sector.

Pace Law School’s new Climate Change track within its Master of Laws in Environmental Law program combines academics with practical experience.

The new Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School will work with government and the private sector to develop the framework to shape environmental regulations, and train future lawyers in climate change law.

Undergraduate and graduate climate change programs will no doubt multiply in years to come, especially if the Markey-Waxman bill’s provision for grants to universities to develop more programs in climate change mitigation makes it through Congress.

And as the Obama administration and Congress put together regulations and legislation to address climate change, the career opportunities, both domestic and global, can only increase.

See also:

Where are the Green Jobs?

Green Power’s Challenge: Willing Workers, Few Training Programs

Green Jobs Champion Hilda Solis Gets Secretary of Labor

One British strategic communications firm argued that the airline industry essentially needs a PR makeover. Steve Dunne of the Brighter Group went so far as to say that the industry risks sliding into a reputation akin to that of cigarette manufacturers in the U.S.: "The aviation industry is just not representing itself properly or effectively to put the lobbying efforts of the eco-warriors into some kind of perspective."

I’m not convinced the risk is that dramatic — at least here in the U.S. While there are certainly efficiency measures airlines should be considering — such as being towed to a starting point on the runway instead of burning fuel to get there – advocating a total ban on air travel as some do (or even very high taxes) is a losing cause (by the way, I want to hear a convincing argument as to why flying on a commercial plane isn’t public transportation, like taking the bus).

But the pollution problems for the industry could take off: The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says that while the CO2 emissions per passenger kilometer have decreased, the increased number of passengers overall has negated that efficiency. Furthermore, the World Wildlife Fund predicts airlines to make up 15 percent of all global CO2 emissions by 2041.

So while the airlines may not be likened to cigarette manufacturers yet, they should consider some reputation management now. And there are good things happening: The International Air Transport Association says they saved 6 million tons of CO2 by shortening routes worldwide. Virgin’s Richard Branson just announced that he’s planning a 747 biofuel test flight for early next year, and Northwest put together a taskforce of employees and managers that came up with ways to cut inefficient fuel use by 31 million gallons per year. To keep up with the increasing number of passengers and the increasing concern about global warming (including carbon regulation), however, the airlines industry will have to continue decreasing their contribution to the problem and keep telling the public about it. Telling their side of the story — while performing real, meaningful leadership — will keep their reputation from taking a nose dive.

Cross posted on Maria Energia

International Herald Tribune

Agriculture

Climate change will affect agriculture by altering growing seasons, changing rainfall patterns, and enabling new invasive species to flourish, all of which will eventually impact our food distribution.

Specialists in agronomy, pest and water management, and food distribution will be needed to map out the best ways to mitigate and acclimate to these changes.

Ecology

Climate change will have dramatic disruptive effects on our ecosystems, resulting in migrating tree species in our forests, loss of wetlands, expansion of the subtropics and accompanying droughts, ocean acidification, and changes in stream temperatures and flows, all of which will impact our plant and animal species.

The loss of habitat and the introduction of invasive species could change patterns of dominance and survival, and likely result in a loss of biodiversity. To understand the gestalt these changes will bring and manage them, we will need more conservationists and environmental scientists specializing in chemistry, biology, marine biology, aquatic biology, botany, forestry, soil, freshwater, wetlands, natural resources and ecology restoration.

Education

Arguably most important of all, there is and will continue to be a need for teachers trained in science, environment, ecology and sustainability to help the next generation learn to think about our world and their relationship to it in a sustainable way.

The good news is that more and more college students are already turning to studies geared towards climate change, environment, and sustainability on the undergraduate level.

The New York Times reported that 38 percent more students minored in environmental studies at Boston College this year than in 2003, and Iowa State University’s enrollment in environmental studies and environmental science jumped 50 percent between 2003 and 2008.

Because Fordham University also experienced a 50 percent increase in demand for environmental majors within the last five years, it established two new environmental majors in Environmental Science and Environmental Policy starting this fall.

Also beginning this fall, the University of Montana’s Climate Change Studies Program will offer one of the country’s first undergraduate degree programs devoted to global climate change.

Graduate programs in this area traditionally focused on either environmental sciences or environmental policy, but today

“We have to generate scientists who have an appreciation for the practical applications, and policy people who make policy based on sound science,” said Dr. Dibs Sarkar who established Montclair State University’s new Ph.D. program in Environmental Management in January.

Montclair State’s holistic program, which aims to bridge the gap between science and policy, integrates key elements of physical, chemical, biological, social and management practices into the study of natural and human environments.

Columbia University’s new 12-month Climate and Society Master’s degree claims to be the first program to integrate climate science with the impacts of climate effects on society. It incorporates aspects of earth sciences, earth engineering, international relations, political science, sociology, and economics with interdisciplinary and practical applications.

The combination of climate understanding with pragmatic skills will likely produce new professional niches. For example, last summer, Climate and Society alumna Arame Tall worked with the International Federation of the Red Cross in her native Senegal. Because she was able to forecast severe storms for the upcoming rainy season, Tall helped the IFRC raise money in advance and get disaster relief supplies in place before the heavy rain hit.

The new two-year Global Climate and Environmental Change Master of Science program at the University of California at Riverside, based on initial fieldwork in the Sierras, focuses on the interface between disciplines such as geology, chemistry and forestry because it has proven difficult to develop an accurate picture of climate change by knitting various scientific fields together with past, present and future climate systems.

The UC Riverside program will train students in the techniques of analyzing and theories of climate change to gather precise climate records, which are critical to making useful and accurate computer model predictions about climate change.

“In order for there to be jobs, we need to have a new understanding of what needs to be learned, studied and changed,” said Martin Kennedy, the program’s director.

Law schools, which have traditionally taught environmental law through existing laws, such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, and previous interpretations of them, are also beginning to focus on climate change with an eye on evolving regulations in government and the private sector.

Pace Law School’s new Climate Change track within its Master of Laws in Environmental Law program combines academics with practical experience.

The new Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School will work with government and the private sector to develop the framework to shape environmental regulations, and train future lawyers in climate change law.

Undergraduate and graduate climate change programs will no doubt multiply in years to come, especially if the Markey-Waxman bill’s provision for grants to universities to develop more programs in climate change mitigation makes it through Congress.

And as the Obama administration and Congress put together regulations and legislation to address climate change, the career opportunities, both domestic and global, can only increase.

See also:

Where are the Green Jobs?

Green Power’s Challenge: Willing Workers, Few Training Programs

Green Jobs Champion Hilda Solis Gets Secretary of Labor

While General Electric announced structural changes to compensate for increased business in its energy-efficient lighting sector, BP is planning to restructure itself to emphasize…more petroleum.

Once self-dubbed "Beyond Petroleum" because of its increased focus on clean energy — and even considered to be one of the friendlier oil companies by clean energy supporters — BP is now folding its gas power and renewables division into its two exploration and refining segments. But despite the de-emphasis on renewables, it will continue to use the "Beyond Petroleum" moniker (still good for business I suppose) and build wind turbines and solar cells.

Why the change? Simple business: The company’s new CEO, Tony Hayward, is frustrated with its performance compared to rivals like ExxonMobil. While Exxon and BP produce nearly the same about of oil each day (4.2 million barrels from Exxon compared to 3.8 million from BP), the stock market "values" BP’s barrels at $59 and Exxon’s at $122. So Hayward wants to realign BP with its core mission to boost profits: find oil and gas and make it into fuel. As James Harding of the The Times (London) put it, "Mr Hayward is setting out to make BP resemble Exxon, not The Body Shop."

But is this a "brutal reality check" for clean energy supporters, as Harding opines? Or did BP never really leave its oily roots in the first place? Should we be surprised that an oil company — that commits to a hardly-a-drop-in-the-oil-bucket investment of $8 billion in the next 10 years on clean energy — goes back to emphasizing fossil fuels?

I don’t think so. But nor should we discount the fact that they are investing in wind and solar. However, I do wonder whether this restructuring also alters BP’s plan for operating in a carbon-constrained marketplace.

Back in June, Hayward addressed policymakers in Berlin about climate change and how efficient and clean technologies – combined with a price on carbon emissions — will help slow global warming. While BP is talking the talk and making some overtures to clean energy, consumers – backed by a supportive marketplace and policymakers — will still need to be the driving force behind a clean and efficient energy future.

British Petroleum
The Times
Earth2Tech

Agriculture

Climate change will affect agriculture by altering growing seasons, changing rainfall patterns, and enabling new invasive species to flourish, all of which will eventually impact our food distribution.

Specialists in agronomy, pest and water management, and food distribution will be needed to map out the best ways to mitigate and acclimate to these changes.

Ecology

Climate change will have dramatic disruptive effects on our ecosystems, resulting in migrating tree species in our forests, loss of wetlands, expansion of the subtropics and accompanying droughts, ocean acidification, and changes in stream temperatures and flows, all of which will impact our plant and animal species.

The loss of habitat and the introduction of invasive species could change patterns of dominance and survival, and likely result in a loss of biodiversity. To understand the gestalt these changes will bring and manage them, we will need more conservationists and environmental scientists specializing in chemistry, biology, marine biology, aquatic biology, botany, forestry, soil, freshwater, wetlands, natural resources and ecology restoration.

Education

Arguably most important of all, there is and will continue to be a need for teachers trained in science, environment, ecology and sustainability to help the next generation learn to think about our world and their relationship to it in a sustainable way.

The good news is that more and more college students are already turning to studies geared towards climate change, environment, and sustainability on the undergraduate level.

