This week is going to be a short one. Just a celebration really. Today, the Biden-Harris administration announced the launch of the American Climate Corps. This job training program, which was modeled after FDR’s Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps, aims to “mobilize the next generation of clean energy, conservation and resilience workers.”
There’s plenty of press out there with all of the details, and the White House fact sheet linked to above is a good overview, so I don’t want to rehash all of that. Instead, I just want to see the win.
I’m sure we’ll see some pushback on the internet – certainly from the right, but even from the left. We’ll have people asking, “What about the Willow Project?” We’ll have people arguing that the program should be bigger as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and my senator, Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass) advocated for. But frankly, whataboutism isn’t always a helpful response. Could the Biden administration do better on the climate? Probably. Could the American Climate Corps be bigger? Maybe. But what if we don’t do this? What if it was even smaller? What if we don’t ever do anything for fear of not doing enough?
As it stands, we have a new program aimed at training American youth – many from underserved populations and populations that are disproportionately impacted by climate change – for jobs of the future. Jobs that will help American transition to clean energy. Jobs that will help communities be more resilient to floods and wildfires. Jobs that we should have been preparing our youth for years ago – back when I was considered part of the “youth.”
Tomorrow, we can advocate for more. Push the Biden administration. Push our state and local governments. Push corporate executives. But today? Today, I think it’s worth taking a minute to celebrate.
The Green Ostrich 