Green-collar worker

A green-collar worker is a worker who is employed in the environmental sectors of the economy. Environmental green-collar workers (or green jobs) satisfy the demand for green development. Generally, they implement environmentally conscious design, policy, and technology to improve conservation and sustainability. Formal environmental regulations as well as informal social expectations are pushing many firms to seek professionals with expertise with environmental, energy efficiency, and clean renewable energy issues. They often seek to make their output more sustainable, and thus more favorable to public opinion, governmental regulation, and the Earth's ecology.

Green collar workers include professionals such as conservation movement workers, environmental consultants, environmental or biological systems engineers, green building architects, holistic passive solar building designers, solar energy and wind energy engineers and installers, nuclear engineers , green vehicle engineers, "green business" owners, , organic farmers, environmental lawyers, ecology educators, and ecotechnology workers, and sales staff working with these services or products. Green collar workers also include vocational or trade-level workers: electricians who install solar panels, plumbers who install solar water heaters, construction workers who build energy-efficient green buildings and wind power farms, construction workers who weatherize buildings to make them more energy efficient, or other workers involved in clean, renewable, sustainable future energy development.

There is a growing movement to incorporate social responsibility within the green industries. A sustainable green economy simultaneously values the importance of natural resources and inclusive, equitable, and healthy opportunities for all communities.

In the context of the current economic crisis facing the US and the world, many experts now argue that a massive push to develop renewable sources of energy could create millions of new jobs and help the economy recover while simultaneously improving the environment and strengthening energy security.

Notable uses

1. Of or pertaining to both employment and the environment or environmentalism.
* 1976, Patrick Heffernan, “Jobs for the Environment — The Coming Green Collar Revolution”, in Jobs and Prices in the West Coast Region: Hearing before the Joint Economic Committee, Congress of the United States, Ninety-Fourth Congress, Second Session, U.S. Government Printing Office, page 134,
* 1997, Geoff Mulgan, Perri 6 et al., The British Spring: A Manifesto for the Election After Next, Demos, page 26,

The United States, Canada, Germany, and Denmark are all generating hundreds of thousands of new 'green collar' jobs, especially for young people, achieving remarkable reductions in energy, water, waste disposal and materials costs.

* 2001, Diane Warburton and Ian Christie, From Here to Sustainability: Politics in the Real World, Earthscan, page 75,

Studies for the UK suggest that the more than 100,000 existing 'green collar' workers in environmental occupations could be joined by many thousands more, both in the private sector and in the 'social economy' of community enterprises.

* 2007, U.S. Green Jobs Act
* 2007, U.S. Energy Independence and Security Act - Title X: "Green Jobs - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Worker Training Program" (signed into law 2007-12-19)
* 2008, during the U.S. Presidential Campaign, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama specifically promised more green collar jobs, and green vehicle bonds. Other candidates' energy policy of the United States recommendations all included increased green development, which should accelerate the creation of millions of new green jobs.
* 2008, January 22 U.S. Federal Reserve Board unprecedented mid-term 3/4% interest rate cut to soon be followed by other economic stimulus to avoid recession and support new job development in green building construction, remodeling/weatherization, transportation (green vehicles) and green manufacturing industry sectors. Widespread bipartisan, Administration and Congressional support for immediate economic stimulus funding, with a bias toward increasing sustainable green-collar jobs.
2. Of or pertaining to rural, agricultural employment; often contrasted with urban blue-collar employment.
* 2004, Martin Heidenreich et al., Regional Innovation Systems: The Role of Governances in a Globalized World, Routledge UK, page 394,

Al Gore Repower America

Al Gore states that economists across the spectrum — including Martin Feldstein and Lawrence Summers — agree that large and rapid investments in a jobs-intensive infrastructure initiative is the best way to revive the economy in a quick and sustainable way.

