Articles by Adam Browning

On-message items from the green jobs front

Every year, renewable energy campaigns seem to converge on a theme. Last year, it was energy independence. This year, the theme is -- you guessed it -- jobs.

By cosmic convergence, Tuesday featured three cool new clean-energy-jobs-related items:

Clean Edge released a report which projected that solar and wind industry employment will grow from 600,000 jobs in 2008 to 2.7 million by 2018 (if, of course, we get the enabling policies right).

SEREF released a mind-blowingly cool Google-earth/job estimator mashup. (More from Google.)

And we launched a campaign to highlight the very real job opportunities that solar offers by placing fictitious HELP WANTED ads in Florida, Texas, and Nevada. By bringing levity to this serious issue, we hoped to generate some press for our policy goals. So far, so good; here's the Palm Beach Post's take.

Envisioning a future without disposable hotel pens and Timex watches

You know that point when you realize that you just can't keep buying more crap? Many families call it "December 26." Thomas Friedman calls it the Great Disruption. Saul Griffith has a more compelling framing. A sustainable future society, he says, will be a Rolex and Mont Blanc society. That is, when you are born, you get a Rolex and a Mont Blanc pen. And that's it. No Swatches to match your outfit. No gimme-pens from the Holiday Inn. It's an appealing aesthetic.

How a small Nevada town lures major solar investment

In 1995, Boulder City, Nevada, paid $1.3 million for a land buffer to make sure that Las Vegas didn't get any closer. It has since used that buffer to become a world leader in solar energy, and is making $2 million (and counting) in annual revenue from solar leases. How did the city pull this off? What is the key to their solar success? Read this excellent article in the Las Vegas Sun to find out.

The city, 40 miles southeast of Las Vegas, averages 350 sunny days per year, allowing a local tavern to offer free beer on the days when the sun doesn't shine.

That's got to have at least something to do with it.

Saul Griffith calculates what we need to do to keep the world we evolved in

When pondering whether we need to invest in energy efficiency, a smart grid, new storage technologies, or transmission to the best renewable energy resource areas, I urge interested parties to first take some time to watch TV. Specifically, this presentation given by Saul Griffith, MacArthur Genius at the Long Now Foundation:

He calculated what's needed to, in the eloquent words of James Hansen, keep the world we evolved in. The answer? Cut each individual's carbon footprint to the bone via serious lifestyle choices. Then, dedicate an area the size of Australia to renewable energy production. And do so in the next 25 years.

It's not an either/or proposition. We need it all.

Slides available on Griffith's blog, here.