A compelling new post today by Jonathan Hoekstra in Cool Green Science, The Conservation Blog of The Nature Conservancy:
A New York Times headline last month almost made me spill my coffee — the gusher in the Gulf might have been good for the U.S. economy.
How could that be? The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico put thousands out of work as fishing grounds were closed, tourists were scared off, and oil and gas development were put on hold.
Well, according to a JP Morgan forecast last June, all of those lost jobs could be more than offset by the jobs created to skim up oil, deploy oil booms, and sweep tar balls off of beaches. And all of those new jobs could actually boost the gross domestic product — a “good” thing according to conventional economic wisdom.
Don’t get me wrong: The cleanup jobs were critical to the overall rapid response against the spill. But as an employment program and stimulus “package,” these jobs are clearly short-term fixes for the Gulf region.
Shouldn’t we now be moving to create a restoration economy in the Gulf of Mexico — employing thousands to rebuild marshes, oyster reefs, beaches and fish habitat that, in turn, create even more jobs in fishing and tourism?
Habitat restoration is a proven job-creator. Under the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) awarded $156 million in ARRA funding to 50 grantees for coastal habitat restoration around the country. Between February and June 2010, these restoration projects created 395 jobs. On a jobs-created-per-dollar-granted basis, these habitat restoration projects created five times as many jobs as the median ARRA stimulus grant.
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via The Gulf Needs a Restoration Economy | Cool Green Science: The Conservation Blog of The Nature Conservancy.
Led by New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, the city’s Fight the Blight Day on Saturday, December 11 was an unqualified success! More than 70 volunteers covered much of the Holy Cross Neighborhood – removing litter and conducting property assessments to target blight throughout the Lower Ninth Ward as an integral part of the community’s recovery and rebuilding efforts.
