There is an ongoing, slow erosion of the economy. . . Even as the burdens of growing waste and the cost of climate change continue to grow. The good news is that the Biden Infrastructure Plan is a step forward that might bolster our lagging infrastructure and weakened economy to a positive benefit. But it is just a down payment on the scale of effort needed if we are to succeed as a nation. Indeed, as a global economy!
It is decidedly time we took a fresh look at the economics of job creation. And if we do so? Then we will find that investments in energy efficiency, clean renewable energy, other energy productivity upgrades, as well as decarbonization improvements can all create a larger and more sustainable number of jobs. Yes, the new employment opportunities include construction and manufacturing jobs as well as the many jobs created when the energy bill savings are spent locally.
All interactions of matter involve, and indeed require, energy. This is true whether the many different energy flows drive earthquakes, enable the movement of planets, or spark the various biological and industrial processes at work anywhere in the world. It
I call it the Blue-Green-Red Resource Squeeze on the American economy. It is neither a perfect nor a straightforward comparison, but it does result in what I think is a rather eerie warning. It is the kind of warning we
In 2019, the 331 million people living within the United States spent an estimated $1.2 trillion to meet their combined needs for an array of energy services (EIA 2020). That is equivalent to an economy-wide per capita energy bill of about
Published by – The National Council for Science and the Environment Since 1950 the U.S. population has more than doubled. It has grown from an estimated 152 million people to perhaps as many as 329 million inhabitants today. Real per capita
Waste is largely a hidden problem. But hardly without impact. Americans generate a minimum of 280 pounds of waste per person per day. It is not simply the huge quantities of materials that we consume, it is also the consequences that follow from the many forms of that waste. While waste is mostly considered to be the things we throw away each day, in reality that is only a small portion of goods, services, time, and money wasted because of the inefficient use of resources.
By: John Reed and Jerome Dion July 19, 2018 Policymakers and business leaders are issuing calls to accelerate productive investments that address both climate change and societal resource sustainability issues. Indeed, in the last 40 years there have been significant
By David Schaller What exactly does sustainability mean? The issue has been discussed and debated for decades; and yes, there is still so much to consider when trying to explain such an important concept. Over these past 18 years, I
By: John A. “Skip” Laitner In 2017, businesses, households, and government enterprises throughout the global economy spent an estimated €6.4 trillion to meet the many demands for various energy services. Current projections suggest the present scale of annual expenditures may
There is neither a law of physics nor economics that prevents us from quadrupling the productive use of energy and other resources. Rather, it is much more an issue of imagination and our political will to get it done.
– John A. “Skip” Laitner