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Our Daily Planet: Live from GCAS18, Clean Energy Jobs Outpace Coal Jobs and our Hero of the Week!
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By: Monica Medina and Miro Korenha

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Friday, September 14th, 2018

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 Climate Change

From L-R: Mayors Frederico Gutiérrez of Medellin, Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles, Anne Hidalgo of Paris, Frank Jensen of Copenhagen, Zandile Gumede of Durban, Former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Sayeed Khokon of Dhaka South City, and Giuseppe Sala of Milan
The Power of Mayors to Get It Done

Yesterday was the first official day of the Global Climate Action Summit and a major theme that came out of the day was the power of mayors to act on climate change. There were numerous mayors that spoke about the duty they feel to their citizens to stick to the Paris Climate Agreement and move their cities to a low-carbon economy even when Federal action is negligible (like in America). We heard from mayors like Giuseppe Sala of Milan about the opportunities a green economy brings and the jobs and innovation that it breathes into a city. Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg explained that mayors hear from their citizens every day and talk to the public rather than just reading polls about them. Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo built on that sentiment by saying that “mayors are fighting climate change, not just talking about it and have results to show.” And the results are in: a new analysis reveals that 27 of the world’s biggest cities, representing 54 million urban citizens and $6 trillion in GDP have peaked their greenhouse gas emissions despite their populations growing by 1.4% per year. They’ve also proved that curbing greenhouse gas emissions doesn’t come at the cost of their economies as they’ve grown 3% per year on average. The 27 cities include: Barcelona, Basel, Berlin, Boston, Chicago, Copenhagen, Heidelberg, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Melbourne, Milan, Montréal, New Orleans, New York City, Oslo, Paris, Philadelphia, Portland, Rome, San Francisco, Stockholm, Sydney, Toronto, Vancouver, Warsaw, Washington D.C.

However, one of the most humbling moments of the day came when mayors of developing cities like Zandile Gumede of Durban and Sayeed Khokon of Dhaka South City expressed their dedication to reducing emissions despite only emitting a tiny fraction of the global total themselves. Their ask of us was that we do not forget that the countries least responsible for climate change are the biggest victims of it and that we owe it to them to do all we can to move to a low-carbon future. 

Why This Matters: The road to keeping global average temperatures to 2C has to go through cities as they can act more swiftly than Federal efforts. After the Trump administration withdrew from the Paris Agreement mayors have doubled down through the C40’s Compact of Mayors to ensure the goals of the agreement are still met. To date, mayors of more than 60 C40 cities have publicly committed to develop and begin implementing ambitious climate action plans by 2020 that go beyond national commitments.
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 Energy

CA Clean Energy Jobs Are 10x > Coal Jobs In Entire U.S.

This week when Governor Brown signed into law California’s renewable energy mandate he was taking a huge step forward for both the environment in California and its economy.  The new law requires California to be completely running on renewable energy by 2045, with intermediate goals of 50 percent non-carbon energy by 2026 and 60 percent by 2030.  The state’s business lobbies supported the measure. In a statement, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and the Los Angeles Business Council wrote: “While we support the climate and environmental goals of SB 100, as business leaders and organizations we enthusiastically embrace the economic engine that this bill embodies for California.”  In urging passage of the law, its lead sponsor argued (and his claim was substantiated) that the solar power industry in California employs more than 500,000 people, which is ten times greater than the number of all the coal miners across the U.S. combined, and that renewable energy jobs number will go much higher going forward thanks to the new law.

The large unions in California supported the bill as well, according to the Sierra Club.  “Like all of us, union members need clean air, clean water, and a future for our children,” said San Francisco Labor Council director Rudy Gonzales. “We must demand a just transition and move as rapidly as possible to a system of renewable energy. Everyone needs a job with good pay and a union to defend their rights and working conditions.” Better yet, according to UC Berkeley’s Labor Center, these jobs are “a path to the middle class”, especially for people of color. 

Why This Matters:  Change is hard even when it makes good business sense, and this is especially true with respect to fossil fuels.  It is smart that the bill provides a soft landing and assistance for workers in fossil fuel industries by offering them jobs in the clean energy sector. Mary Boeve, Executive Director at 350.org, told Sierra Magazine, “[w]e’ll need to ensure that the transition to 100 percent clean energy is a just and equitable one that protects workers and prioritizes the needs of the low-income and communities of color who have been the worst impacted by fossil fuels and climate change.”   We don’t have to choose between jobs and the environment.  A clean energy future and good jobs go hand in hand.  Just ask Governor Brown.  
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 People

Miss Michigan Takes a Stand for Clean Water

Last Sunday night, the annual spectacle a.k.a The Miss America Pageant took place – but no one watching the revamped scholarship competition was expecting one of the contestants to use her 15 seconds of fame to speak out about a critical environmental issue plaguing her state.  But that is just what Emily Sioma, Miss Michigan, did — she introduced herself quite memorably by calling attention to the long-festering problem with Michigan’s contaminated drinking water (Spoiler Alert: see our Hero section below for the video).  In a sentence, she put her finger on the essence of the problem — Michigan has “84 percent of the U.S.’ fresh water, but none for its residents to drink.” After the pageant, Alex Rees of Cosmopolitan Magazine interviewed her about the pageant and her big moment.  Below is an excerpt from that interview with Emily Sioma.  

“When did you decide you were going to use your intro moment to speak out about the water crisis in your state?”

