QUICK NEWS, August 15: It’s Not LIKE A World War – It IS One; Solar Jobs To Unemployed Vets, Oil & Gas Workers; Buy New Energy Anywhere

It’s Not LIKE A World War – It IS One A World At War; We’re under attack from climate change—and our only hope is to mobilize like we did in WWII.

Bill McKibben, August 15, 2016 (The New Republic)

Editor’s note: This lengthy article deserves much attention.

“In the North this summer, a devastating offensive is underway…[With each passing week, enemy forces have seized] another 22,000 square miles of Arctic ice…In the Pacific this spring, the enemy staged a full-scale assault on thousands of miles of] the region’s coral reefs…[and reduced them] to white bone-yards…Day after day, week after week, saboteurs behind our lines are unleashing a series of brilliant and overwhelming attacks…[A firestorm forced] the total evacuation of a city of 90,000 in Canada…[Because of drought], southern Africans are literally eating their seed corn, and floods to threaten the priceless repository of art in the Louvre……Carbon and methane now represent the deadliest enemy of all time, the first force fully capable of harrying, scattering, and impoverishing our entire civilization…World War III is well and truly underway. And we are losing.

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“…[We’re used to war as metaphor but] climate change is the real deal: Carbon and methane are seizing physical territory, sowing havoc and panic, racking up casualties, and even destabilizing governments…It is a world war [aimed at us all and to win] we must look to the last one…[Pearl Harbor made] individual Americans willing to do hard things: pay more in taxes, buy billions upon billions in war bonds, endure the shortages and disruptions that came when the country’s entire economy converted to wartime production…[The next president must not wait for a climate equivalent of Pearl Harbor...[and must stop] drilling and mining on public lands and waters…slow the build-out of the natural gas system…[stop] new fossil fuel projects…[use federal funds to buy] power from green sources and rely exclusively on plug-in cars…Without the same urgency and foresight displayed [in World War II]—without immediate executive action—we will lose this war…” click here for more

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Solar Jobs To Unemployed Vets, Oil & Gas Workers Declining energy sector jobs switching to solar power

August 14, 2016 (Associated Press via The Gazette)

“A program is underway in Colorado to retrain people who lost their jobs in the coal or oil and gas industry so they can get the skills they need to install solar panels…[The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment provided $400,000 to start Solar Energy International’s] Solar Ready Colorado, which promises to train unemployed miners, veterans and workers in the oil and gas industry…The goal is to recruit and train 350 people for various jobs in the solar industry. Students can take a single course as an introduction to solar power or more than 200 hours of training in the Solar Professionals Certificate Program…Colorado solar jobs are also expected to grow by 10 percent…” click here for more

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Buy New Energy Anywhere Vote with Your Utility Bill for Wind Energy

Carolyn Fortuna, August 11, 2016 (Red, Green, & Blue)

“…[There is a social cost of carbon, or SCC, on everybody’s utility bill that is] the estimated price of the damages caused by each ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) released into the atmosphere…[One of the best ideas for getting] to a high renewables future without sacrificing affordability or reliability…[is] to move toward performance-based regulation of utilities. That rewards shifting to a cleaner and more reliable grid…Smart regulation combined with rapidly improving economics of solar and wind are making electricity systems more affordable and cleaner…[That is allowing utilities and private providers to offer] homeowners, renters, and businesses in all 50 states who pay a utility bill a simple way to choose clean energy [and the EPA’s Green Power Partnership provides all the details]…” click here for more

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