QUICK NEWS, October 30: Why We Fight (Climate Change); Solar Is Changing Behaviors; New Energy Will Bring The Jobs

Why We Fight (Climate Change) Don’t let the deniers fool you. Fighting climate change isn’t futile.

Stephen Stromberg, October 26, 2017 (Washington Post)

“…[One of the most] frequent justifications for abandoning President Barack Obama’s plans to address climate change…[is] that the U.S. effort, taken alone, would fail to solve a global problem…[But Linking sea level rise and socioeconomic indicators under the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways finds that meeting Paris] agreement’s medium-term goals, which Obama’s climate policies were designed to do, would keep a path open to averting truly disastrous sea level rise…In other words, the practical climate benefits of U.S. global warming policy are real — this is just one of many examples — but mostly visible when combined with other nations’ work…Pointing out that the United States acting alone could not solve global warming, meanwhile, is no great insight. The critics merely restate the problem that global accords such as the Paris agreement were designed to address: The planet’s major nations must work together or fry separately…” click here for more

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Solar Is Changing Behaviors 5 Signs that Solar Energy is Changing Society’s Consumption Behavior

Amanda Sparks, October 24, 2017 (AltEnergyMag)

“…[T]he dangers to the planet for the next generation have caused individual consumers to change their behaviors…And as consumers adopt solar energy and demand that their governments do as well, there are definite changes in consumption behavior…[T]he transition to solar power triggers much greater awareness on the part of consumers of both energy usage and energy prices…[and] just awareness, not necessarily full-out adoption, causes consumers of electricity to be more mindful of their own consumption behaviors and to take steps to reduce them…[U.S. Census Bureau statistics show that people are moving into urban areas…[that offer] environmentally-friendly and healthier lifestyles…Government incentives for residential and commercial consumers have radically changed consumer behavior…with an exploding number of consumers connecting to the grid and using the solar panels and batteries…[Ten years of data about the change in consumer behavior once solar energy is introduced into a neighborhood shows once a homeowner or two goes solar, other neighbors…want a piece of this action…” click here for more

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New Energy Will Bring The Jobs Renewable energy is creating US jobs twice as fast as any other industry

Karen Hao, October 26, 2017 (Quartz)

“…[Though some want] a rebirth of the coal industry in the US…jobs for solar panel installers and wind turbine technicians will grow twice as fast as any other occupation [over the next ten years], according to a Bloomberg analysis of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’s biennial employment projections…The main driver of job growth has been the rapid increase in solar capacity…[The fastest growing job in the U.S. today is wind turbine technician and, in] the last decade, US solar capacity has grown an average of 72% per year…This has created opportunities in the manufacturing, sales, and installation of solar panels. In 2016, the solar industry employed more than 260,000 Americans…[Because the US government has a knack for spectacularly underestimating renewable energy growth,] projected figures for installed capacity and job growth are likely much more conservative than the reality…” click here for more

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