Five MORE Reasons To Be Optimistic About Our Planet’s Future

Photo by Amy Shamblen on Unsplash

Throughout April, NewDEAL has showcased “23 Climate Victories for 2023” across our social media platforms. In a previous Medium piece, we highlighted five reasons to be optimistic about the planet’s future. In this snapshot of model state and local policy initiatives, we share five more examples of efforts by NewDEAL Leaders across the nation who are helping us remain optimistic about the planet’s future.

1. Green Jobs are Good Jobs Boston Mayor and NewDEAL Leader Michelle Wu showed once again that green jobs are good jobs. In part funded by the American Rescue Plan, Mayor Wu invested four million dollars into a green jobs program that targets Bostonians who were hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The first cohort has already gone through training, where they helped remove 284 bags of invasive material from 87 acres of public land, as well as planted dozens of trees throughout the city.
2. Trash into Treasure: Lincoln, Nebraska, led by Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird, was recently chosen as one of seven cities from around the world to participate in a pilot program to turn wood waste into biochar. Biochar is a carbon-rich, charcoal-like substance that promotes plant growth, water retention, fertilizer reduction, carbon sequestration, waste management, and soil health. Together with the other cities, the program will produce 3,750 tons of biochar, sequestering nearly 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually, which is the equivalent of taking 6,250 cars off the roads every year.
3. Wind Energy: This March, New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell welcomed the first commercial-scale offshore wind project to the coast of Massachusetts. Alongside Governor Maura Healey, Mitchell lauded the project as bringing both clean energy and good-paying jobs to New Bedford. When completed, the wind project will produce enough electricity to power 400,000 homes.
4. Michigan’s Electric Vehicle Momentum: On March 1, Michigan Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist announced a major statewide campaign to promote careers and recruit talent for the state’s electric vehicle and transportation sector. The transition of the automotive sector to electrification has the potential to create up to 300,000 new, well-paying jobs for Michiganders by 2030, with an average salary in many of these fields of $75,000 or more.
5. Carbon Capture: North Dakota House Minority Leader Josh Bosceee penned an op-ed in The Center Square touting the state’s investment in carbon capture technology. This technology can capture up to 90 percent of carbon dioxide from a power plant before it is released into the atmosphere, and then liquify it and transport it to deep underground storage areas. “I hope other states follow the lead of North Dakota and take advantage of American ingenuity and innovation to unite against the biggest threats to our planet,” Boschee wrote.

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