Rebuilding our economy by solving climate change

Yesterday I wrote a pretty grim assessment about the consequences of inaction when it comes to climate change. But today I'm here to tell you that it's not all doom and gloom! Today I want to talk about some of the the exciting opportunities that tackling climate change presents.

It's clear that we need to take action on global warming, but it's also clear that our nation is in a deep recession. Can we fight global warming and rebuild our economy at the same time? The answer is an emphatic yes!

Despite what some might say, bold climate action is economically attractive. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports that there is substantial potential for positive economic growth in decreasing GHG (greenhouse gas) pollutants (pdf).

Let's take a gander:

• Clean/renewable energy, such as wind energy, will increase your property value, decrease your property taxes, and leave money left over for improving your community and creating local jobs. Switching just 10% of the nation's energy to clean/renewable energy will save between $13-18 billion over 20 years.
  
• Thousands of green jobs will be created: renewable energy creates 4x as many jobs/megawatt than natural gas and 40% more jobs/dollar than coal (pdf). $30 billion of investments in renewable energy markets will create $157 billion in GDP, $103 billion in personal income, and 365,000 new jobs.
  
• Investing in Energy Efficiency will cut down on your energy prices and augment your personal income. Greening buildings will create almost 2x more jobs per $1 million invested than jobs in natural gas and cut down drastically on energy consumption and costs (pdf). An estimated $42 billion investment in energy efficiency would create $220 billion in personal income and 741,912 jobs.

It's not all about the money, of course. The health – both environmental and physical – benefits are numerous. But the numbers show that bold legislation is possible and furthermore, that it is viable. Whether the numbers are for an illness rate, death toll, cost of damages, or return on investment, they do not lie. It's quite simple: we are losing a great deal by not acting, but will gain immensely if we do.