WWN: Worldwatch Paper on Jobs/Environment

[Tom Trail <ttrail@moscow.com>]

Visionaires:

My friend, Les Brown, President of Worldwatch Institute sent me this
announcement about
a Worldwatch paper concerning the creation and expansion of jobs connected
with the
environment.  This is an excellent article.

Tom Trail

>To: ttrail@moscow.com
>From: dbell@worldwatch.org
>Subject: WWN: Worldwatch Paper on Jobs/Environment
>
>NEWS FROM THE WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE
>Worldwatch is pleased to announce the publication of Worldwatch Paper
>152,"Working for the Environment: A Growing Source of Jobs," by Senior
>Researcher Michael Renner. This paper shows that far from costing jobs,
>environmental policies can stimulate the creation of millions of new jobs in
>areas like energy and materials efficiency, renewable energy, remanufacturing,
>and extending the life-span of products.
>
>The press release attached below describes the paper's principal findings.
>
>You can download this paper today as an Adobe PDF file for $5 on the
>Worldwatch
>web site at: https://secure.worldwatch.org/cgi-bin/wwinst/WWP0152
>
>The paper is also available in print for $5.00 (plus $4 shipping and
>handling,$5
>in Canada, $8.00 in all other countries). Discounts for multiple orders are
>available.
>
>To order the printed version, you can:
>
>1. Call our toll-free number, (800) 555-2028 and order by credit card.
>
>2. Go to the order page on the Worldwatch web site
>(https://secure.worldwatch.org/cgi-bin/wwinst/WWP0152) where you can use your
>credit card to order.
>
>3. Send your order by fax to 202-296-7365.
>
>4. Send your order by email to wwpub@worldwatch.org.
>
>***********************************************************
>Press Release for Worldwatch Paper 152
>
>
>
>Thursday, September 21, 2000
>12:00 PM EDT
>
>
>
>SAVING THE ENVIRONMENT:
>A JOB ENGINE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
>
>    Creating an environmentally sustainable economy has already generated an
>estimated 14 million jobs worldwide, with the promise of millions more in the
>21st century, reports a new study by the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington
>DC-based research organization.
>
>    Many new opportunities for job creation are emerging,  ranging from
>recycling and remanufacturing of goods,  to greater energy and materials
>efficiency and the development of renewable sources of energy. Wind power is
>already generating jobs at a fast clip, including such occupations as wind
>meteorologists, structural engineers, metal workers, mechanics, and computer
>operators.
>
>        "Jobs are more likely to be at risk where environmental standards are
>low and where innovation in favor of cleaner technologies is lagging," said
>Michael Renner, author of Working for the Environment: A Growing Source of
>Jobs.
>"Our research shows that a huge potential to create jobs outside the
>extractive
>industries, jobs that do not depend on processing enormous one-way flows
>of raw
>materials and turning natural resources into mountains of waste. The challenge
>to society is to provide a just transition for workers who will lose jobs in
>industries like fossil fuels and mining."
>
>    Some of the most rapid job growth is taking place in the development of
>wind-generated electricity, solar photovoltaics, and the expansion of
>recycling
>and remanufacturing:
>
>* In 1999, there were an estimated 86,000 jobs worldwide in manufacturing and
>installing wind turbines, a number that has doubled in the last two years.  By
>2020, wind power may account for 10 percent of all electricity generation and
>employ some 1.7 million people.
>
>* The U.S. solar photovoltaic industry directly employs nearly 20,000 people
>now. European solar thermal companies employ more than 10,000 people, a number
>that could grow by at least 70,000 in the next decade, and perhaps to 250,000
>with strong governmental support.
>
>* The worldwide recycling industry now processes more than 600 million tons of
>materials annually, has an annual turnover of $160 billion, and employs more
>than 1.5 million people.
>
>* In the United States, remanufacturing is already a $53 billion per-year
>business and employs some 480,000 people directly-double the number of jobs in
>the U.S. steel industry.
>
>    "Investing in renewable energy, using energy and materials more
>efficiently,
>and designing products to be more durable and repairable, will generate more
>jobs than continuing to invest in extractive industries and fossil fuels,"
>said
>Renner. Although there will be fewer jobs in resource extraction
>industries and
