Yet just yesterday, the Administration’s budget proposal effectively eliminated two critical programs designed to meet both goals at once – the highly important environmental education programs of EPA and NOAA.

Let’s take a look back…

What Obama Said Then

Earlier this year during the President’s Inaugural address, he spoke to these issues:

“The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult.  But America cannot resist this transition, we must lead it.  We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries, we must claim its promise.”

And then a few weeks later at the State of the Union:

“Now, if we want to make the best products, we also have to invest in the best ideas.  Every dollar we invested to map the human genome returned $140 to our economy — every dollar. Today, our scientists are mapping the human brain to unlock the answers to Alzheimer’s. They’re developing drugs to regenerate damaged organs; devising new material to make batteries 10 times more powerful. Now is not the time to gut these job-creating investments in science and innovation. Now is the time to reach a level of research and development not seen since the height of the Space Race.  We need to make those investments.  Today, no area holds more promise than our investments in American energy…”

For a few years now I have struggled to understand why the Administration has failed to realize that we must invest not only in clean energy technology, but also in the education of American students and workers.  There is a disconnect here.

This investment in preparing the American people for the clean energy economy has a name: environmental education. Without it, the United States will never lead the transition to a clean energy economy.

Why Environmental Ed. is Critical to our Future

Environmental education happens at institutions of higher education (including community colleges), K-12 schools, career and technical education centers, and through innovative partnerships with non-profits, apprenticeship programs, business and others that will help create and strengthen education and re-training programs, curricula, and courses.

And earlier this week, with the release of the Administration’s budget, EPA’s and NOAA’s environmental education programs have been marked for elimination, even though they have bipartisan support in Congress (technically, NOAA’s programs are expected to be “consolidated” with other science, technology, engineering and math programs and details will not be available for a few more days).

These reductions would eliminate already woefully underfunded grant programs for child-serving organizations, schools, nature centers, zoos, aquariums and teacher training programs in nearly every community.

And let’s be honest, while these programs provide critical funding for teachers and communities nationwide, $25 million is a rounding error in the $1 trillion federal budget.  If the United States is to lead the global transition to a clean energy economy, to lead the world in science and technology, to spark the next space race or human genome product, $25 million is not going to cut it! 

We need an investment of billions of dollars across all levels of education. We need leadership to educate, train and prepare all Americans for this transition to a green economy.

What Do You Think?

We at the National Wildlife Federation would like to hear from YOU about your ideas for how we get there.  How can we, together, get Congress and the Administration, Republicans and Democrats, the public at large behind an agenda to truly prepare Americans for the clean energy economy?

Please leave a comment below!

In addition to just one-time events, some institutions are strengthening relationships between employers and potential employees (also known as “students”) over the course of a semester by inviting them into the classroom, or by bringing students to the workplace to see what a green job is really all about. The green courses are focused not only on connecting students and employers, but also on broadening the horizons of students who may be unfamiliar with the green economy.

Earlier this fall, a series of regional Green Labor Market Review webinars hosted as part of the Greenforce Initiative (a collaboration between National Wildlife Federation and Jobs for the Future to strengthen the capacity of community colleges in six regions of the U.S. to develop, enhance or refine green career pathway programs) revealed that the green jobs sector is one of the fastest-growing in the nation. So, promoting green jobs skills in the classroom is an important step in supporting the growth.

Several institutions submitted case studies to our “Best Green Campus Projects of 2012“ collection highlighting their commitment to arming their students with the right tools for the green trade—here’s a look at their work:

Lori from Larry’s Beans, an especially sustainable coffee roaster in Raleigh, NC, participates in the Wake Tech Green Symposium. Image Credit: Lisa Haywood

The College of Lake County is building an online tool to connect green job seekers with green jobs. The tool, created as part of the regional Green Economy Center, acts as not only a job search tool for Northeastern Illinois, but also offers resources for people interested in gaining the skills they need—a list of certification programs and news about the latest green jobs trends.

The Rappahannock Community College Green Vendor Fair not only promoted the wares of local green businesses to students, but also directly connected green workforce leaders with professors, opening conversation channels about skill sets in high demand, that professors can highlight in the classroom to ensure that students are well prepared and hold most needed skills upon graduation.

With so many institutions making strides to prepare their students for the green workforce, to help build and be part of the green economy, the idea of “the green economy” being synonymous with “the economy” is, perhaps, not that far off!

• Visit the Campus Ecology Case Study Database
• Read more about the Rappahannock Green Vendor Fair

Like Campus Ecology on facebook, and follow @CampusEcology, @YouthforClimate and @Greenforce on twitter.

A few years ago, there was a predicted shortage of talent in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The National Academies report “Rising above the Gathering Storm” set off its own tempest, and we’ve been addressing the issue with words and dollars ever since.

But while it’s true that we still need more graduates in the STEM fields, let’s not forget the importance of business degrees.

This from Nancy A. Bagranoff, dean and professor of accounting at the Robins School of Business at the University of Richmond.