The New York Times reported that 38 percent more students minored in environmental studies at Boston College this year than in 2003, and Iowa State University’s enrollment in environmental studies and environmental science jumped 50 percent between 2003 and 2008.

Because Fordham University also experienced a 50 percent increase in demand for environmental majors within the last five years, it established two new environmental majors in Environmental Science and Environmental Policy starting this fall.

Also beginning this fall, the University of Montana’s Climate Change Studies Program will offer one of the country’s first undergraduate degree programs devoted to global climate change.

Graduate programs in this area traditionally focused on either environmental sciences or environmental policy, but today

“We have to generate scientists who have an appreciation for the practical applications, and policy people who make policy based on sound science,” said Dr. Dibs Sarkar who established Montclair State University’s new Ph.D. program in Environmental Management in January.

Montclair State’s holistic program, which aims to bridge the gap between science and policy, integrates key elements of physical, chemical, biological, social and management practices into the study of natural and human environments.

Columbia University’s new 12-month Climate and Society Master’s degree claims to be the first program to integrate climate science with the impacts of climate effects on society. It incorporates aspects of earth sciences, earth engineering, international relations, political science, sociology, and economics with interdisciplinary and practical applications.

The combination of climate understanding with pragmatic skills will likely produce new professional niches. For example, last summer, Climate and Society alumna Arame Tall worked with the International Federation of the Red Cross in her native Senegal. Because she was able to forecast severe storms for the upcoming rainy season, Tall helped the IFRC raise money in advance and get disaster relief supplies in place before the heavy rain hit.

The new two-year Global Climate and Environmental Change Master of Science program at the University of California at Riverside, based on initial fieldwork in the Sierras, focuses on the interface between disciplines such as geology, chemistry and forestry because it has proven difficult to develop an accurate picture of climate change by knitting various scientific fields together with past, present and future climate systems.

The UC Riverside program will train students in the techniques of analyzing and theories of climate change to gather precise climate records, which are critical to making useful and accurate computer model predictions about climate change.

“In order for there to be jobs, we need to have a new understanding of what needs to be learned, studied and changed,” said Martin Kennedy, the program’s director.

Law schools, which have traditionally taught environmental law through existing laws, such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, and previous interpretations of them, are also beginning to focus on climate change with an eye on evolving regulations in government and the private sector.

Pace Law School’s new Climate Change track within its Master of Laws in Environmental Law program combines academics with practical experience.

The new Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School will work with government and the private sector to develop the framework to shape environmental regulations, and train future lawyers in climate change law.

Undergraduate and graduate climate change programs will no doubt multiply in years to come, especially if the Markey-Waxman bill’s provision for grants to universities to develop more programs in climate change mitigation makes it through Congress.

And as the Obama administration and Congress put together regulations and legislation to address climate change, the career opportunities, both domestic and global, can only increase.

See also:

Where are the Green Jobs?

Green Power’s Challenge: Willing Workers, Few Training Programs

Green Jobs Champion Hilda Solis Gets Secretary of Labor

Divine, a delicious Fair Trade chocolate company, has a tasty deal for all the top chefs out there. They’re looking for recipes that have "heaps of creativity, Divine appeal, and powerful statements about why contestants are hungry to change the world through Fair Trade." The sweetest entry wins a trip to Washington D.C. and some chocolate. The entries are due December 15th, and with the holidays coming, there’s a perfect opportunity to test out your creation on family and friends while introducing them to Fair Trade. If you need a snack to get your creative juices flowing, try out some of Divine’s or Equal Exchange’s recipes.

TransFair is sponsoring a Connect with Fair Trade video contest and the winner gets a trip to Peru. Simply create a short movie (less than 5 minutes) that shows how you connect with Fair Trade, and you could see first-hand the effect your Fair Trade purchases have on farmers. If you are a bit camera shy, you can enter the sweepstakes to win $100 gift certificate for Fair Trade products. No Oscar-winning performances required; simply tell how you connect with Fair Trade.

In conjunction with the launch of their new Fair Trade coffee line, Sam’s Club is offering a week long study grant in Brazil for teachers. "Study grants will be awarded to teachers who express exceptional ideas to educate students on the economic, social and business lessons surrounding fair trade." Eligibility is for teachers of grades 7 - 12 "who can reasonably expect to teach at least fifteen (15) hours a week during the 2008-2009 school year and dedicate at least five (5) lessons to topics related to Fair Trade." A 1,000 word essay must be received by December 15th and must detail how Fair Trade will be incorporated into five lesson plans.

Lessons could cover corporate social responsibility, international trade and economics, environmental issues, human rights and labor, consumer marketing, etc. Essays will be judged on (a) Professionalism in application (25%), (b)Coherent approach to examining relevant issues (25%), (c) Creative engagement with students (25%), and (d) Plans for documenting the trip to farming cooperatives and sharing the experience with students (25%).

Agriculture

Climate change will affect agriculture by altering growing seasons, changing rainfall patterns, and enabling new invasive species to flourish, all of which will eventually impact our food distribution.

Specialists in agronomy, pest and water management, and food distribution will be needed to map out the best ways to mitigate and acclimate to these changes.

Ecology

Climate change will have dramatic disruptive effects on our ecosystems, resulting in migrating tree species in our forests, loss of wetlands, expansion of the subtropics and accompanying droughts, ocean acidification, and changes in stream temperatures and flows, all of which will impact our plant and animal species.

The loss of habitat and the introduction of invasive species could change patterns of dominance and survival, and likely result in a loss of biodiversity. To understand the gestalt these changes will bring and manage them, we will need more conservationists and environmental scientists specializing in chemistry, biology, marine biology, aquatic biology, botany, forestry, soil, freshwater, wetlands, natural resources and ecology restoration.

Education

Arguably most important of all, there is and will continue to be a need for teachers trained in science, environment, ecology and sustainability to help the next generation learn to think about our world and their relationship to it in a sustainable way.

The good news is that more and more college students are already turning to studies geared towards climate change, environment, and sustainability on the undergraduate level.

The New York Times reported that 38 percent more students minored in environmental studies at Boston College this year than in 2003, and Iowa State University’s enrollment in environmental studies and environmental science jumped 50 percent between 2003 and 2008.

Because Fordham University also experienced a 50 percent increase in demand for environmental majors within the last five years, it established two new environmental majors in Environmental Science and Environmental Policy starting this fall.

Also beginning this fall, the University of Montana’s Climate Change Studies Program will offer one of the country’s first undergraduate degree programs devoted to global climate change.

Graduate programs in this area traditionally focused on either environmental sciences or environmental policy, but today

“We have to generate scientists who have an appreciation for the practical applications, and policy people who make policy based on sound science,” said Dr. Dibs Sarkar who established Montclair State University’s new Ph.D. program in Environmental Management in January.

Montclair State’s holistic program, which aims to bridge the gap between science and policy, integrates key elements of physical, chemical, biological, social and management practices into the study of natural and human environments.

Columbia University’s new 12-month Climate and Society Master’s degree claims to be the first program to integrate climate science with the impacts of climate effects on society. It incorporates aspects of earth sciences, earth engineering, international relations, political science, sociology, and economics with interdisciplinary and practical applications.

The combination of climate understanding with pragmatic skills will likely produce new professional niches. For example, last summer, Climate and Society alumna Arame Tall worked with the International Federation of the Red Cross in her native Senegal. Because she was able to forecast severe storms for the upcoming rainy season, Tall helped the IFRC raise money in advance and get disaster relief supplies in place before the heavy rain hit.

The new two-year Global Climate and Environmental Change Master of Science program at the University of California at Riverside, based on initial fieldwork in the Sierras, focuses on the interface between disciplines such as geology, chemistry and forestry because it has proven difficult to develop an accurate picture of climate change by knitting various scientific fields together with past, present and future climate systems.

The UC Riverside program will train students in the techniques of analyzing and theories of climate change to gather precise climate records, which are critical to making useful and accurate computer model predictions about climate change.

“In order for there to be jobs, we need to have a new understanding of what needs to be learned, studied and changed,” said Martin Kennedy, the program’s director.

Law schools, which have traditionally taught environmental law through existing laws, such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, and previous interpretations of them, are also beginning to focus on climate change with an eye on evolving regulations in government and the private sector.

Pace Law School’s new Climate Change track within its Master of Laws in Environmental Law program combines academics with practical experience.

The new Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School will work with government and the private sector to develop the framework to shape environmental regulations, and train future lawyers in climate change law.

Undergraduate and graduate climate change programs will no doubt multiply in years to come, especially if the Markey-Waxman bill’s provision for grants to universities to develop more programs in climate change mitigation makes it through Congress.

And as the Obama administration and Congress put together regulations and legislation to address climate change, the career opportunities, both domestic and global, can only increase.

See also:

Where are the Green Jobs?

Green Power’s Challenge: Willing Workers, Few Training Programs

Green Jobs Champion Hilda Solis Gets Secretary of Labor

Jim Campbell, President and CEO of GE’s consumer and industrial division, explained:

“We are increasing our focus on the development and production of new, innovative lighting products like LEDs, organic LEDs, our new high efficiency incandescent light bulbs and other products that our customers will increasingly demand and require.”

LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, use a semiconductor device that emits light when an electric current passes through it. They are a super-efficient form of lighting. An organic LED means that the emitting layer material is an organic compound. They are lighter and more flexible than regular LED lights, and have been used in cell phone displays and digital cameras.

GE also said it can now buy lighting components at a lower cost than what it takes to make the components itself. That means lighting factories in the U.S., Brazil, and Mexico will close, laying off about 1,400 employees.