>in manufacturing products when goods do not wear out rapidly, there will be
>greater job opportunities in repairing, upgrading, refurbishing , and
>recycling
>products. Remanufacturing products when their life cycle would otherwise
>come to
>an end typically allows 85 percent or more of the value added-the labor,
>energy,
>and materials embodied in the product -to be recaptured.
>
>    Boosting the efficiency with which resources are used means that
>businesses
>and households save a large portion of the hundreds of billions of dollars
>that
>would otherwise go into purchasing fuels and materials.  Investing the money
>from these avoided costs in more environmentally benign sectors of the economy
>will generate more jobs than investing it in resource industries.
>
>    The industries that extract and process energy and raw materials are among
>the most polluting of human activities, but provide only a small, and
>declining,
>number of jobs.  In the United States, for example, mining, utilities, and
>four
>manufacturing industries (primary metals processing, paper, oil refining, and
>chemicals) together account for 84 percent of all toxic pollutants
>released.  By
>comparison, their workforces account for less than 3 percent of all private
>sector jobs.
>
>    Most mining and logging jobs are at risk even in the absence of tougher
>environmental laws.  Increasing mechanization and automation have translated
>into fewer jobs-in some cases even as output continues to rise. For example,
>from 1980 to 1999, U.S. coal extraction rose 32 percent, but employment
>fell 66
>percent. In the European Union's chemical industry, production grew by 25
>percent from 1990 to 1998, but jobs declined by 14 percent.
>
>    Job creation is particularly important in the developing world, where
>almost
>all of the growth in population will take place in the coming decades. "The
>trouble is that human labor appears too expensive, while energy and raw
>material
>inputs appear dirt cheap," said Renner. "Businesses have long sought to
>compete
>by economizing on their use of labor. To build a sustainable economy, we
>need to
>economize on the use of energy and materials instead."
>
>     Fiscal policy can be a powerful tool for increasing the productivity of
>energy and materials. Current tax systems encourage high resource use and
>discourage job creation. An ecologically-driven reform of tax policy would
>reduce payroll taxes while simultaneously raising taxes on resources use and
>pollution. This kind of tax shifting started to become a reality during the
>1990s in a number of European countries, including Germany, Denmark, Finland,
>Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
>
>    Labor unions and environmentalists could work together to build a stronger
>political base for these changes in policy. Environmental dangers often
>translate into health and safety issues at the workplace. Unions are engaged
>with environmental issues on many fronts, from struggles for improved
>occupational health and safety, to demands for worker right-to-know clauses,
>eco-audits, and other environmental provisions in collective bargaining
>agreements.
>
>    "Job loss due to environmental regulations has been extremely limited-less
>than one-tenth of one percent of all layoffs in the United States," said
>Renner.
>"But to build an effective coalition with labor, environmentalists must
>recognize that those workers who are affected-primarily those in mining,
>logging, fossil fuels, and smokestack industries-will need assistance to
>master
>the move to new skills, technologies, and livelihoods." A just transition
>policy
>involves setting up a fund to provide income and benefits for displaced
>workers
>seeking a new career, tuition support to pay for vocational and other training
>programs, career counseling and placement services, aid in relocating to
>find a
>new job, and measures to help communities and regions diversify their economic
>base.
>
>    "Strong, independent unions are far more likely to engage in a serious
>give-and-take on what it takes to create a sustainable workplace than weak,
>embattled ones," said Renner. "Environmentalists should be supporting labor
>rights and endorsing measures that give worker representatives a meaningful
>voice in determining how environmental issues are being dealt with."
>
>
>-END-
>
>
>Visit the Worldwatch website at <www.worldwatch.org>
>
>
>
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Dr. Tom Trail
International Trails
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Fax:  (208) 882-0896
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