Center for American Progress

A report from the Center for American Progress concludes that a $100 billion federal investment in clean energy technologies over 2009 and 2010 would yield 2 million new U.S. jobs, cutting the unemployment rate by 1.3% and put the nation on a path toward a low-carbon economy. The report, prepared by the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, proposes $50 billion in tax credits for energy efficiency retrofits and renewable energy systems; $46 billion in direct government spending for public building retrofits, mass transit, freight rail, smart electrical grid systems, and renewable energy systems; and $4 billion for federal loan guarantees to help finance building retrofits and renewable energy projects. The Center believes that clean energy investments would yield about 300,000 more jobs than if the same funds were distributed among U.S. taxpayers. The clean energy investments would also have the added benefits of lower home energy bills and reduced prices for non-renewable energy sources, due to the reduced consumption of those energy sources.

Worldwatch Institute/ UNEP

Global efforts to tackle climate change could result in millions of green jobs over the coming decades, according to a 2008 study prepared by the Worldwatch Institute with funding from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The study found that the global market for environmental products and services is projected to double from $1.37 trillion per year at present to $2.74 trillion by 2020, with half of that market in efficient energy use. In terms of energy supply, the renewable energy industry will be particularly important. Some 2.3 million people have found renewable energy jobs in recent years, and projected investments of $630 billion by 2030 would translate into at least 20 million additional jobs.

U.S. Conference of Mayors

Also in 2008, the U.S. Conference of Mayors released a report that finds the U.S. economy currently generates more than 750,000 green jobs, while over the next 30 years, an emphasis on clean energy could result in a five-fold increase, to more than 4.2 million jobs. Engineering, legal, research, and consulting jobs currently dominate the green jobs in the United States and could grow by 1.4 million by 2038, while renewable electricity production will create 1.23 million jobs, alternative transportation fuels will add 1.5 million jobs, and building retrofits will create another 81,000 jobs. The report notes that most of today's jobs are in metropolitan areas, led by New York City; Washington, D.C.; Houston, Texas; and Los Angeles, California.

Scientific, environmental, and health justifications for green collar jobs



The Swedish utility Vattenfall did a study of full life cycle emissions of Nuclear, Hydro, Coal, Gas, Solar Cell, Peat and Wind which the utility uses to produce electricity. The net result of the study was that nuclear power produced 3.3 grams of carbon dioxide per KW-Hr of produced power. This compares to 400 for natural gas and 700 for coal (according to this study). The study also concluded that nuclear power produced the smallest amount of CO2 of any of their electricity sources.

Claims exist that the problems of nuclear waste do not come anywhere close to approaching the problems of fossil fuel waste. A 2004 article from the BBC states: "The World Health Organization (WHO) says 3 million people are killed worldwide by outdoor air pollution annually from vehicles and industrial emissions, and 1.6 million indoors through using solid fuel." In the U.S. alone, fossil fuel waste kills 20,000 people each year. A coal power plant releases 100 times as much radiation as a nuclear power plant of the same wattage. It is estimated that during 1982, US coal burning released 155 times as much radioactivity into the atmosphere as the Three Mile Island incident. In addition, fossil fuel waste causes global warming, which leads to increased deaths from hurricanes, flooding, and other weather events. The World Nuclear Association provides a comparison of deaths due to accidents among different forms of energy production. In their comparison, deaths per TW-yr of electricity produced from 1970 to 1992 are quoted as 885 for hydropower, 342 for coal, 85 for natural gas, and 8 for nuclear.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/

Green paradox

The Green Paradox is a phrase coined by German economist Hans-Werner Sinn to describe the fact that an environmental policy that becomes greener with the passage of time acts like an announced expropriation for the owners of fossil fuel resources, inducing them to anticipate resource extraction and hence to accelerate global warming.

Main line of reasoning

The Green Paradox’s line of reasoning starts by recognizing a fundamental, unavoidable fact: every carbon atom in the gas, coal or oil extracted from the ground to be used as fuel ends up in the atmosphere, in particular if high efficiency combustion processes ensure that no part of it ends up as soot. About a quarter of the emitted carbon will stay in the atmosphere practically forever, contributing to the greenhouse effect that causes global warming.