An emerging, efficient lighting market also means competition is heading up for market share. Rumor has it that GE has been eyeing up Cree, a maker of LEDs. Acquiring Cree may give it stronger position against the other lighting giant, Royal Philips Electronics.

Associated Press, via the Sioux City Journal
Earth2Tech

Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Agriculture

Climate change will affect agriculture by altering growing seasons, changing rainfall patterns, and enabling new invasive species to flourish, all of which will eventually impact our food distribution.

Specialists in agronomy, pest and water management, and food distribution will be needed to map out the best ways to mitigate and acclimate to these changes.

Ecology

Climate change will have dramatic disruptive effects on our ecosystems, resulting in migrating tree species in our forests, loss of wetlands, expansion of the subtropics and accompanying droughts, ocean acidification, and changes in stream temperatures and flows, all of which will impact our plant and animal species.

The loss of habitat and the introduction of invasive species could change patterns of dominance and survival, and likely result in a loss of biodiversity. To understand the gestalt these changes will bring and manage them, we will need more conservationists and environmental scientists specializing in chemistry, biology, marine biology, aquatic biology, botany, forestry, soil, freshwater, wetlands, natural resources and ecology restoration.

Education

Arguably most important of all, there is and will continue to be a need for teachers trained in science, environment, ecology and sustainability to help the next generation learn to think about our world and their relationship to it in a sustainable way.

The good news is that more and more college students are already turning to studies geared towards climate change, environment, and sustainability on the undergraduate level.

The New York Times reported that 38 percent more students minored in environmental studies at Boston College this year than in 2003, and Iowa State University’s enrollment in environmental studies and environmental science jumped 50 percent between 2003 and 2008.

Because Fordham University also experienced a 50 percent increase in demand for environmental majors within the last five years, it established two new environmental majors in Environmental Science and Environmental Policy starting this fall.

Also beginning this fall, the University of Montana’s Climate Change Studies Program will offer one of the country’s first undergraduate degree programs devoted to global climate change.

Graduate programs in this area traditionally focused on either environmental sciences or environmental policy, but today

“We have to generate scientists who have an appreciation for the practical applications, and policy people who make policy based on sound science,” said Dr. Dibs Sarkar who established Montclair State University’s new Ph.D. program in Environmental Management in January.

Montclair State’s holistic program, which aims to bridge the gap between science and policy, integrates key elements of physical, chemical, biological, social and management practices into the study of natural and human environments.

Columbia University’s new 12-month Climate and Society Master’s degree claims to be the first program to integrate climate science with the impacts of climate effects on society. It incorporates aspects of earth sciences, earth engineering, international relations, political science, sociology, and economics with interdisciplinary and practical applications.

The combination of climate understanding with pragmatic skills will likely produce new professional niches. For example, last summer, Climate and Society alumna Arame Tall worked with the International Federation of the Red Cross in her native Senegal. Because she was able to forecast severe storms for the upcoming rainy season, Tall helped the IFRC raise money in advance and get disaster relief supplies in place before the heavy rain hit.

The new two-year Global Climate and Environmental Change Master of Science program at the University of California at Riverside, based on initial fieldwork in the Sierras, focuses on the interface between disciplines such as geology, chemistry and forestry because it has proven difficult to develop an accurate picture of climate change by knitting various scientific fields together with past, present and future climate systems.

The UC Riverside program will train students in the techniques of analyzing and theories of climate change to gather precise climate records, which are critical to making useful and accurate computer model predictions about climate change.

“In order for there to be jobs, we need to have a new understanding of what needs to be learned, studied and changed,” said Martin Kennedy, the program’s director.

Law schools, which have traditionally taught environmental law through existing laws, such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, and previous interpretations of them, are also beginning to focus on climate change with an eye on evolving regulations in government and the private sector.

Pace Law School’s new Climate Change track within its Master of Laws in Environmental Law program combines academics with practical experience.

The new Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School will work with government and the private sector to develop the framework to shape environmental regulations, and train future lawyers in climate change law.

Undergraduate and graduate climate change programs will no doubt multiply in years to come, especially if the Markey-Waxman bill’s provision for grants to universities to develop more programs in climate change mitigation makes it through Congress.

And as the Obama administration and Congress put together regulations and legislation to address climate change, the career opportunities, both domestic and global, can only increase.

See also:

Where are the Green Jobs?

Green Power’s Challenge: Willing Workers, Few Training Programs

Green Jobs Champion Hilda Solis Gets Secretary of Labor

Whether you desire to buy trees to help the environment for personal reasons, for investment purposes or you simply refer others to buy trees through our Affiliate Program,  PanAm BioFuels has made the process so simple that everyone can find a way to participate in it.

1) Purchase Trees for Investment

Jatropha trees can be bought directly from Pan-Am Biofuels for only $4 each in lots ranging from 250 trees for $1000 to 25,000 trees for $100,000.  Though delivery is possible for larger volumes, we will believe most people will take advantage of our Contract Farming Program where we will actually plant your trees on our plantations. 

With our Contract Farming Program we do all the work from planting to harvest to sale of the oil.  The only fee for all of this is a 10% fee from profits.  Then 90% of the profits are passed on to you, the tree owner.  All you have to do is purchase your trees in lots for only $4/each.

If you have priced trees at your local nursery you will see most prices range from $10 to $25. So now you may be thinking…

"How can you produce, plant and sell these trees at only $4 each?"

There are several reasons, including, but not limited to,

• Because the cost of living as well as labor is much cheaper in Central America where our nurseries are located.
• The efficiencies and economies of scale we enjoy by the huge volume of trees our nursery outputs allow us to save a tremendous amount of money passing the savings on to you.
• Our nursery is in close proximity to our Jatropha Tree plantation in Costa Rica where our Contract Farming Program is being implemented so there are minimal transportation expenses.

"So how much money do I stand to earn by buying your Jatropha Trees? What is the return on my investment?" 

Your trees can potentially bring  as much as 45% PER YEAR calculated  from your original investment once the trees start producing within 3-4 years.   Jatropha trees start bearing seeds the second year and reach maximum production at about 4 years.  You can review the full details and Financial Projections once you register and login.

Pan-Am Biofuels has truly created a unique situation and opportunity for the average person to take advantage of.

Now you can participate in an industry that has produced the wealthiest individuals and corporations in the world. The only difference is, instead of drilling for oil and destroying the environment, you will be growing oil and restoring the environment by owning oil producing Jatrpha Trees

2) Sell trees for Commissions as an Affiliate

We will pay you to refer customers! Pan-Am Biofuels has created a lucrative opportunity for webmasters,  business owners and individuals alike. By becoming an Affiliate you can help promote our Jatropha tree project, earn commissions and at the same time you’ll be doing your part to better our environment.  Learn more about how our Affiliate Program works.

Agriculture

Climate change will affect agriculture by altering growing seasons, changing rainfall patterns, and enabling new invasive species to flourish, all of which will eventually impact our food distribution.

Specialists in agronomy, pest and water management, and food distribution will be needed to map out the best ways to mitigate and acclimate to these changes.

Ecology

Climate change will have dramatic disruptive effects on our ecosystems, resulting in migrating tree species in our forests, loss of wetlands, expansion of the subtropics and accompanying droughts, ocean acidification, and changes in stream temperatures and flows, all of which will impact our plant and animal species.

The loss of habitat and the introduction of invasive species could change patterns of dominance and survival, and likely result in a loss of biodiversity. To understand the gestalt these changes will bring and manage them, we will need more conservationists and environmental scientists specializing in chemistry, biology, marine biology, aquatic biology, botany, forestry, soil, freshwater, wetlands, natural resources and ecology restoration.

Education

Arguably most important of all, there is and will continue to be a need for teachers trained in science, environment, ecology and sustainability to help the next generation learn to think about our world and their relationship to it in a sustainable way.

The good news is that more and more college students are already turning to studies geared towards climate change, environment, and sustainability on the undergraduate level.

The New York Times reported that 38 percent more students minored in environmental studies at Boston College this year than in 2003, and Iowa State University’s enrollment in environmental studies and environmental science jumped 50 percent between 2003 and 2008.

Because Fordham University also experienced a 50 percent increase in demand for environmental majors within the last five years, it established two new environmental majors in Environmental Science and Environmental Policy starting this fall.

Also beginning this fall, the University of Montana’s Climate Change Studies Program will offer one of the country’s first undergraduate degree programs devoted to global climate change.

Graduate programs in this area traditionally focused on either environmental sciences or environmental policy, but today

“We have to generate scientists who have an appreciation for the practical applications, and policy people who make policy based on sound science,” said Dr. Dibs Sarkar who established Montclair State University’s new Ph.D. program in Environmental Management in January.

Montclair State’s holistic program, which aims to bridge the gap between science and policy, integrates key elements of physical, chemical, biological, social and management practices into the study of natural and human environments.

Columbia University’s new 12-month Climate and Society Master’s degree claims to be the first program to integrate climate science with the impacts of climate effects on society. It incorporates aspects of earth sciences, earth engineering, international relations, political science, sociology, and economics with interdisciplinary and practical applications.

The combination of climate understanding with pragmatic skills will likely produce new professional niches. For example, last summer, Climate and Society alumna Arame Tall worked with the International Federation of the Red Cross in her native Senegal. Because she was able to forecast severe storms for the upcoming rainy season, Tall helped the IFRC raise money in advance and get disaster relief supplies in place before the heavy rain hit.

The new two-year Global Climate and Environmental Change Master of Science program at the University of California at Riverside, based on initial fieldwork in the Sierras, focuses on the interface between disciplines such as geology, chemistry and forestry because it has proven difficult to develop an accurate picture of climate change by knitting various scientific fields together with past, present and future climate systems.

