The American Climate Corps
Almost 100 years ago large groups of young Americans were called upon to support their country by joining the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The program was incredibly far-reaching and successful. The corps planted more than 2.3 billion trees, constructed 126,000 miles (more than 200,000 km) of roads and trails, and laid 100,000 miles (161,000 km) of telephone lines through national forests(1).
Based on this model, President Biden has created the American Climate Corps to provide opportunities for new generation of primarily younger workers. The program is intended to address pressing needs related to climate change in the United States. Per the White House press release, the goal is to "put a new generation of Americans to work conserving our lands and waters, bolstering community resilience, advancing environmental justice, deploying clean energy, implementing energy efficient technologies, and tackling climate change.". The jobs will include work on wind and solar projects, residential energy conservation, and restoring various wetlands and other ecosystems. There will likely be work available in climate mitigation and adaption as well, doing things like flood and wildfire protection.
According to Grist, the Biden administration intends to open several hundred jobs in the first hiring round which will begin in April of 2024. There will be a website and job board available to view those openings. The administration has also requested about $8 billion in funding to enable
I think this program can serve a vital purpose in training young people for a wide variety of climate related jobs. I'm greatly looking forward to seeing what happens with this experiment.
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(1) https://www.britannica.com/topic/Civilian-Conservation-Corps