Apart from afforestation, only two things can mitigate the accumulation of carbon in the atmosphere: either less carbon is extracted from the ground, or it is injected back underground after harvesting its energy.

Environmental policy efforts, however, in particular European ones, go in neither of these two directions, aiming instead at the promotion of alternative, CO2-free energy sources and a more efficient use of energy. In other words, they only address the demand side of the carbon market, neglecting the supply side. Despite considerable investment, the efforts to curtail demand have not reduced the aggregate amount of CO2 emitted globally, which continues to increase unabated. The reason behind this, according to Sinn, is that green policies, by heralding a gradual tightening of policy over the coming decades, exert a stronger downward pressure on future prices than on current ones, decreasing thus the rate of capital appreciation of the fossil fuel deposits. The owners of these resources regard this development with concern and react by increasing extraction volumes, converting the proceeds into investments in the capital markets, which offer higher yields. That is the green paradox: environmental policy slated to become greener over time acts as an announced expropriation that provokes owners to react by accelerating the rate of extraction of their fossil fuel stocks, thus accelerating climate change.

Countries that do not partake of the efforts to curb demand have a double advantage. They burn the carbon set free by the “green” countries (leakage effect) and they also burn the additional carbon extracted as a reaction to the announced and expected price cuts resulting from the gradual greening of environmental policies (green paradox).

Sinn emphasizes that a condition for the green paradox is that the resource be scarce in the sense that its price will always be higher than the unit extraction and exploration costs combined. He points out that this condition is likely to be satisfied as backstop technologies will at best offer a perfect substitute for electricity, but not for fossil fuels. The prices of coal and crude oil are currently many times higher than the corresponding exploration and extraction costs combined.

Practicable solutions

An effective climate policy must perforce focus on the hitherto neglected supply side of the carbon market in addition to the demand side. The ways proposed as practicable by Sinn to do this include levying a withholding tax on the capital gains on the financial investments of fossil fuel resource owners, or the establishment of a seamless global emissions trading system that would effectively put a cap on worldwide fossil fuel consumption, thereby achieving the desired reduction in carbon extraction rates.

Works on the subject

Hans-Werner Sinn’s ideas on the green paradox have been presented in detail in a number of scientific articles, his 2007 Thünen Lecture at the annual meeting of the German Economic Association (Verein für Socialpolitik), his 2007 presidential address to the International Institute of Public Finance in Warwick, two working papers, and a German-language book, “Das Grüne Paradoxon”. They build on his earlier studies on supply reactions of the owners of natural resources to announced price changes.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/

The Green Collar Economy

The Green Collar Economy How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems outlines author Van Jones's plan for simultaneously solving socioeconomic inequality and environmental problems. The book has received favorable reviews from such luminaries as Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi, Laurie David, Paul Hawken, Winona LaDuke and Ben Jealous. The Green Collar Economy is the first environmental book authored by an African-American to make the New York Times bestseller list.

The book is a detailed proposal for a "green new deal". There is the opportunity to create thousands of low- and medium-skill jobs that help conserve energy (for example, insulating older homes and buildings) or use alternate energy sources (solar panels). These are local jobs that can't be exported. With appropriate incentives and programs, the jobs can be created in inner cities and thereby help lift people out of poverty. According to Jones, we can ensure the "approaching green wave lifts all boats." In the book, Jones calls for a mass movement to tackle our ecological and economic crises.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/

The Great Global Warming Swindle

The Great Global Warming Swindle is a documentary film that argues against the scientific consensus that global warming is "very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic (man-made) greenhouse gas concentrations". It has been described by both its original broadcaster Channel 4 and the British regulator Ofcom as "a polemic".

The film, made by British television producer Martin Durkin, showcases scientists, economists, politicians, writers, and others who are sceptical about the scientific theory of anthropogenic global warming. The programme's publicity materials assert that man-made global warming is "a lie" and "the biggest scam of modern times." Its original working title was "Apocalypse my arse", but the title The Great Global Warming Swindle was later adopted as a reference to The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, a mockumentary about British punk band The Sex Pistols.

