Bioneers to push quest for Green economy

Our ongoing fiscal nightmare complicates the quest for the green economy, the New York Times reports today.

Yet a few days earlier, the paper had this:

OAKLAND, Calif. — California’s energy-efficiency policies created nearly 1.5 million jobs from 1977 to 2007, while eliminating fewer than 25,000, according to a study to be released Monday.

The study, conducted by David Roland-Holst, an economist at the Center for Energy, Resources and Economic Sustainability at the University of California, Berkeley, found that while the state’s policies lowered employee compensation in the electric power industry by an estimated $1.6 billion over that period, it improved compensation in the state over all by $44.6 billion.

So what's the way forward?

This will be the topic of much discussion, no doubt, during the latest incarnation of Bioneers by the Bay, which its organizers call "the Northeast's premiere conference on the environment and social justice." It takes place from Friday, October 24 through Sunday, October 26 in New Bedford.

Over 2,000 students, teachers, green business innovators, scientists, grassroots leaders and everyday folks from across the East Coast will gather to embrace, share, brainstorm, network, heal, learn, teach, celebrate, recharge and connect for change. We will roll up our sleeves and harvest tangible, practical solutions to the specific challenges we face here in the Northeast and the world at-large.

We have planned a rather remarkable three days of live keynote presentations, afternoon workshops, an extensive Youth Initiative program, a downlink of the 19th Annual Bioneers Conference in California [www.bioneers.org], an exhibition hall featuring sustainable businesses and organizations, a community action center, films, music, art installations, a farmers’ market and local & organic food.

Van Jones, a leading enviro who is slated to take part, had a related op-ed yesterday in the ProJo:

A new report, entitled, “U.S. Metro Economies: Current and Potential Green Jobs in the U.S. Economy,” released by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, says that we can create over 4 million green jobs if we aggressively shift away from traditional fossil fuels toward alternative energy and a significant improvement in energy efficiency.

Another report, entitled, “Green Recovery: A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low-Carbon Economy,” just released by the Political Economy Research Institute and the Center for American Progress, shows that the U.S. can create 2 million jobs over two years by investing $100 billion in a green economic-recovery plan. The report also shows that this investment would create four times more jobs than spending the same amount of money within the oil industry.

Sustainable-living and social-justice conferences like Bioneers by the Bay, Oct. 23-26 in New Bedford, are playing their part in stimulating a new green economy. These conferences mobilize civil society, raise awareness and educate and inspire citizens to begin demanding services (fueled by trained skilled labor) to improve the energy efficiencies and lower the carbon footprints of their homes and communities.