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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Protip #5: How to create win-win situations and gain popular support

Pan Wenshi was recently featured by the International Herald Tribune for his success working with locals in a small Chinese village to protect the white-headed langur. But it wasn’t until Pan lent a hand to help locals that he began to realize success. After Pan helped a villager to get clean drinking water, the villager freed a langur from a trap and brought the animal to Pan, who learned from the experience. Now, Pan advocates for new schools and health clinics in the area where the langurs live. In return, he gets local support. “When you help the villagers, they would like to help you back,” says Pan. “Now, when outsiders try to trap langurs the locals stop them from coming in.”

Pan’s success grew when he won an environmental award that allowed him to install biogas collectors. The villagers could now cook without the toil of chopping firewood and the langurs benefited by slowed deforestation. Serving the needs of others has allowed the langur population in Pan’s nature reserve to expand from 96 to over 500. “This [serving the human community] is the most important thing we can do,” says Pan. “If the villagers can’t feed themselves, the langurs don’t stand a chance.”

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Step Right Up And Be Amazed

It struck me today that our fearless leaders, would-be’s, and corporate giants seem to think we’re all a bunch of rubes gathered outside a carnival sideshow, leaning on the barker’s every word.

Urging Congress to lift its ban on offshore oil and gas drilling, our fearless leader, you know, President Bush, told lawmakers, “There is no excuse for delay“.

It got worse, “Families across the country are looking to Washington for a response.”  Gimme a break.

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Both the financial sector and the environmental movement were abuzz around Australia last week with the same piece of information. It looked very much like the Australia New Zealand bank (ANZ), one of the country’s top four, had pulled out of its pledge to fund a controversial $2.2 billion pulp mill planned for the southern state of Tasmania.

But of course while the finance sector saw doom and gloom and proceeded to wipe 10 per cent of the share market value of the pulp mill’s developer Gunns Ltd, the environmentalist were giddy with delight. If the rumor is true, and they certainly think it is, it could well be the final shot in a battle that has raged for years between Gunns and environmentalists.

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In the interest of bringing EcoWorldy readers the most up to date and worldly information, I’ve undertaken a small, and totally un-scientific survey of the Swiss population by asking a small number of random people random questions about their attitudes towards the environment and environmentalism.

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In the first week of February, we explored and compared methods of public transportation around the world.

This week, from February 18-24, we’d like to introduce a topic that’s a little more personal. How do people in different nations view the environment and environmentalists?

To help answer this question, our correspondents around the world will shed light on four areas:

• traditional cultural views: how different cultures see nature and the environment
• attitudes on the street: what the average person has to say about environmentalists
• levels of activism: how environmentally active people are in a particular country
• motivation: what local environmental issues are making people talk

Hopefully, over the course of the week, we will have a better appreciation of the emerging environmental consciousness around the world.

We also hope to bring you, our reader, eye to eye with people of many nationalities to explore what environmental issues motivate each of us to care and inspire us to take action.

As always, please freely contribute your thoughts and observations as we explore attitudes toward the environment and environmentalists around the world.
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 litany of bad news about the environment seems endless. Are things really that bad? Or do environmentalists tend to view everything they see through soot-colored glasses?

In answer to the latter question, I don’t think so. No, the sky isn’t falling and the human race isn’t likely to be wiped off the face of the Earth tomorrow. But there are very real environmental problems around the world, and pointing them out doesn’t make you a gloom-and-doom nabob of negativism. It makes you a realist, one who — I hope — is motivated to change things for the better rather than tempted to throw up one’s hands in despair and surrender.

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