The UC Riverside program will train students in the techniques of analyzing and theories of climate change to gather precise climate records, which are critical to making useful and accurate computer model predictions about climate change.

“In order for there to be jobs, we need to have a new understanding of what needs to be learned, studied and changed,” said Martin Kennedy, the program’s director.

Law schools, which have traditionally taught environmental law through existing laws, such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, and previous interpretations of them, are also beginning to focus on climate change with an eye on evolving regulations in government and the private sector.

Pace Law School’s new Climate Change track within its Master of Laws in Environmental Law program combines academics with practical experience.

The new Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School will work with government and the private sector to develop the framework to shape environmental regulations, and train future lawyers in climate change law.

Undergraduate and graduate climate change programs will no doubt multiply in years to come, especially if the Markey-Waxman bill’s provision for grants to universities to develop more programs in climate change mitigation makes it through Congress.

And as the Obama administration and Congress put together regulations and legislation to address climate change, the career opportunities, both domestic and global, can only increase.

See also:

Where are the Green Jobs?

Green Power’s Challenge: Willing Workers, Few Training Programs

Green Jobs Champion Hilda Solis Gets Secretary of Labor

Adana is the nation’s fourth largest city and the centre for the Turkish cotton and textile industries. In this case the American cotton is sent to a factory where it is spun and used to make towels. Great attention is paid to ensure high quality, oh-so-soft and fluffy towels to attract the Turkish shopper… or rather, the American shopper. The towels are packaged and sent to the United States on another container ship. This is crazy!

There are of course the energy and CO2 emissions involved in this to and from tango across the ocean. But even if we put aside such issues in the name of international trade, it cannot be denied that the system is absurd, especially given the fact that Turkey is one of the top ten cotton producers in the world.

The story of the roving Georgian cotton was recently told on national French television, forming one chapter in the larger chronicle of one container ship’s circumnavigation of the globe. It reminded me of another story, that of the traveling tomatoes told in We Feed the World (2005), a film by Austrian director Erwin Wagenhofer. Spanish tomatoes, ripened under the warm southern sun, have long supplied northern European markets. I was an occasional consumer, preferring the Spanish variety to the other widely available option, the tasteless variety grown in rainy Holland. Note: I was, for as it turns out, those tomatoes are not at all sun-ripened.

As shown in Wagenhofer’s film, in southern Spain tomatoes and other vegetables are grown in greenhouses, greenhouses as far as the eye can see and beyond. And not a tree to be found. They are grown using an artificial (read inefficient), irrigation system manned by workers from North and West Africa. The men work long hours and live in makeshift shacks in between the greenhouses. A large percentage of the produce from southern Spain is transported by truck to northern Europe, and a certain percentage is sent to different countries in Africa. Even with the higher production costs in Europe plus the transportation costs, the Spanish tomatoes are sold in Africa at cheaper prices than locally grown tomatoes. Absurd.

Why such absurdities in world trade? Much of the answer lies in subsidies. The devastating effects of first-world subsidized agriculture on markets in the developing world are well known. Subsidized produce is artificially competitive, encourages an increase in production and pushes international market prices down. Local farmers in developing countries cannot compete, and are forced out of business and into poverty. Yet the developed world continues to subsidize its agriculture. Disagreements over reducing subsidies in general and export subsidies in particular, have threatened to jeopardize several rounds of international trade talks over the past years. Both the European Union and the United States remain reluctant to renounce their protectionist measures.

Of course not all subsidies should be abolished. As said a few months ago during a discussion here on Green Options about the US Farm Bill, subsidies should not be paid to the barons of unfair unsustainable trade, the mega agribusinesses, but should fund local organic outfits, thereby encouraging the shift to green sustainable agriculture.

We Feed the World

World Trade Organization

Oxfam on Cotton Subsidies

UN Food and Agriculture Organization

Agriculture

Climate change will affect agriculture by altering growing seasons, changing rainfall patterns, and enabling new invasive species to flourish, all of which will eventually impact our food distribution.

Specialists in agronomy, pest and water management, and food distribution will be needed to map out the best ways to mitigate and acclimate to these changes.

Ecology

Climate change will have dramatic disruptive effects on our ecosystems, resulting in migrating tree species in our forests, loss of wetlands, expansion of the subtropics and accompanying droughts, ocean acidification, and changes in stream temperatures and flows, all of which will impact our plant and animal species.

The loss of habitat and the introduction of invasive species could change patterns of dominance and survival, and likely result in a loss of biodiversity. To understand the gestalt these changes will bring and manage them, we will need more conservationists and environmental scientists specializing in chemistry, biology, marine biology, aquatic biology, botany, forestry, soil, freshwater, wetlands, natural resources and ecology restoration.

Education

Arguably most important of all, there is and will continue to be a need for teachers trained in science, environment, ecology and sustainability to help the next generation learn to think about our world and their relationship to it in a sustainable way.

The good news is that more and more college students are already turning to studies geared towards climate change, environment, and sustainability on the undergraduate level.

The New York Times reported that 38 percent more students minored in environmental studies at Boston College this year than in 2003, and Iowa State University’s enrollment in environmental studies and environmental science jumped 50 percent between 2003 and 2008.

Because Fordham University also experienced a 50 percent increase in demand for environmental majors within the last five years, it established two new environmental majors in Environmental Science and Environmental Policy starting this fall.

Also beginning this fall, the University of Montana’s Climate Change Studies Program will offer one of the country’s first undergraduate degree programs devoted to global climate change.

Graduate programs in this area traditionally focused on either environmental sciences or environmental policy, but today

“We have to generate scientists who have an appreciation for the practical applications, and policy people who make policy based on sound science,” said Dr. Dibs Sarkar who established Montclair State University’s new Ph.D. program in Environmental Management in January.

Montclair State’s holistic program, which aims to bridge the gap between science and policy, integrates key elements of physical, chemical, biological, social and management practices into the study of natural and human environments.

Columbia University’s new 12-month Climate and Society Master’s degree claims to be the first program to integrate climate science with the impacts of climate effects on society. It incorporates aspects of earth sciences, earth engineering, international relations, political science, sociology, and economics with interdisciplinary and practical applications.

The combination of climate understanding with pragmatic skills will likely produce new professional niches. For example, last summer, Climate and Society alumna Arame Tall worked with the International Federation of the Red Cross in her native Senegal. Because she was able to forecast severe storms for the upcoming rainy season, Tall helped the IFRC raise money in advance and get disaster relief supplies in place before the heavy rain hit.

The new two-year Global Climate and Environmental Change Master of Science program at the University of California at Riverside, based on initial fieldwork in the Sierras, focuses on the interface between disciplines such as geology, chemistry and forestry because it has proven difficult to develop an accurate picture of climate change by knitting various scientific fields together with past, present and future climate systems.

The UC Riverside program will train students in the techniques of analyzing and theories of climate change to gather precise climate records, which are critical to making useful and accurate computer model predictions about climate change.

“In order for there to be jobs, we need to have a new understanding of what needs to be learned, studied and changed,” said Martin Kennedy, the program’s director.

Law schools, which have traditionally taught environmental law through existing laws, such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, and previous interpretations of them, are also beginning to focus on climate change with an eye on evolving regulations in government and the private sector.

Pace Law School’s new Climate Change track within its Master of Laws in Environmental Law program combines academics with practical experience.

The new Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School will work with government and the private sector to develop the framework to shape environmental regulations, and train future lawyers in climate change law.

Undergraduate and graduate climate change programs will no doubt multiply in years to come, especially if the Markey-Waxman bill’s provision for grants to universities to develop more programs in climate change mitigation makes it through Congress.

And as the Obama administration and Congress put together regulations and legislation to address climate change, the career opportunities, both domestic and global, can only increase.

See also:

Where are the Green Jobs?

Green Power’s Challenge: Willing Workers, Few Training Programs

Green Jobs Champion Hilda Solis Gets Secretary of Labor

The Canadian Council of Chief Executives reached an “unprecedented consensus” last week when they officially called for action that included “absolute” emissions cuts. A national strategy is needed, they argue, rather than the patchwork of provincial regulations that have cropped up. Furthermore, they acknowledged that government regulation may be needed to raise fossil fuel costs, drive efficiency measures, and instigate greater cuts.

Being open to regulation and the need to fight global warming also opens the door for the business community to be involved in the policy planning. The Globe and Mail explained that a “key goal” in the group’s declaration is to stop any measure that would hurt the economy or penalize certain sectors.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his administration are still piecing together a national global warming strategy. In addition to government regulation, the business group recognized its customers and consumers for also driving the message that the private sector needs to change for the greener in order to slow global warming.

In the States, large businesses have made similar declarations as the Canadian coalition, and small businesses are also taking the lead. With 26 million small businesses in the U.S., they make up half of the economy and about half of all energy used for commercial and industrial purposes. This means that huge strides could be made in efficiency and emissions cuts if they work together.

A recent example is the National Automobile Dealers Association’s (NADA) Energy Stewardship Initiative: About 500 auto dealers have pledged to cut energy use by 10 percent, thereby saving about $193 million and cutting more than a million tons of global warming pollution every year. The National Small Business Association is working with the Energy Star Small Business program and has issued a similar efficiency challenge to its members.

Businesses large and small will be needed to fight global warming, and they’ve begun doing just that. Now, with pressure from voters and the business community, it’s time for Canadian and U.S. policymakers to take decisive steps and implement national policies to curb CO2.