The UK's Channel 4 premiered the documentary on 8 March 2007. The channel described the film as "a polemic that drew together the well-documented views of a number of respected scientists to reach the same conclusions. This is a controversial film but we feel that it is important that all sides of the debate are aired." According to Hamish Mykura, Channel 4's head of documentaries, the film was commissioned "to present the viewpoint of the small minority of scientists who do not believe global warming is caused by anthropogenic production of carbon dioxide."

Although the documentary was welcomed by global warming sceptics, it was criticised heavily by many scientific organisations and individual scientists (including two of the film's contributors). The film's critics argued that it had misused and fabricated data, relied on out-of-date research, employed misleading arguments, and misrepresented the position of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Channel 4 and Wag TV (the production company) accepted some of the criticism, correcting a few errors in subsequent releases. However according to Bob Ward (former spokesman for the Royal Society), this still left five out of seven of the errors and misleading arguments which had been previously attacked by him and 36 other scientists in an open letter.

The British broadcasting regulator, the Office of Communications (Ofcom), received 265 complaints about the programme, one of which was a 176-page detailed complaint co-authored by a group of scientists. Ofcom used this complaint in its deliberation, and delivered its ruling on 21 July 2008. It ruled that the programme had unfairly treated Sir David King, the IPCC and Professor Carl Wunsch. Ofcom also found that part 5 of the programme (the 'political' part) had breached several parts of the Broadcasting Code regarding impartiality. Ofcom said that the rules on impartiality did not apply to the scientific arguments in parts 1-4, because global warming caused by human activity was a settled fact: "In this respect it could be said that the discussion about the causes of global warming was to a very great extent settled by the date of broadcast ( 8 March 2007 ). In Ofcom’s view the link between human activity and global warming also became similarly settled before March 2007.Having reached this view, it follows that the rules relating to the preservation of due impartiality did not apply to these parts.". Regarding the programme's accuracy, Ofcom noted that in its role as regulator it: "had to ascertain – not whether the programme was accurate - but whether it materially misled the audience." On this basis Ofcom ruled that: "On balance it did not materially mislead the audience so as to cause harm or offence." On 4 and 5 August 2008, Channel 4 and More 4 broadcast a summary of Ofcom's findings, though it will not face sanctions.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/

Glossary of climate change

This article serves as a glossary of climate change terms. It lists terms that are related to anthropogenic climate change.

0-9

* 100,000-year problem - a discrepancy between the climate response and the forcing from the amount of incoming solar radiation.

A

* Albedo - An index of the "reflectiveness" - a way of quantifying how much radiation is reflected back, as opposed to that absorbed. low albedo ~0 absorb most of the radiation and high ~1 reflect it .
* Anoxic event - a period when the Earth's oceans are free of oxygen below the surface layer.
* Antarctic oscillation (AAO) - a low-frequency mode of atmospheric variability of the southern hemisphere.
* Anthropogenic - literally, man-made.
* Anthropogenic climate change - climate change with the presumption of human influence, usually warming.
* Anti-greenhouse effect - the cooling effect an atmosphere has on the ambient temperature of the planet.
* Arctic amplification - The effect of sea ice melting replace high albedo ice with low albedo sea that absorb the radiation from the sun get warmer and melt more ice.
* Arctic oscillation (AO) - the dominant pattern of non-seasonal sea-level pressure (SLP) variations north of 20 degrees N, and it is characterized by SLP anomalies of one sign in the Arctic and anomalies of opposite sign centered about 37-45 degrees N. See also NAO.
* Arctic shrinkage - the marked decrease in Arctic sea ice and the observed melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet in recent years.
* Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) - a hypothesised mode of natural variability occurring in the North Atlantic Ocean and which has its principle expression in the sea surface temperature (SST) field.
* Atmospheric sciences - an umbrella term for the study of the atmosphere, its processes, the effects other systems have on the atmosphere, and the effects of the atmosphere on these other systems.
* Atmospheric window - refers to those parts of the electromagnetic spectrum that are, with the Earth's atmosphere in its natural state, not absorbed at all.
* Attribution of recent climate change - the study of the causes of climate change.

