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In 1933, FDR created the Civilian Conservation Corps, which went on to employ 3m workers (5% of the US male workforce!) in projects whose benefit we still feel today: road- and trail-building, tree-planting, firefighting, infrastructure maintenance and more.
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The CCC had serious flaws - notably a policy of racial and gender discrimination - but for those who were lucky enough to qualify, it was a transformative experience, an end to the years-long terror of economic precarity and a chance to make a difference in the world.
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Millions of working-class Americans were given a chance to see their country and be immersed in the natural environment in a way that mainstreamed the principles of conservation. The beautiful outdoor spaces Americans enjoy today are the legacy of that program.
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Today, about a quarter of the US workforce is unemployed; when you add in the people who are underemployed, or whose employment is in through a precarious, exploitative "gig economy" app that misclassifies them as contractors, the number climbs even higher.
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But America does not lack for work that needs doing. The nation's crumbling infrastructure and public works need more than maintenance: the needs remediation and hardening against the coming waves of climate emergency.
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Just in California, we need at least $1b worth of brush clearout and controlled burns, ANNUALLY, for the next DECADE, to make up for a century of forest mismanagement, terribly exacerbated by climate change.
https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/21/too-big-to-jail/#aflame
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https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/21/too-big-to-jail/#aflame
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There's caring work, too, as people are traumatized by climate change and its heralds: invasive species, pandemic, dislocations.
Long term, there's relocating every coastal city inland. We have full employment for the next three centuries. At least.
https://locusmag.com/2020/07/cory-doctorow-full-employment/
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Long term, there's relocating every coastal city inland. We have full employment for the next three centuries. At least.
https://locusmag.com/2020/07/cory-doctorow-full-employment/
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The leading theorist of a modernized workforce to cope with climate emergency is @ptcherneva, whose "The Case for a Job Guarantee" makes the case that, beyond "programs" like CCC, we need to make employment for those who want it into a legal right.
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2020-06-24/forget-ubi-says-an-economist-its-time-for-universal-basic-jobs
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https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2020-06-24/forget-ubi-says-an-economist-its-time-for-universal-basic-jobs
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The Sanders campaign endorsed the idea, as do progressive elements of the Democratic Congressional caucus. But even though the party establishment hasn't come around to a guarantee, they have come out for a rebooted CCC, a Civilian Climate Corps.
https://www.wired.com/story/the-case-for-reviving-the-civilian-conservation-corps/
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https://www.wired.com/story/the-case-for-reviving-the-civilian-conservation-corps/
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The new CCC is in the Biden platform, and versions of it have been mooted by @DickDurbin [D-IL] and @RepMarcyKaptur [D-OH]. As @mrMattSimon points out in his @Wired story, the CCC is an American institution, something with a national history.
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The American exceptionalism used to dismiss other commonsense measures like universal health care ("Maybe it works in Sweden, but it won't work here") can't be applied to CCC: it has worked here, and left behind a beloved legacy.
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The popularity of a new CCC is another sign that Reaganomics and its emphasis on enriching the wealthy in the hopes of some trickledown for the rest of us is on the way out.
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If the US government gives people good jobs that pay inclusive wages and humane benefits, it will create massive demand for goods and services from the private sector.
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"A revived CCC could pour money into tackling a bevy of other environmental problems, too. Revitalizing public green spaces, for instance, benefits all Americans. We urgently need to better prepare our coastlines for rising seas.
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"Restoring wetlands and forests would pull double duty, returning ecosystems to their former glory and creating carbon sinks: Plant more trees and you can sequester more CO2 from the atmosphere.
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"Actually, in the case of wetlands, make that triple duty—healthy wetlands work as flood control during hurricanes, absorbing surges of water."
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