Globe and Mail
CNN
Agriculture

Climate change will affect agriculture by altering growing seasons, changing rainfall patterns, and enabling new invasive species to flourish, all of which will eventually impact our food distribution.

Specialists in agronomy, pest and water management, and food distribution will be needed to map out the best ways to mitigate and acclimate to these changes.

Ecology

Climate change will have dramatic disruptive effects on our ecosystems, resulting in migrating tree species in our forests, loss of wetlands, expansion of the subtropics and accompanying droughts, ocean acidification, and changes in stream temperatures and flows, all of which will impact our plant and animal species.

The loss of habitat and the introduction of invasive species could change patterns of dominance and survival, and likely result in a loss of biodiversity. To understand the gestalt these changes will bring and manage them, we will need more conservationists and environmental scientists specializing in chemistry, biology, marine biology, aquatic biology, botany, forestry, soil, freshwater, wetlands, natural resources and ecology restoration.

Education

Arguably most important of all, there is and will continue to be a need for teachers trained in science, environment, ecology and sustainability to help the next generation learn to think about our world and their relationship to it in a sustainable way.

The good news is that more and more college students are already turning to studies geared towards climate change, environment, and sustainability on the undergraduate level.

The New York Times reported that 38 percent more students minored in environmental studies at Boston College this year than in 2003, and Iowa State University’s enrollment in environmental studies and environmental science jumped 50 percent between 2003 and 2008.

Because Fordham University also experienced a 50 percent increase in demand for environmental majors within the last five years, it established two new environmental majors in Environmental Science and Environmental Policy starting this fall.

Also beginning this fall, the University of Montana’s Climate Change Studies Program will offer one of the country’s first undergraduate degree programs devoted to global climate change.

Graduate programs in this area traditionally focused on either environmental sciences or environmental policy, but today

“We have to generate scientists who have an appreciation for the practical applications, and policy people who make policy based on sound science,” said Dr. Dibs Sarkar who established Montclair State University’s new Ph.D. program in Environmental Management in January.

Montclair State’s holistic program, which aims to bridge the gap between science and policy, integrates key elements of physical, chemical, biological, social and management practices into the study of natural and human environments.

Columbia University’s new 12-month Climate and Society Master’s degree claims to be the first program to integrate climate science with the impacts of climate effects on society. It incorporates aspects of earth sciences, earth engineering, international relations, political science, sociology, and economics with interdisciplinary and practical applications.

The combination of climate understanding with pragmatic skills will likely produce new professional niches. For example, last summer, Climate and Society alumna Arame Tall worked with the International Federation of the Red Cross in her native Senegal. Because she was able to forecast severe storms for the upcoming rainy season, Tall helped the IFRC raise money in advance and get disaster relief supplies in place before the heavy rain hit.

The new two-year Global Climate and Environmental Change Master of Science program at the University of California at Riverside, based on initial fieldwork in the Sierras, focuses on the interface between disciplines such as geology, chemistry and forestry because it has proven difficult to develop an accurate picture of climate change by knitting various scientific fields together with past, present and future climate systems.

The UC Riverside program will train students in the techniques of analyzing and theories of climate change to gather precise climate records, which are critical to making useful and accurate computer model predictions about climate change.

“In order for there to be jobs, we need to have a new understanding of what needs to be learned, studied and changed,” said Martin Kennedy, the program’s director.

Law schools, which have traditionally taught environmental law through existing laws, such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, and previous interpretations of them, are also beginning to focus on climate change with an eye on evolving regulations in government and the private sector.

Pace Law School’s new Climate Change track within its Master of Laws in Environmental Law program combines academics with practical experience.

The new Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School will work with government and the private sector to develop the framework to shape environmental regulations, and train future lawyers in climate change law.

Undergraduate and graduate climate change programs will no doubt multiply in years to come, especially if the Markey-Waxman bill’s provision for grants to universities to develop more programs in climate change mitigation makes it through Congress.

And as the Obama administration and Congress put together regulations and legislation to address climate change, the career opportunities, both domestic and global, can only increase.

See also:

Where are the Green Jobs?

Green Power’s Challenge: Willing Workers, Few Training Programs

Green Jobs Champion Hilda Solis Gets Secretary of Labor

The Weather Makers

The Future of Nature: Writing on a Human Ecology from Orion Magazine (Milkweed Editions, $18.00), just might be that book. A collection of thought-provoking essays selected and introduced by Barry Lopez, The Future of Nature includes writings by such heavy-hitters as Wendell Berry, Bill McKibben, and Derrick Jensen, all originally published in Orion, the seminal magazine covering the intersection of culture, nature, and the environment.

Released this past Thursday, the book is divided into six loosely-themed sections. Actions runs the gamut of activism, from small suburban grassroots efforts to stop construction on a SuperTarget store to bailing out direct-action activists in Appalachia. Refugees discusses those displaced by humanity’s interactions with the environment, giving a face to the faceless victims of climate change and the unending hunt for resources. Boundaries addresses the idea of the wilderness and our relationship with it. Reverence discusses how appreciation for nature, a love of and respect for it, is the essential guidepost for sustainable living. Monsters lays out just exactly what sorts of devastating things we’re doing to our only home, and Native leaves the reader with both hope and guidance for living in harmony with our ecosystem.

Highlighting both theory and practice of sustainable (and unsustainble) living, the causes of our ecological crises, and a vision for a lasting future, The Future of Nature provides a plethora of contexts for understanding just why we desperately need to change the way we live. Elegantly written and compiled, this book should be required reading for those interested in sustaining our future on Earth. The themes balance each other nicely; the reader understands the reality of the direness of humanity’s situation but is left with hope that good things are happening everywhere, those little pockets of positive change that will lead to a more balanced way of life. It immediately made me want to go read not only Orion, but every other piece of writing by this insightful group of writers.

Agriculture

Climate change will affect agriculture by altering growing seasons, changing rainfall patterns, and enabling new invasive species to flourish, all of which will eventually impact our food distribution.

Specialists in agronomy, pest and water management, and food distribution will be needed to map out the best ways to mitigate and acclimate to these changes.

Ecology

Climate change will have dramatic disruptive effects on our ecosystems, resulting in migrating tree species in our forests, loss of wetlands, expansion of the subtropics and accompanying droughts, ocean acidification, and changes in stream temperatures and flows, all of which will impact our plant and animal species.

The loss of habitat and the introduction of invasive species could change patterns of dominance and survival, and likely result in a loss of biodiversity. To understand the gestalt these changes will bring and manage them, we will need more conservationists and environmental scientists specializing in chemistry, biology, marine biology, aquatic biology, botany, forestry, soil, freshwater, wetlands, natural resources and ecology restoration.

Education

Arguably most important of all, there is and will continue to be a need for teachers trained in science, environment, ecology and sustainability to help the next generation learn to think about our world and their relationship to it in a sustainable way.

The good news is that more and more college students are already turning to studies geared towards climate change, environment, and sustainability on the undergraduate level.

The New York Times reported that 38 percent more students minored in environmental studies at Boston College this year than in 2003, and Iowa State University’s enrollment in environmental studies and environmental science jumped 50 percent between 2003 and 2008.

Because Fordham University also experienced a 50 percent increase in demand for environmental majors within the last five years, it established two new environmental majors in Environmental Science and Environmental Policy starting this fall.

Also beginning this fall, the University of Montana’s Climate Change Studies Program will offer one of the country’s first undergraduate degree programs devoted to global climate change.

Graduate programs in this area traditionally focused on either environmental sciences or environmental policy, but today

“We have to generate scientists who have an appreciation for the practical applications, and policy people who make policy based on sound science,” said Dr. Dibs Sarkar who established Montclair State University’s new Ph.D. program in Environmental Management in January.

Montclair State’s holistic program, which aims to bridge the gap between science and policy, integrates key elements of physical, chemical, biological, social and management practices into the study of natural and human environments.

Columbia University’s new 12-month Climate and Society Master’s degree claims to be the first program to integrate climate science with the impacts of climate effects on society. It incorporates aspects of earth sciences, earth engineering, international relations, political science, sociology, and economics with interdisciplinary and practical applications.

The combination of climate understanding with pragmatic skills will likely produce new professional niches. For example, last summer, Climate and Society alumna Arame Tall worked with the International Federation of the Red Cross in her native Senegal. Because she was able to forecast severe storms for the upcoming rainy season, Tall helped the IFRC raise money in advance and get disaster relief supplies in place before the heavy rain hit.

The new two-year Global Climate and Environmental Change Master of Science program at the University of California at Riverside, based on initial fieldwork in the Sierras, focuses on the interface between disciplines such as geology, chemistry and forestry because it has proven difficult to develop an accurate picture of climate change by knitting various scientific fields together with past, present and future climate systems.

The UC Riverside program will train students in the techniques of analyzing and theories of climate change to gather precise climate records, which are critical to making useful and accurate computer model predictions about climate change.

“In order for there to be jobs, we need to have a new understanding of what needs to be learned, studied and changed,” said Martin Kennedy, the program’s director.

Law schools, which have traditionally taught environmental law through existing laws, such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, and previous interpretations of them, are also beginning to focus on climate change with an eye on evolving regulations in government and the private sector.

Pace Law School’s new Climate Change track within its Master of Laws in Environmental Law program combines academics with practical experience.

The new Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School will work with government and the private sector to develop the framework to shape environmental regulations, and train future lawyers in climate change law.

Undergraduate and graduate climate change programs will no doubt multiply in years to come, especially if the Markey-Waxman bill’s provision for grants to universities to develop more programs in climate change mitigation makes it through Congress.

