Transitioning to a Green Economy Holds the Answers to Today's Critical Challenges

Worldwatch Institute
As global unemployment continues to rise and job opportunities remain scarce, especially for youth, the creation of a green economy might hold the answers to addressing some of today’s most critical challenges. Global unemployment reached an estimated 205 million in 2010, up from 177 million in 2007, according to the Worldwatch Institute’s recently released report, State of the World 2012: Moving Toward Sustainable Prosperity. The report highlights the need for a green economy to address current social and economic woes.
The Earth’s ability to absorb waste and pollution is increasingly challenged by the rise in resource consumption and the corresponding throughput of energy and materials. Stress on ecosystems is evident in many ways, from species loss and deforestation to the overuse and pollution of critical resources like water. A study published in Nature estimates that, by 2009, nine critical environmental thresholds either had already been crossed or were on track to be, pushing beyond the planetary boundaries upon which all life depends.
Critical environmental issues are too often pushed aside in pursuit of short-sighted economic goals. But to effectively address the ongoing economic crisis, environmental concerns must take center stage. By transitioning to a green economy that values both development and sustainability, societies can work to simultaneously alleviate the economic, environmental and social concerns that threaten stability. Both industrialized and developing countries must play a role in—and benefit from—the move toward a green economy and toward sustainable prosperity that meets the needs of all people, present and future.
Unlike the conventional pattern of economic competition that produces winner and losers, the quest for a green economy needs to focus on win-win outcomes that render economic activities sustainable everywhere. In relative terms, the poor have to win more in a green economy than the rich do, so as to reduce and eventually overcome the stark differences in claims to the planet’s remaining resources. Environmental sustainability is ultimately impossible without social equity.
Creating stable livelihoods is one of the most important tasks for a sustainable economic system. “Green jobs provide immense opportunity—but unfortunately, jobs that are in accord with environmental needs remain limited,” said Michael Renner, State of the World 2012 project co-director and a senior researcher at Worldwatch. “We need a ‘green for all’ strategy that combines technical and structural change with social empowerment, with new approaches to everything from energy provision and transportation to housing and waste management.”
In Chapter 1 of State of the World 2012, “Making the Green Economy Work for Everybody,” Renner discusses four proposals to achieve sustainability with equity:
- Green Innovation Centers: New cooperative models should be developed for green research and development, so that green innovations can be spread as widely and quickly as possible. When it comes to technologies that can help save the planet, competitive advantage is of limited value if others continue to rely on unsustainable ways of producing and consuming.
- Global Top Runner Program: For a range of consumer products, Japan’s Top Runner program makes the most efficient model the standard that every manufacturer has to match. Adopting such an approach on a global level would promote sustainability. Paired with a social top runner policy for wages, it could also promote greater equity.
- Green Financing: An important undertaking in transitioning to a green economy is to make green products more affordable. A green financing program could offer preferential interest rates and loan terms for green products.
- Economic Democracy: Irrespective of how countries are governed, their economic spheres often function in an undemocratic manner. In the U.S., corporations are now entitled to the same free-speech rights as individuals, while the majority of the population has no say in how such corporations operate. A more participatory model, where each worker has greater involvement in corporate decision making and day-to-day processes, could help better align corporate actions with urgent social and environmental needs.
For more information, click here.
- Redwoods are the world's tallest trees.
- Now scientists have discovered they are even bigger than we thought.
- Using laser technology they map the 80-meter giants.
- Trees are a key plank in the fight against climate change.
They are among the largest trees in the world, descendants of forests where dinosaurs roamed.