B

* Black carbon - an aerosol or particulate (see also radiative forcing).

C

* Carbon cycle - the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged between the biosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of the Earth.
* Carbon diet - the act of reducing the output of CO2 to reduce impact on the environment.
* Carbon sequestration - proposals for removing CO2 from the atmosphere, or for preventing CO2 from fossil fuel use ever being released.
* Carbon offset - opportunity for individuals and businesses to neutralize their contribution to climate change.
* Carbon tax - a tax on energy sources which emit carbon dioxide.
* Clathrate gun hypothesis - the hypothesis that melting methance clathrates could trigger runaway or very severe global warming.
* Climate - the average and variations of weather in a region over long periods of time.
* Climate change - changes of climate in general, usually with no presumption of human influence. Note, however, that there is one important exception to this: the UNFCCC defines "climate change" as anthropogenic.
* Climate commitment - how much future warming is "committed", even if greenhouse gas levels do not rise.
* Climate ethics - an area of research that focuses on the ethical dimensions of climate change.
* Climate legislation - legislation dealing with regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.
* Climate refugee - a displaced person caused by climate change induced environmental disasters.
* Climate variability - climate change, with no presumption of cause.
* Climatology (Climate Science) - the study of climate, scientifically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of time.

D

* Desertification - the degradation of land in arid and dry sub-humid areas, resulting primarily from natural activities and influenced by climatic variations
* Detection and attribution - see attribution of recent climate change

E

* Eco-efficiency - creating more goods and services while using fewer resources and creating less waste and pollution.
* Earth's atmosphere - a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth and retained by the Earth's gravity.
* Earthshine - sunlight reflected from Earth and illuminating the dark side of the Moon.
* Ecotax - fiscal policy that introduces taxes intended to promote ecologically sustainable activities via economic incentives.
* El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) - a set of specific interacting parts of a single global system of coupled ocean-atmosphere climate fluctuations that come about as a consequence of oceanic and atmospheric circulation.
* Emission standards - requirements that set specific limits to the amount of pollutants that can be released into the environment
* Enteric fermentation - fermentation that takes place in the digestive systems of ruminant animals.
* Environmental crime - crime against environmental legislation that is liable for prosecution.

F

* Feedbacks - either an amplification (positive feedback) or a reduction (negative feedback) of the rate of global warming caused by its effects.
* Fossil fuel - fossil source fuels, that is, hydrocarbons found within the top layer of the earth’s crust.
* Freon - DuPont's trade name for its odorless, colorless, nonflammable, and noncorrosive chlorofluorocarbon and hydrochlorofluorocarbon refrigerants, which are used in air conditioning and refrigeration systems.

G

* Global cooling - conjecture during the 1970s of imminent cooling of the Earth's surface and atmosphere along with a posited commencement of glaciation.
* Global climate model, also General Circulation Model or GCM - a computer model of the world's climate system, including the atmosphere and oceans.
* Global dimming - the observed decrease in surface insolation, that may have recently reversed
* Global warming - usually: the warming trend over the past century or so; also: any period in which the temperature of the Earth's atmosphere increases; also the theory of such changes.
* Global warming controversy - socio-political issues surrounding the theory of global warming.
* Global warming period - any period in which the temperature of the Earth's atmosphere increases
* Global warming potential - a measure of how much a given mass of greenhouse gas is estimated to contribute to global warming.
* Greenhouse effect - both natural and anthropogenic
* Greenhouse gas - gasses that cause the greenhouse effect
* Gulf Stream - a powerful, warm, and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico, exits through the Strait of Florida, and follows the eastern coastlines of the United States and Newfoundland before crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

H

* Heiligendamm Process - an initiative that will institutionalize high level dialogue between the G8 countries and the five most important emerging economies, known as the O5 (Outreach 5) composed of China, Mexico, India, Brazil and South Africa; and the establishment of a common G5 + G8 platform at the OECD.
* Historical temperature record - see temperature record.
* Hockey stick controversy - a dispute over the reconstructed estimates of Northern Hemisphere mean temperature changes over the past millennium, frequently referred to as the MBH98 reconstruction.
* Holocene - a geological period, which began approximately 11,550 calendar years BP (about 9600 BC) and continued to the Anthropocene.
* Holocene Climatic Optimum - a warm period during roughly the interval 9,000 to 5,000 years B.P.