And as the Obama administration and Congress put together regulations and legislation to address climate change, the career opportunities, both domestic and global, can only increase.

See also:

Where are the Green Jobs?

Green Power’s Challenge: Willing Workers, Few Training Programs

Green Jobs Champion Hilda Solis Gets Secretary of Labor

Editor’s note: This week, Celsias editor Craig Mackintosh takes a look at Toyota’s images as a "green" car company, and some issues that could undermine that perception. This post was originally published on October 3, 2007.

When people think of a ‘green’ car, the first that pops into most people’s minds is the Toyota Prius - the world’s most successful hybrid auto. Toyota has been riding a wave of consumer and media popularity, aided by celebrity endorsements from Prius owners like Leonardo diCaprio and Cameron Diaz. And, at 60mpg in city driving, there’s plenty to set it apart from the typical U.S. energy hog.

But, behind the scenes, all is not as may initially appear with Toyota. Instead of using the popularity of their enviro-flagship, the current climate of heightened environmental awareness and their new status of having overtaken Detroit’s General Motors as the world’s biggest auto manufacturer to rachet up the rate of progress on even greater fuel efficiencies, Toyota has been quietly working in the opposite direction - teaming up with U.S. automakers in moves that seem to endorse the accusations made by the Who Killed the Electric Car people (i.e. profits before progress - actions that blatantly contradict the market-forces-will-solve-all philosophy of some).

Read more of this story »

I attended the two-day event, which delivered in its round-up of impressive energy and global warming experts: Nobel Laureate in Physics Dr. Stephen Chu, biofuels expert Dr. Lee Rybeck Lynd, peak oil expert Ken Deffeyes, economist Paul L. Joskow, polar explorer Will Steger, hydrogen expert Joan M. Ogden, and James Hansen, Director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

While at times the science got a bit thick, the message from all of the lecturers was clear: Global warming is urgent, we need to do something NOW, and many different solutions will get us there.

I was most interested to hear from Paul L. Joskow, an MIT economist who discussed the best methods for regulating carbon dioxide (CO2), a major contributor to global warming. Many politicians favor a cap-and-trade policy, in which a limit on CO2 is determined and then tradable/sellable permits to pollute are issued to utilities and industry. Economists, on the other hand, generally prefer a carbon tax that simply taxes CO2 at a certain rate.

Although an economist himself, Joskow argued that a cap-and-trade policy is the best way to create a market for CO2 and drive down emissions. First of all, a cap-and-trade policy is politically feasible, and making sure it actually has a chance of passing Congress in our lifetime is the most important thing to slowing global warming. Secondly, a cap-and-trade plan links the U.S. with other nations (and other states) that have already started down this path, thus creating a global solution to a global problem.

While economists favor a carbon tax that the feds could ideally use to cut taxes in another area, like income, Joskow said “perfect the enemy of good.” Sure, in a perfect world we would tax bad stuff and never tax good stuff (like working). But the urgency of global warming calls for a good system that is feasible now and gets us in sync with the rest of the planet. And the best system for that is a cap-and-trade policy.

Joan M. Ogden lectured on a hydrogen economy, although her fellow panel discussion presenters were skeptical of using hydrogen as a fuel source, at least in terms of it being ready fast enough to fight global warming. Although no option should be taken off the table, hydrogen could play a more important role in bettering existing technologies (like ethanol production) rather than creating an entirely new infrastructure.

Dr. James Hansen – you may remember him from his accusations that NASA officials edited his global warming reports – said that if someone is seriously concerned about climate change, any elected official they vote for should agree on three principals:

1) A moratorium on traditional coal-fired power plants (until we can sequester the CO2, building more plants moves us backwards)

2) Policies that encourage more renewable energy

3) Incentives for energy efficiency.

With the clean technology here but the leadership lacking, the issue of urgency was paramount throughout the lectures. In fact, I thought the statistics and scenarios put forth more dire than those I normally read in the media. More than one expert prefaced a recommendation with something like, ‘A year ago I would’ve been laughed out of the room for saying this, but now I can say that what we need to do is…’ The extensive media attention on global warming, along with some serious dialogue and action by the business sector and politicians, have made it “safer” to talk about the true consequences and costs of global warming without immediately being labeled a nutcase.

For example, MIT economist Paul L. Joskow said that any sort of carbon regulation is going to raise our utility bills “and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying.” With a cap-and-trade policy that sets CO2 at $50 per ton (a price he thinks is likely), it could drive up utility bills 40-50%. But this would not happen over night: Any measure passed by Congress would give utilities several years to implement efficiency programs to soften the landing. But the message was still clear: This isn’t going to be easy, but we can do it.

Polar explorer Will Steger, who has been traveling and studying the arctic and Antarctic regions for 40 years, gave an eyewitness account of global warming’s effects at the poles (in May I interviewed him about his most recent trip). I’d heard his talk several times, but there was a big difference this time: He showed a slide of polar bear and then said in his quiet-but no-BS –sort-of-way, “This is our friend the polar bear. I’m afraid there’s nothing we can do for them – they will go extinct. I couldn’t say that 18 months ago to people, but now I am.”

Despite the wake up calls – no use in sugarcoating at this point – it was still uplifting to know that some of the planet’s smartest people are working on this and elected leaders are slowly getting the message.

Now, it’s time for the rest of us to get to work. For starters, check out Will Steger’s “Template for Action,” Lighter Footstep’s “10 First Steps,” or the Union of Concerned Scientist’s “How You Can be Involved.”
Agriculture

Climate change will affect agriculture by altering growing seasons, changing rainfall patterns, and enabling new invasive species to flourish, all of which will eventually impact our food distribution.

Specialists in agronomy, pest and water management, and food distribution will be needed to map out the best ways to mitigate and acclimate to these changes.

Ecology

Climate change will have dramatic disruptive effects on our ecosystems, resulting in migrating tree species in our forests, loss of wetlands, expansion of the subtropics and accompanying droughts, ocean acidification, and changes in stream temperatures and flows, all of which will impact our plant and animal species.

The loss of habitat and the introduction of invasive species could change patterns of dominance and survival, and likely result in a loss of biodiversity. To understand the gestalt these changes will bring and manage them, we will need more conservationists and environmental scientists specializing in chemistry, biology, marine biology, aquatic biology, botany, forestry, soil, freshwater, wetlands, natural resources and ecology restoration.

Education

Arguably most important of all, there is and will continue to be a need for teachers trained in science, environment, ecology and sustainability to help the next generation learn to think about our world and their relationship to it in a sustainable way.

The good news is that more and more college students are already turning to studies geared towards climate change, environment, and sustainability on the undergraduate level.

The New York Times reported that 38 percent more students minored in environmental studies at Boston College this year than in 2003, and Iowa State University’s enrollment in environmental studies and environmental science jumped 50 percent between 2003 and 2008.

Because Fordham University also experienced a 50 percent increase in demand for environmental majors within the last five years, it established two new environmental majors in Environmental Science and Environmental Policy starting this fall.

Also beginning this fall, the University of Montana’s Climate Change Studies Program will offer one of the country’s first undergraduate degree programs devoted to global climate change.

Graduate programs in this area traditionally focused on either environmental sciences or environmental policy, but today

“We have to generate scientists who have an appreciation for the practical applications, and policy people who make policy based on sound science,” said Dr. Dibs Sarkar who established Montclair State University’s new Ph.D. program in Environmental Management in January.

Montclair State’s holistic program, which aims to bridge the gap between science and policy, integrates key elements of physical, chemical, biological, social and management practices into the study of natural and human environments.

Columbia University’s new 12-month Climate and Society Master’s degree claims to be the first program to integrate climate science with the impacts of climate effects on society. It incorporates aspects of earth sciences, earth engineering, international relations, political science, sociology, and economics with interdisciplinary and practical applications.

The combination of climate understanding with pragmatic skills will likely produce new professional niches. For example, last summer, Climate and Society alumna Arame Tall worked with the International Federation of the Red Cross in her native Senegal. Because she was able to forecast severe storms for the upcoming rainy season, Tall helped the IFRC raise money in advance and get disaster relief supplies in place before the heavy rain hit.

The new two-year Global Climate and Environmental Change Master of Science program at the University of California at Riverside, based on initial fieldwork in the Sierras, focuses on the interface between disciplines such as geology, chemistry and forestry because it has proven difficult to develop an accurate picture of climate change by knitting various scientific fields together with past, present and future climate systems.

The UC Riverside program will train students in the techniques of analyzing and theories of climate change to gather precise climate records, which are critical to making useful and accurate computer model predictions about climate change.

“In order for there to be jobs, we need to have a new understanding of what needs to be learned, studied and changed,” said Martin Kennedy, the program’s director.

Law schools, which have traditionally taught environmental law through existing laws, such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, and previous interpretations of them, are also beginning to focus on climate change with an eye on evolving regulations in government and the private sector.

Pace Law School’s new Climate Change track within its Master of Laws in Environmental Law program combines academics with practical experience.

The new Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School will work with government and the private sector to develop the framework to shape environmental regulations, and train future lawyers in climate change law.

Undergraduate and graduate climate change programs will no doubt multiply in years to come, especially if the Markey-Waxman bill’s provision for grants to universities to develop more programs in climate change mitigation makes it through Congress.

And as the Obama administration and Congress put together regulations and legislation to address climate change, the career opportunities, both domestic and global, can only increase.

See also:

Where are the Green Jobs?