“Well, it definitely was not just in the moment. About two days beforehand, we had a full dress rehearsal and I just thought “Emily, remember why you took this opportunity in the first place.” Activism is such a huge part of who I am; I just had this moment thinking, “How am I going to make this moment meaningful?” If you don’t make the top 15, you don’t have an opportunity to use your voice [beyond the introduction]. So I knew I had, well, basically eight seconds on TV to make a statement and I wanted to use it for something more than for myself.

I want people to keep talking about the water conditions in Michigan, and across the U.S. This is a conversation we need to be having. It’s a crisis going on all across the state of Michigan—chemicals known to cause cancer and now lead to developmental disorders [are being found in our water]. They’ve been found in Flint, in Lansing, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Ann Arbor, Alpena… The Detroit public school system has had to turn off its drinking water. Kids are going back to school and they don’t have water to drink because the lead and copper levels are way too high to be safe. I’m so proud of the state of Michigan, but with representing all of the amazing things, you also have to be able to represent the hardships that we’re going through. It’s unfortunate that truth is so very hard to hear sometimes, but we have to be able to accept these truths and find solutions for our residents and citizens.”

“Did anyone know beforehand that you were planning to speak out?”

“All of my sisters knew because I had practiced it with them—and they all supported me. They held me up and backed me up the whole time. [After the intro package was finished on stage], they all asked backstage if I’d gone through with it—there’s so much feedback on stage that you can’t really hear what everyone else is saying. “I can’t believe you did it,” they said. “You did it, we’re so excited for you!”

“You’ve described yourself as an activist—how do you embody that principle? What does activism mean to you?”

“For me, I think about ‘servant leadership.’ That’s the kind of activism I want to be a part of. You’re in there, you’re doing that, the dirty work. We’ve got one Earth, we have one country, one state, one community that we’re a part of—well, we’re all actually a part of many communities, and we have the obligation to make sure we’re doing the most we can to make life a little bit better for the people [in those communities] around us.  I’m very, very grateful for all the privileges and opportunities that I have in my life, and I’m passionate about using those privileges to help other people out.”

To Go Deeper:  Emily Sioma is also a sexual assault survivor and that was actually her “cause” during the pageant.  You can read the full Cosmopolitan interview here.  
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 Food

Chefs on a Mission — Delicious AND Nutritious School Lunches

As the school year gets started, we could not resist this yummy story from Civil Eats about a startup called Brigaid that is determined to change the way kids eat at school.  Their concept is simple and also revolutionary — work with a school district to recruit and trains chefs, who then become full-time employees of the schools. And here is the best part — those chefs then are allowed to run the school kitchens as they would a restaurant kitchen — they decide on their menus, order the ingredients themselves, and work with the school’s kitchen staff to cook those meals from scratch using locally grown ingredients to the greatest extent possible rather than processed foods. 

The company is the brainchild of Dan Giusti, who was on the verge of opening a fast-casual restaurant, but at the last minute changed his mind and started to explore institutional food and schools.  His innovative idea was to put a chef in a school kitchen full-time.  When he talked about his vision in a Washington Post article in 2015, school administrators from all over the country started to call and a business was born. Today, Brigaid provides healthy meals to kids in New London, Connecticut’s public elementary schools and this year they are expanding into six schools in the Bronx in New York City. And they are managing to make these delicious meals within the various schools’ budgets, and to convince newly minted chefs to give cooking for kids a try.  

Why This Matters:  When kids eat healthy food, they are more likely to do better in school.  Schools that serve affordable meals that kids will eat are providing an important benefit to the entire community.  Not to mention saving parents countless hours of making bag lunches in order to ensure that their children are well fed during the day.  This is exactly the kind of “outside the box” thinking we need to improve our institutions and to change the entire food industry in the U.S. More school districts should follow this model and parents everywhere should be demanding it.  Let’s hear it for school lunches that truly are Mmm, Mmm Good!

To Go Healthier:  Brigaid challenged 10 top chefs to create school lunches within the USDA nutrition guidelines and within their $1.25 budget.  You can see what the chefs came up with here.  
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 Hero

Hero of the Week:  Emily Sioma, Miss Michigan

Many Americans were aware of the Flint drinking water crisis two years ago when it first went public during the 2016 Presidential campaign.  But most Americans probably did not know that it continues to this day.  Emily Sioma, Michigan’s contestant in the revamped Miss America pageant, changed all that when she made it part of her 15-second introduction on national TV last Sunday night (you can watch her intro below).  Instead of reciting a platitude about herself or her state, she used her moment in the spotlight to shine a bright light on this terrible problem.  Way to go, Emily!  We admire that you took that “once in a lifetime” opportunity to help others in your state by raising awareness about the need for safe drinking water in Michigan and the entire country.  You may not be Miss America, but you are our hero this week!

We also want to give a H/T to MSNBC’s Chris Hayes for his town hall shows in Flint this week — he gave this terrible problem lots of exposure too.  Now we just need to fix it!
Miss Michigan speaks the truth at the Miss America Pageant!
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 Oceans

Tomorrow is the International Coastal Cleanup — a day when tens of thousands gather around the globe to clean up beaches and coasts near them.  It is a great event and grows larger each year as more and more people learn about the pollution problems in our oceans.  If you live near the coast and want to participate, just click here to find a clean up near you! 

Thanks so much for reading and sharing Our Daily Planet this week.  Have a great weekend.  We hope our friends in the Carolinas weather the storm safely.  We will see you back here first thing on Monday morning!
 
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