Dear Friends,

Something really beautiful is happening tomorrow. Tens of thousands of people are organizing events in all 50 states to tell our leaders that we’re ready to tackle the climate crisis by building a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. “Green Jobs Now: A Day to Build the New Economy” has been put together by Green for All, 1Sky, the We Campaign, Energy Action Coalition and over 100 other amazing and diverse partners.

If you’re not already involved, please go to www.greenjobsnow.com — find an event, plan your own, sign the petition or help us spread the word.

Across the country, people recognize that the economic, energy and climate crises are connected, and have developed real solutions that I believe represent our best path forward. In New York, where I’m from, the Green Jobs NY campaign is pushing for a program to retrofit a million homes in 5 years - to fight global warming, create quality jobs with pathways out of poverty, and put energy bill savings back in consumers’ pockets. In the Southwest, where I live, the Navajo Green Economy Coalition has partnered with the Navajo Speaker’s Office to propose a Green Economy Fund to finance green job training programs and sustainable economic development initiatives to transition the tribal economy.

Green Jobs Now aims to raise these local efforts up as a model, and to come together to call on our national leaders to bring these solutions to scale. We can put America back to work rebuilding and repowering America with millions of green-collar jobs. Please join us: www.greenjobsnow.com.

All my best,
Billy

Billy Parish is the Co-Founder and Coordinator of the Energy Action Coalition, dedicating his life’s work to strengthening the climate movement. Billy has been instrumental in bringing the “Green Jobs Now!” message to Washington, and we are delighted to have him on our Advisory Board.

A common last-ditch claim by global warming skeptics (once they’ve conceded that the climate is changing and we’re to blame) is that taking action is simply too expensive. But study after study has found that the costs of inaction are astronomical, whereas investing in solutions today will help, not hurt, the economy. So it’s appropriate that, as Wall Street ends a roller-coaster week, our partner 1Sky is gearing up to release a summary of recent reports on green jobs.

Green jobs are well-paid, career-track jobs that contribute to preserving or enhancing environmental quality. These jobs are automatically created during the transition from an economy based on coal, oil, and other fossil fuels to one based on efficiency and clean renewable energy. Many are impossible to outsource - imagine shipping a building to China to be retrofitted with better insulation and energy-efficient lighting! Green jobs in the manufacturing sector have the potential to revitalize demand for skilled workers in rust-belt towns, while jobs retrofitting buildings or installing and maintaining solar panels could provide pathways out of poverty to millions in cities. Demand for low-carbon fuels and electricity will create jobs in rural areas. College graduates will start and join companies in a growing environmental services industry.

1Sky’s summary isn’t available for download yet, but the kicker should come as no surprise: investing in energy efficiency and clean, renewable technologies is our best bet for forestalling a two-fold climate and economic crisis. It will bring growth, green jobs, economic stability, and, oh yeah, a healthier environment and hospitable climate.

Here’s a preview of what’s inside the forthcoming report:

• Paul Volcker, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve under President Reagan, says that unless we curb global warming “the economy will go down the drain in the next thirty years”

• Existing building efficiency opportunities could boost energy productivity the equivalent of 64 million barrels of oil per day - almost 150% of current total US energy consumption.

• Although transitional assistance will be necessary, there are more than enough green jobs to offset inevitable job losses in energy industries.

• Incentives for low-carbon fuels and electricity could create over 5 million new jobs in rural areas by 2030.

• Inadequate training and workforce skills is currently one of the primary obstacles to developing renewable energy and energy efficiency.

• Areas hardest-hit by recent manufacturing job losses are well-positioned to take advantage of new green jobs producing solar cells, wind turbine blades, and other components that currently need to be imported.

The full report will be available soon from www.1sky.org

-Ian

Today we have a guest post from Tom Boucher of NativeEnergy; NativeEnergy sources renewable energy projects and is the carbon offset supplier for the Brighter Planet Visa. Here, Tom discusses how national legislation on carbon, which he expects to be a cap-and-trade system, will impact the voluntary carbon offset market.

Will the Voluntary Offset Market be Affected by Cap-and-Trade?

A key feature of the U.S. voluntary offset market has always been that it stands alone, unaccompanied by any mandatory Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions trading program. The Kyoto Protocol holds sway over most of the world, and the European Union also has its own emissions trading scheme. But with the imminent launch of the Northeast Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), continued progress on the Western Climate Initiative, and multiple GHG bills in the works in Washington, it seems clear that before long the U.S. too will have a regulated carbon market – most likely a cap-and-trade system. Which prompts the question: how will this affect the voluntary offset market?