Green Power’s Challenge: Willing Workers, Few Training Programs

Green Jobs Champion Hilda Solis Gets Secretary of Labor

This new move is a mixed blessing and hits upon one of the main points of contention within the Fair Trade movement. Fair Trade has moved into mainstream and is appearing everywhere from McDonalds to Dunkin’ Donuts to Wal-Mart. Any and all exposure of Fair Trade and it’s ideals to consumers is beneficial. And a larger market translates to more sales for producers and their communities.

However, as Fair Trade is embraced by large corporations with questionable ethics, so too is the potential to for exploitation and weakening of Fair Trade. Similar to companies that "greenwash," to bolster their environmental credit, there are companies which seek to cash in on the feel-good PR Fair Trade offers, without making a true commitment to the ideals and meaning of the movement. One such gap between company marketing and ethical behavior occurred when Nestle released its Fair Trade coffee in 2005. Nestle has been at the center of ethical controversy for over twenty years, with boycotts for their "aggressive and irresponsible promotion of infant formula," and for contributing to child abuse and torture within the cocoa industry, including large distribution from the Cote d’Ivoire. There was much critism of Nestle’s Fair Trade coffee and following it’s release, they were reported to the UK Advertising Standards Authority for a misleading and dishonest advertisement.

"Nestlé’s advertisement and website for its Fairtrade product imply it will have a significant impact on farmers in El Salvador and that the company’s activities in the coffee industry are ethical. The truth is only about 200 farmers in El Salvador supply coffee for Partners’ Blend and over 3 million farmers globally who are dependent on Nestlé remain outside the Fairtrade system. Nestlé is held partly responsible for forcing down prices paid to suppliers, driving many into poverty, while its own profits have soared. Recently I interviewed a researcher from Colombia who told me 150,000 coffee farming families have lost their livelihoods due to Nestlé policies.”

There is also confusion relating to the different Fair Trade labels and what they mean, and, unfortunately, companies are happy to prey upon this confusion. The Fair Trade Certified Mark means that particular product was certified. In most food products, this means it is certified at the beginning point such as farming and harvesting, but not always beyond this point. This creates opportunity for corruption at subsequent points along the way, such as with the problems with Fair Trade bananas and the exploitation of banana ripeners. Such inconsistencies occur when a company wishes to use Fair Trade, rather than commit to it.

Then what is the solution? Should Fair Trade be confined to its current size and guarded from the large corporate giants? I don’t believe this is the solution. I believe the growth of Fair Trade, when true and committed, should be an important goal. Fair Trade is not a premium brand label, but a different approach to our entire concept of trade. The Fair Trade movement is based upon a fair and just interaction between the consumer and the producer. If the vessel for this interaction is corrupted or dishonest, then it is upon our shoulders as consumers to correct or discard the vessel for one that is more trustworthy. The fact that Fair Trade is entering large corporate retailers is not necessarily a reflection of their goodwill, and it is important to remember this. The mainstreaming of Fair Trade is, however, a reflection of our growing desire to consume ethically and responsibly and it is upon this foundation that we should build the movement and hold all participants accountable. So it is with skeptical optimism that I welcome this Fair Trade expansion, and a hope that the company will commit to the true Fair Trade and an acceptance of responsibility to ensure they do.

Agriculture

Climate change will affect agriculture by altering growing seasons, changing rainfall patterns, and enabling new invasive species to flourish, all of which will eventually impact our food distribution.

Specialists in agronomy, pest and water management, and food distribution will be needed to map out the best ways to mitigate and acclimate to these changes.

Ecology

Climate change will have dramatic disruptive effects on our ecosystems, resulting in migrating tree species in our forests, loss of wetlands, expansion of the subtropics and accompanying droughts, ocean acidification, and changes in stream temperatures and flows, all of which will impact our plant and animal species.

The loss of habitat and the introduction of invasive species could change patterns of dominance and survival, and likely result in a loss of biodiversity. To understand the gestalt these changes will bring and manage them, we will need more conservationists and environmental scientists specializing in chemistry, biology, marine biology, aquatic biology, botany, forestry, soil, freshwater, wetlands, natural resources and ecology restoration.

Education

Arguably most important of all, there is and will continue to be a need for teachers trained in science, environment, ecology and sustainability to help the next generation learn to think about our world and their relationship to it in a sustainable way.

The good news is that more and more college students are already turning to studies geared towards climate change, environment, and sustainability on the undergraduate level.

The New York Times reported that 38 percent more students minored in environmental studies at Boston College this year than in 2003, and Iowa State University’s enrollment in environmental studies and environmental science jumped 50 percent between 2003 and 2008.

Because Fordham University also experienced a 50 percent increase in demand for environmental majors within the last five years, it established two new environmental majors in Environmental Science and Environmental Policy starting this fall.

Also beginning this fall, the University of Montana’s Climate Change Studies Program will offer one of the country’s first undergraduate degree programs devoted to global climate change.

Graduate programs in this area traditionally focused on either environmental sciences or environmental policy, but today

“We have to generate scientists who have an appreciation for the practical applications, and policy people who make policy based on sound science,” said Dr. Dibs Sarkar who established Montclair State University’s new Ph.D. program in Environmental Management in January.

Montclair State’s holistic program, which aims to bridge the gap between science and policy, integrates key elements of physical, chemical, biological, social and management practices into the study of natural and human environments.

Columbia University’s new 12-month Climate and Society Master’s degree claims to be the first program to integrate climate science with the impacts of climate effects on society. It incorporates aspects of earth sciences, earth engineering, international relations, political science, sociology, and economics with interdisciplinary and practical applications.

The combination of climate understanding with pragmatic skills will likely produce new professional niches. For example, last summer, Climate and Society alumna Arame Tall worked with the International Federation of the Red Cross in her native Senegal. Because she was able to forecast severe storms for the upcoming rainy season, Tall helped the IFRC raise money in advance and get disaster relief supplies in place before the heavy rain hit.

The new two-year Global Climate and Environmental Change Master of Science program at the University of California at Riverside, based on initial fieldwork in the Sierras, focuses on the interface between disciplines such as geology, chemistry and forestry because it has proven difficult to develop an accurate picture of climate change by knitting various scientific fields together with past, present and future climate systems.

The UC Riverside program will train students in the techniques of analyzing and theories of climate change to gather precise climate records, which are critical to making useful and accurate computer model predictions about climate change.

“In order for there to be jobs, we need to have a new understanding of what needs to be learned, studied and changed,” said Martin Kennedy, the program’s director.

Law schools, which have traditionally taught environmental law through existing laws, such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, and previous interpretations of them, are also beginning to focus on climate change with an eye on evolving regulations in government and the private sector.

Pace Law School’s new Climate Change track within its Master of Laws in Environmental Law program combines academics with practical experience.

The new Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School will work with government and the private sector to develop the framework to shape environmental regulations, and train future lawyers in climate change law.

Undergraduate and graduate climate change programs will no doubt multiply in years to come, especially if the Markey-Waxman bill’s provision for grants to universities to develop more programs in climate change mitigation makes it through Congress.

And as the Obama administration and Congress put together regulations and legislation to address climate change, the career opportunities, both domestic and global, can only increase.

See also:

Where are the Green Jobs?

Green Power’s Challenge: Willing Workers, Few Training Programs

Green Jobs Champion Hilda Solis Gets Secretary of Labor

Solar thermal power makes electricity by converting solar energy to heat that drives a thermal power plant.

The utility’s plan is to build at least 300 megawatts (MW) of solar thermal in Florida; that’s enough electricity to power about 150,000 homes. It will also help the state reach its goal of cutting CO2 emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and get 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by that same year.

California will get a 200-MW plant that will cover 2 square miles with flat mirrors that track the sun.

FPL’s CEO Lew Hay told Reuters: "The thing we’ve got to make customers understand is that any fossil fuel has a hidden cost that society is paying every day, and that is the cost of carbon. We need to put a price on carbon, by doing so the illusion that coal-produced energy is low-cost will go away."

The project FPL has planned will start out as a 10MW pilot project and eventually grow to be the largest solar plant in Florida. But besides the solar investment, the company is also upgrading all 4.5 million electricity meters used by Florida customers. The replacements will be "smart network" meters that show a digital read-out of electricity consumption, and even give an hour-by-hour record of power use. This will allow customers and businesses to monitor their energy use more closely, and experiment with the most effective methods of efficiency. Other investments will go towards promoting these efforts.

As exciting as this news is, it’s easy to feel down when you learn that FPL’s solar plans for Florida only amount to about 1 percent of the state’s power plant capacity. But clean energy supporters and FPL are still optimistic. Hay pointed out that relatively large commitments to clean energy, like FPLs, will really drive the cost of the technology down.

Already the largest wind power provider, FPL now has its sights on leading the solar market.

Associated Press, via Orlando Sentinel
Reuters, via Planet Ark

Agriculture

Climate change will affect agriculture by altering growing seasons, changing rainfall patterns, and enabling new invasive species to flourish, all of which will eventually impact our food distribution.

Specialists in agronomy, pest and water management, and food distribution will be needed to map out the best ways to mitigate and acclimate to these changes.

Ecology

Climate change will have dramatic disruptive effects on our ecosystems, resulting in migrating tree species in our forests, loss of wetlands, expansion of the subtropics and accompanying droughts, ocean acidification, and changes in stream temperatures and flows, all of which will impact our plant and animal species.

The loss of habitat and the introduction of invasive species could change patterns of dominance and survival, and likely result in a loss of biodiversity. To understand the gestalt these changes will bring and manage them, we will need more conservationists and environmental scientists specializing in chemistry, biology, marine biology, aquatic biology, botany, forestry, soil, freshwater, wetlands, natural resources and ecology restoration.

