Friday Five: August 30, 2013

10 words or fewer edition:

Jobs will go where our values take them.
The geography of jobs: Smart policies are good but oil is better
"Take the five or so states with fastest-growing oil production -- ND, TX, OK, CO, NM -- and draw their post-crash job performance against the rest of the country. This is the picture you get. Except for New Mexico, the four top oil-growth states fell lower and have climbed higher than the rest of the country."

We can transform coal miners into a green energy workforce.
Transition to clean energy can include a future for coal miners of today
"This is the kind of scenario that should play out more and more as we gradually wean our nation off fossil fuels. We can facilitate an orderly transition to clean energy with a revenue-neutral tax on carbon. And if we give that revenue back to households, consumers will have the extra income needed to pay for any increased costs associated with the carbon tax. A number of conservatives — George Shultz, Art Laffer and Greg Mankiw — have expressed support for this market-based solution."

Fix a farm bill to favor fruits and fitter Americans.
The fate of our farms
"The Union of Concerned Scientists estimates we’d avoid up to 127,000 heart disease deaths annually if Americans ate the USDA’s recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables — and those juicy strawberries, tangy blueberries, and succulent tomatoes you’ve savored this summer generally aren’t subsidized."

Regulate the harmful, incentivize the necessary, reward the exceptional.
Smarter food: Does big farming mean bad farming?
"As a young man, Thompson was, as so many of us were, an idealist. He describes challenging his father’s patience with his big plans to transition the farm to organic growing practices. But when he took over, he began to understand that success in agriculture is about finding a balance between economic and environmental sustainability."

It is no longer a matter of if, only when.
Sustainable living: Chicago's first certified passive house
"The benefits of Certified Passive Homes are low energy cost, premier comfort, better indoor air quality and resistance to noise—in terms of indoor to outdoor noise, but also indoor mechanical systems and durability. Durability is an aspect often overlooked with Passive House. Over 95% of buildings fail due to moisture. Based on the requirements of Passive House, these risks are almost eliminated. Moist air cannot travel into to the wall cavity to condense on the back of colder drywall in the summer due to the air tightness."

Happy Friday!