Pixabay / Simi Luft
<p><span>Until recently, measuring these trees meant scaling their 80 meter high trunks with a tape measure. Now, a team of scientists from University College London and the University of Maryland uses advanced laser scanning, to create 3D maps and calculate the total mass.</span></p><p>The results are striking: suggesting the trees <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73733-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">may be as much as 30% larger than earlier measurements suggested.</a> Part of that could be due to the additional trunks the Redwoods can grow as they age, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73733-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a process known as reiteration</a>.</p>New 3D measurements of large redwood trees for biomass and structure. Nature / UCL
<p>Measuring the trees more accurately is important because carbon capture will probably play a key role in the battle against climate change. Forest <a href="https://www.wri.org/blog/2020/09/carbon-sequestration-natural-forest-regrowth" target="_blank">growth could absorb billions of tons</a> of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year.</p><p>"The importance of big trees is widely-recognised in terms of carbon storage, demographics and impact on their surrounding ecosystems," the authors wrote<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73733-6" target="_blank"> in the journal Nature</a>. "Unfortunately the importance of big trees is in direct proportion to the difficulty of measuring them."</p><p>Redwoods are so long lived because of their ability to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73733-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cope with climate change, resist disease and even survive fire damage</a>, the scientists say. Almost a fifth of their volume may be bark, which helps protect them.</p>Carbon Capture Champions
<p><span>Earlier research by scientists at Humboldt University and the University of Washington found that </span><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112716302584" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Redwood forests store almost 2,600 tonnes of carbon per hectare</a><span>, their bark alone containing more carbon than any other neighboring species.</span></p><p>While the importance of trees in fighting climate change is widely accepted, not all species enjoy the same protection as California's coastal Redwoods. In 2019 the world lost the equivalent of <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/deforestation-and-forest-degradation" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">30 soccer fields of forest cover every minute</a>, due to agricultural expansion, logging and fires, according to The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF).</p>Pixabay
<p>Although <a href="https://c402277.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/publications/1420/files/original/Deforestation_fronts_-_drivers_and_responses_in_a_changing_world_-_full_report_%281%29.pdf?1610810475" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the rate of loss is reported to have slowed in recent years</a>, reforesting the world to help stem climate change is a massive task.</p><p><span>That's why the World Economic Forum launched the Trillion Trees Challenge (</span><a href="https://www.1t.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">1t.org</a><span>) and is engaging organizations and individuals across the globe through its </span><a href="https://uplink.weforum.org/uplink/s/uplink-issue/a002o00000vOf09AAC/trillion-trees" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Uplink innovation crowdsourcing platform</a><span> to support the project.</span></p><p>That's backed up by research led by ETH Zurich/Crowther Lab showing there's potential to restore tree coverage across 2.2 billion acres of degraded land.</p><p>"Forests are critical to the health of the planet," according to <a href="https://www.1t.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">1t.org</a>. "They sequester carbon, regulate global temperatures and freshwater flows, recharge groundwater, anchor fertile soil and act as flood barriers."</p><p><em data-redactor-tag="em" data-verified="redactor">Reposted with permission from the </em><span><em data-redactor-tag="em" data-verified="redactor"><a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/03/redwoods-store-more-co2-and-are-more-enormous-than-we-thought/" target="_blank">World Economic Forum</a>.</em></span></p>EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
- Offshore Wind Power Is Ready to Boom. Here's What That Means for ... ›
- American Skyscrapers Kill an Estimated 600 Million Migratory Birds ... ›
Trending
Kentucky is coping with historic flooding after a weekend of record-breaking rainfall, enduring water rescues, evacuations and emergency declarations.
<div id="0f31c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4290ab3e7ec4e142f8bce774bab39f03"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1366307788155219969" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Just got back from my office... downtown Beattyville Kentucky is not a pretty sight. @KySportsRadio… https://t.co/6nXwyMKtRb</div> — Tom Jones (@Tom Jones)<a href="https://twitter.com/8atticus/statuses/1366307788155219969">1614588136.0</a></blockquote></div>
<div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b41a2da6bf23cc19a5f38c2dc6c5f9fc"><div class="fb-post" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/dekalbtnfire/photos/a.924258171004562/3713119618785056/"></div></div>
Spring is coming. And soon, tree swallows will start building nests. But as the climate changes, the birds are nesting earlier in the spring.
- Spring Is Arriving Earlier Across the U.S. - EcoWatch ›
- Climate Change Leading to Fatal Bird Conflicts - EcoWatch ›
- The Unsettling Reason Why We're Seeing More Snowy Owls ... ›
Citigroup will strive to reach net-zero greenhouse gas pollution across its lending portfolio by 2050 and in its own operations by 2030, the investment group announced Monday.
- 20 Attorneys General Launch Climate Fraud Investigation of Exxon ... ›
- Exxon Plans to Increase Its Climate Pollution - EcoWatch ›
- Exxon to Slash 14,000 Jobs Worldwide as Oil Demand Drops ... ›