First, Bagranoff is quite right that grooming STEM talent is a major focus in America, and for good reason. The 2007 National Academies report she cites raised the specter that “the scientific and technological building blocks critical to our economic leadership are eroding at a time when many other nations are gathering strength.” The authors of the report could scarcely have been clearer about the imminence of that shift, writing that they “fear the abruptness with which a lead in science and technology can be lost—and the difficulty of recovering a lead once lost, if indeed it can be regained at all.”

These guys are huge, but they're not the only important piece of the green economy.

The STEM shortfall spans all levels of the American educational system, and it figures to heavily impact the U.S. economy moving forward, especially in an era when, per the National Commission on Energy Policy’s 2004 recommendations, the federal government may need to double funds for “energy research, development, and
demonstration.” As the green economy grows, so too will training needs–and many or most of the people in the thick of it will need to be well versed in science, technology and the like. More:

“Green is red-hot, and any career field even remotely related to sustainability should be job-rich for some time. While green jobs will require engineers, we could also use auditors to attest to carbon footprints, marketers to shape and sell innovation and managers to oversee the green projects.“

Bagranoff hammers home a message we sometimes forget: STEM improvement (and, by the way, environmental education in the K-12 and higher education sectors) is vital, but green jobs don’t fit one precise mold…and they aren’t only for one kind of worker. The green economy–and green job training–will focus largely on the hard-hit construction and manufacturing sectors, but it can’t get along without a broad array of talent and expertise. Some of the people who make this country more sustainable in the years ahead won’t carry hardhats or lab coats.

For more on the role of educational development in the green economy, check out NWF’s Campus Ecology program, an initiative to improve the overall green educational programming and on-site sustainability of colleges and universities, and the Greenforce Initiative.

The end of the carbon age is in view, so I am glad to see green jobs opportunities becoming available today for those who are looking for the best jobs and career options.

Please join National Wildlife Federation, 50 community colleges, Van Jones and other speakers today at 2 pm Eastern on a webinar to hear how these visionary leaders are creating career pathways to the emerging green economy and how you can engage.

While government, philanthropic, nonprofits an other sectors are making crucial investments in the green economy, the ultimate success of these sectors relies on a strong workforce trained in green jobs skills.

Hear from those on the frontlines creating these programs today at 2 pm Eastern.

McNair Wagner, Robert Boyd and I woke up very early this morning (7am CET = 1am EST), put on our warmest clothes and made our way to the Bella Center for the U.N. Climate Conference. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of different organizations from all over the world represented at booths brimming with information. In a single (although very large) room, I was able to collect materials ranging from the IPCC's report, "Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis" to the special Copenhagen edition of Ode Magazine ("for intelligent optimists"). 

We walked through the exhibition hall, picked up a daily programme and went our separate ways. My first sessions was "Taking Action at Home" with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in the U.S. Center. The main room was full more than 30 minutes before the event began, so I watched on a screen from the lobby just outside. I was in good company, though, because I ran into McNair, Robert and Energy Action Coalition's Executive Director Jessy Tolkan. Administrator Jackson's major announcement for the day was that the EPA has found once and for all that greenhouse gases (GHGs) threaten public health and the environment and confirmed the scientific findings that GHGs are at unprecedented levels due to human activity.  Read the official news release here.

Later in the day, I got a look at what communities are doing about those GHGs, in the form of Smart Grid technology (which we've written about before here) and the role of regulators in promoting and developing it in both Europe and California. In case you're not familiar with smart grids, they allow for significant improvements in the efficiency of energy distribution due to better monitoring, controls and storage capabilities. Smart meters would allow homeowners to monitor their energy consumption in real time and power companies could measure actual demand with greater accuracy, enabling them to meet that demand with minimal waste and losses. These grids also have increased ability to manage both central (power plant) electricity generation as well as distributed generation (small-scale solar and wind, etc.). As more and more electric cars hit the road, households will also be able to assist in energy storage (which can be very difficult to do on a large scale), again to prevent waste and energy loss. (Visit the U.S. Department of Energy's website for more information about this technology.)

My last session of the evening was titled, "Sustainable Living or Sustainable Building." Panelists discussed simple changes that we can all make to our living spaces, such as insulation and lighting retrofits, that will not only make them significantly more efficient, but more comfortable as well. The speaker discussing building insulation reinforced my excitement to start weatherization volunteer/training programs throughout the Southeast, which I learned a good deal about just last weekend by attending the BuildINSULATE! workshop at Warren Wilson College. You can watch a video about the workshop here, but also expect to hear a lot more about weatherization programs from me in the future.

Every county in the United States has a weatherization assistance program to help insulate and upgrade low-income homes. The Warren Wilson INSULATE! crew has come up with a great model that can be easily adapted to any inhabited part of the U.S., which will make homes more efficient (leading to less GHGs emitted in the future), reduce rising energy costs that can account for more than 50% of household spending in certain cases, and train participants in proper weatherization techniques that they can use in their own homes and communities, perhaps even creating a source of income for those seeking employment in the new "green" economy.