Education

Arguably most important of all, there is and will continue to be a need for teachers trained in science, environment, ecology and sustainability to help the next generation learn to think about our world and their relationship to it in a sustainable way.

The good news is that more and more college students are already turning to studies geared towards climate change, environment, and sustainability on the undergraduate level.

The New York Times reported that 38 percent more students minored in environmental studies at Boston College this year than in 2003, and Iowa State University’s enrollment in environmental studies and environmental science jumped 50 percent between 2003 and 2008.

Because Fordham University also experienced a 50 percent increase in demand for environmental majors within the last five years, it established two new environmental majors in Environmental Science and Environmental Policy starting this fall.

Also beginning this fall, the University of Montana’s Climate Change Studies Program will offer one of the country’s first undergraduate degree programs devoted to global climate change.

Graduate programs in this area traditionally focused on either environmental sciences or environmental policy, but today

“We have to generate scientists who have an appreciation for the practical applications, and policy people who make policy based on sound science,” said Dr. Dibs Sarkar who established Montclair State University’s new Ph.D. program in Environmental Management in January.

Montclair State’s holistic program, which aims to bridge the gap between science and policy, integrates key elements of physical, chemical, biological, social and management practices into the study of natural and human environments.

Columbia University’s new 12-month Climate and Society Master’s degree claims to be the first program to integrate climate science with the impacts of climate effects on society. It incorporates aspects of earth sciences, earth engineering, international relations, political science, sociology, and economics with interdisciplinary and practical applications.

The combination of climate understanding with pragmatic skills will likely produce new professional niches. For example, last summer, Climate and Society alumna Arame Tall worked with the International Federation of the Red Cross in her native Senegal. Because she was able to forecast severe storms for the upcoming rainy season, Tall helped the IFRC raise money in advance and get disaster relief supplies in place before the heavy rain hit.

The new two-year Global Climate and Environmental Change Master of Science program at the University of California at Riverside, based on initial fieldwork in the Sierras, focuses on the interface between disciplines such as geology, chemistry and forestry because it has proven difficult to develop an accurate picture of climate change by knitting various scientific fields together with past, present and future climate systems.

The UC Riverside program will train students in the techniques of analyzing and theories of climate change to gather precise climate records, which are critical to making useful and accurate computer model predictions about climate change.

“In order for there to be jobs, we need to have a new understanding of what needs to be learned, studied and changed,” said Martin Kennedy, the program’s director.

Law schools, which have traditionally taught environmental law through existing laws, such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, and previous interpretations of them, are also beginning to focus on climate change with an eye on evolving regulations in government and the private sector.

Pace Law School’s new Climate Change track within its Master of Laws in Environmental Law program combines academics with practical experience.

The new Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School will work with government and the private sector to develop the framework to shape environmental regulations, and train future lawyers in climate change law.

Undergraduate and graduate climate change programs will no doubt multiply in years to come, especially if the Markey-Waxman bill’s provision for grants to universities to develop more programs in climate change mitigation makes it through Congress.

And as the Obama administration and Congress put together regulations and legislation to address climate change, the career opportunities, both domestic and global, can only increase.

See also:

Where are the Green Jobs?

Green Power’s Challenge: Willing Workers, Few Training Programs

Green Jobs Champion Hilda Solis Gets Secretary of Labor

The utilities involved have more than 20 million customers and cover 22 states: Con Edison (ED), Edison International (EIX), Great Plains Energy (GXP), Duke Energy (DUK), Pepco Holdings (POM), PNM Resources (PNM), Sierra Pacific Resources (SRP), and Xcel Energy (XEL). Up until now, the only utilities that want to grow profits through energy efficiency investments have been in California.

The move by these utilities comes at a time when demand is growing, concerns and lawsuits about emissions abound, and global warming is a hot political and business issue.

Energy efficiency is the cheapest and fastest way to cut global warming emissions, and the utilities agree: ” …we share a common belief that energy efficiency is the greatest untapped resource in addressing global climate change in the near-term.” Here are the major elements of their plan:

• Boost investments in energy efficiency projects to $1.5 billion per year in the next 10 years.

• Create a national institute for electric efficiency. The Energy Efficiency Institute will work on regulatory policy models, notably how utilities can make money when customers use less energy rather than more. It will be formed within the Edison Electric Institute, which represents the nation’s investor-owned utilities.

Innovation and multi-party collaboration will be needed to craft policies that allow companies to profit from investing in efficiency. Utilities could profit from replacing inefficient air conditioners and light bulbs, for instance. Great Plains hopes to get legislation passed in Kansas and Missouri that would allow them to earn a higher return on efficiency investments than what would be made investing in traditional power plants. The utility could install smart electricity meters that tell customers when electricity prices are highest and even allows the utility to adjust the operations of appliances in customer homes. Michael Chesser, Chairman and CEO of Great Plains, said that energy efficiency, “with the right incentives,” could take care of all the growth in electricity demand between 2010 and 2017.

The business community was also interested by the announcement. The Dow Jones Wire commented:

It’s a sign of how quickly energy efficiency has taken center stage in the utility industry’s growth plans. Even in states where rates are low, power companies increasingly see efficiency investments as an inexpensive way to satisfy growing electricity demand and boost revenue without provoking the public opposition that usually dogs proposals for new power plants and transmission lines.

The utilities are working in partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative, backed by former President Bill Clinton’s foundation.

Cross posted on Maria Energia

Kansas City Star
Dow Jones Wire
Yahoo Finance
Agriculture

Climate change will affect agriculture by altering growing seasons, changing rainfall patterns, and enabling new invasive species to flourish, all of which will eventually impact our food distribution.

Specialists in agronomy, pest and water management, and food distribution will be needed to map out the best ways to mitigate and acclimate to these changes.

Ecology

Climate change will have dramatic disruptive effects on our ecosystems, resulting in migrating tree species in our forests, loss of wetlands, expansion of the subtropics and accompanying droughts, ocean acidification, and changes in stream temperatures and flows, all of which will impact our plant and animal species.

The loss of habitat and the introduction of invasive species could change patterns of dominance and survival, and likely result in a loss of biodiversity. To understand the gestalt these changes will bring and manage them, we will need more conservationists and environmental scientists specializing in chemistry, biology, marine biology, aquatic biology, botany, forestry, soil, freshwater, wetlands, natural resources and ecology restoration.

Education

Arguably most important of all, there is and will continue to be a need for teachers trained in science, environment, ecology and sustainability to help the next generation learn to think about our world and their relationship to it in a sustainable way.

The good news is that more and more college students are already turning to studies geared towards climate change, environment, and sustainability on the undergraduate level.

The New York Times reported that 38 percent more students minored in environmental studies at Boston College this year than in 2003, and Iowa State University’s enrollment in environmental studies and environmental science jumped 50 percent between 2003 and 2008.

Because Fordham University also experienced a 50 percent increase in demand for environmental majors within the last five years, it established two new environmental majors in Environmental Science and Environmental Policy starting this fall.

Also beginning this fall, the University of Montana’s Climate Change Studies Program will offer one of the country’s first undergraduate degree programs devoted to global climate change.

Graduate programs in this area traditionally focused on either environmental sciences or environmental policy, but today

“We have to generate scientists who have an appreciation for the practical applications, and policy people who make policy based on sound science,” said Dr. Dibs Sarkar who established Montclair State University’s new Ph.D. program in Environmental Management in January.

Montclair State’s holistic program, which aims to bridge the gap between science and policy, integrates key elements of physical, chemical, biological, social and management practices into the study of natural and human environments.

Columbia University’s new 12-month Climate and Society Master’s degree claims to be the first program to integrate climate science with the impacts of climate effects on society. It incorporates aspects of earth sciences, earth engineering, international relations, political science, sociology, and economics with interdisciplinary and practical applications.

The combination of climate understanding with pragmatic skills will likely produce new professional niches. For example, last summer, Climate and Society alumna Arame Tall worked with the International Federation of the Red Cross in her native Senegal. Because she was able to forecast severe storms for the upcoming rainy season, Tall helped the IFRC raise money in advance and get disaster relief supplies in place before the heavy rain hit.

The new two-year Global Climate and Environmental Change Master of Science program at the University of California at Riverside, based on initial fieldwork in the Sierras, focuses on the interface between disciplines such as geology, chemistry and forestry because it has proven difficult to develop an accurate picture of climate change by knitting various scientific fields together with past, present and future climate systems.

The UC Riverside program will train students in the techniques of analyzing and theories of climate change to gather precise climate records, which are critical to making useful and accurate computer model predictions about climate change.

“In order for there to be jobs, we need to have a new understanding of what needs to be learned, studied and changed,” said Martin Kennedy, the program’s director.

Law schools, which have traditionally taught environmental law through existing laws, such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, and previous interpretations of them, are also beginning to focus on climate change with an eye on evolving regulations in government and the private sector.

Pace Law School’s new Climate Change track within its Master of Laws in Environmental Law program combines academics with practical experience.

The new Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School will work with government and the private sector to develop the framework to shape environmental regulations, and train future lawyers in climate change law.

Undergraduate and graduate climate change programs will no doubt multiply in years to come, especially if the Markey-Waxman bill’s provision for grants to universities to develop more programs in climate change mitigation makes it through Congress.

And as the Obama administration and Congress put together regulations and legislation to address climate change, the career opportunities, both domestic and global, can only increase.

See also:

Where are the Green Jobs?

Green Power’s Challenge: Willing Workers, Few Training Programs

Green Jobs Champion Hilda Solis Gets Secretary of Labor