I

* Ice age - a period of long-term reduction in the temperature of Earth's climate, resulting in an expansion of the continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers.
* Ice core - a core sample from the accumulation of snow and ice over many years that have re-crystallized and have trapped air bubbles from previous time periods.
* Insolation - amount of solar radiation reaching the surface of the Earth.
* Irradiance - amount of electromagnetic radiation reaching a surface, measured in watts per square meter.
* Instrumental temperature record - shows the fluctuations of the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans as measured by temperature sensors. The longest-running quasi-global record starts in 1850.
* Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO) - a cycle of 15–30 years between warm or cool waters in the north and south Pacific.

K

* Kyoto Protocol - modification to UNFCCC. See also Post-Kyoto Protocol negotiations on greenhouse gas emissions

L

* Little Ice Age - a period of cooling occurring after a warmer era known as the Medieval climate optimum.

M

* Magnetosphere - the region around an astronomical object in which phenomena are dominated or organized by its magnetic field.
* Maunder Minimum - the name given to the period roughly from 1645 to 1715, when sunspots became exceedingly rare, as noted by solar observers of the time.
* Mauna Loa - home to the longest instrumental CO2 record.
* Medieval climate optimum - warm period from about the 10th century to about the 14th century.
* Meteorology - the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere that focuses on weather processes and forecasting.
* Methane - a greenhouse gas released by enteric fermentation in livestock, rice production, and fossil fuel extraction.
* Mitigation of global warming - involves taking actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to enhance sinks aimed at reducing the extent of global warming

N

* Nitrous oxide (N2O) - a potent greenhouse gas produced primarily in agriculture, particularly by the livestock sector.
* North Atlantic Deep Water - one of the water masses of the ocean
* North Atlantic oscillation - an atmospheric climate mode

O

* Ocean planet - the opposite concept of Snowball Earth.
* Ozone depletion - not strongly connected to climate change

P

* Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) - a 23-year pattern of warm or cool water in the north Pacific.
* Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) - a sudden warming event that fundamentally altered geological and biological aspects of the planet.
* Paleoclimatology - the study of climate change taken on the scale of the entire history of Earth.
* Polar amplification - greater temperature increases in the Arctic compared to the earth as a whole. It does not apply to the Antarctic
* Polar city - a proposed human refuge located in northern regions of the Earth, and in Tasmania, New Zealand and the Antarctica, where people might have to live in order to survive major global warming "events" in the far distant future, also dubbed Lovelock Retreats.
* Proxy - a variable that can be related to one of interest (e.g. tree rings can be proxies for temperature variations).

R

* Radiative forcing - is (loosely) defined as the change in net irradiance at the tropopause
* Runaway greenhouse effect - somewhat ill-defined term, associated with the idea of large irreversible temperature rises

S

* Slash and burn - form of deforestation used to clear fields for agricultural use.
* Solar variation - changes in the amount of radiant energy emitted by the Sun.
* Sunspot - a region on the Sun's surface (photosphere) that is marked by a lower temperature than its surroundings and has intense magnetic activity, which inhibits convection, forming areas of low surface temperature. Sunspot activity is subject to research on climate change.

T

* Thermohaline circulation - the global density-driven circulation of the oceans.
* TEX-86 - a paleothermometer based on the composition of membrane lipids of the marine picoplankton Crenarchaeota.
* Thermocline - (sometimes metalimnion) is a layer within a body of water or air where the temperature changes rapidly with depth.
* Tipping point (climatology) - the point at which change due to human activity brings about sufficient new processes in nature to make any human reversal of the change impossible.

U

* Urban heat island - a metropolitan area which is significantly warmer than its surroundings.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/