The answer depends on whose crystal ball you gaze into.

Read the rest of this entry »

Climate change is all too often an intangible concept. There is the simple fact that the culprits of climate change - greenhouse gases - are invisible, emitted without sight or economic consequence. Its effects, such as severe drought and flooding, higher sea levels, stronger storms, loss in bio-diversity, are couched in the far off decades of 2030, 2050, 2100. Its solutions, such as cleaner energy sources or a smart grid, are in many cases years away from being cost competitive with the status quo. We believe the effect of this intangibility is a degree of inertia around climate change, whether it is on an individual, business, or political level.

Here at Brighter Planet, we’re spending a great deal of time trying to make the issue of climate change both more approachable and more apparent. It’s with this in mind that we created the “Live, Learn, and Experience Climate Change” prize for New American Dream’s Break the Bottled Water Habit campaign. We strongly encourage you to check out the campaign and take the pledge to stop hitting the bottle (the disposable one that is). Then spread the word and get others to take the pledge, so you can win our sweet prize.

Live: If we are going to confront climate change, all actions, large and small, will matter. If millions, or even better, billions of people make conservation a cornerstone of their life, we will do more to reduce our environmental impact than all the wind turbines in the world ever could. Brighter Planet will help get you started with a bike, outfitted with baskets and lights, for commuting and doing errands.

Learn: “Knowledge is power”, and when facing the grizzly beast of climate change, we need all the knowledge we can get. We’ll help build your climate change library with books from these luminary authors: Bill McKibben’s “Deep Economy”, Jon Isham’s “Ignition: What You Can Do to Fight Global Warming and Start A Movement”, Michael Pollen’s “Omnivore’s Dilemma”, and Alex Steffen’s “Worldchanging: A Users Guide for the 21st Century”.

Experience: All around the world, the effects of climate change are already apparent. You don’t have to travel to the melting Arctic or to the dying coral reefs in our equatorial waters to see the impact. Weather is changing here in our own country, too: unique ecosystems are threatened, and annual snow-pack is lessening. Perhaps, nowhere is this more apparent than in Glacier National Park. If you visit the park today in the height of summer, you’ll see a virtually glacier-less park with those remaining in rapid retreat. We want you to see what remains of these glaciers and experience first-hand the changes wrought by a warming climate. You’ll meet with leading researchers on the issue of climate change, while, hiking, walking, and relaxing in one of America’s greatest natural treasures.

So what are you waiting for? Take the pledge and start spreading the word.

-Robbie

Here at Brighter Planet, we are working to build a truly innovative partnership network across the for-profit/non-profit divide. Our partnerships are based around the shared mission of confronting climate change and reducing human impact on the environment. One of our first partners, Center for New American Dream, recently launched Break the Bottled Water Habit, an exciting campaign focused on getting Americans to pledge to give up the bottle for good old tap water. The individual who gets the most people to sign-up for the pledge will win Brighter Planet’s Live, Learn, Experience Climate Change Prize. The prize includes a commuter bike, a few essential books on climate and sustainability, and a trip for two to Glacier National Park.

So what are you waiting for? Take the pledge and start to spread the word.

If you’re particularly attached to your Aquafina or Fiji bottles, consider these facts:

1. Waste, Energy, and Emissions: The Beverage Marketing Corporation reports that Americans consumed 31.2 billion liters of water in 2006 – nearly 9 liters per month for every man, woman, and child. Manufacturing all those bottles requires 900,000 tons of plastic, the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of oil, and emit more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide. Trucking around all those heavy bottles emits even more greenhouse gases. Beyond the climate impact there’s the massive waste – 86% of water bottles aren’t recycled - and water bottling is also, ironically, a very water-intensive endeavor. The Pacific Institute tells us that it takes three liters of water to produce one liter of bottled water!

2. Bottled water is full of oil. Making bottles to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 cars for a year. (NY Times) To put it another way, the entire energy costs of the lifecycle of a bottle of water is equivalent, on average, to filling up a quarter of each bottle with oil. (Pacific Institute).

3. Disposable plastic water bottles are not meant for multiple uses. The #1 polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is fine for a single use, but reuse can lead to chemical leaching of toxins such as DEHA, a known carcinogen, and benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP), a potential hormone disrupter.

4. At least 40 percent of bottled water is tap water anyway. That’s right: you are paying a huge premium on water that you could have just gotten from your tap in the first place. (National Resources Defense Council)

So take the pledge, get yourself a few reusable containers, and spread the word.

-Robbie