What's New

 

Applications are now available for the 2011 Surdna Arts Teachers Fellowships (SATF).  The deadline for applying is November 12, 2010.

For more information click here.

 

On July 2, Surdna grantee the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication released a working paper with results from a study showing the impact of recent "Climategate" scandals on the public perception of  global warming climate scientists.  The study found that the scandals had a significant negative effect on public beliefs in global warming and trust in scientists, although this loss in trust appears to have been primarily among individuals with a strongly individualistic worldview or politically conservative ideology.  Interestingly, the study found that Americans overall continued to trust scientists more than any other source of information about global warming.

The authors of the paper note that these changes in opinion occurred during periods of a serious recession with high levels of unemployment, an intensely partisan political environment, and an unusually cold winter in many parts of the country.  Given this context, the paper asks questions about whether future events may reverse these opinion trends as outside influences change and as Americans begin to directly experience and are taught to observe the impacts of climate change occurring locally, regionally, and nationally.

• To read the paper, please click here.

On June 28, Surdna grantee the Blue Green Alliance, in close partnership with the American Wind Energy Association and the United Steelworkers, released a new report highlighting both past and potential growth in the domestic wind manufacturing industry.   The report, entitled Winds of Change:  A Manufcturing Blueprint for the Wind Industry, shows that despite the absence of a long-term and stable market for wind energy or policies to support wind's manufacturing sector, the growth in wind manufacturing has been steady -- growing from 2,500 workers in 2004 to 18,500 in 2009 -- and tens of thousands more jobs could be created with policies that create and sustain a clean energy economy and a long-term market for wind energy.

“This report represents a major alignment between our goals for energy independence and creating the clean energy jobs of the future,” said Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH). “This ‘manufacturing blueprint’ is a critical step toward ensuring that we don’t replace our dependence on foreign oil with a dependence on Chinese-made wind turbines. With the right policies, clean energy will help revitalize American manufacturing. We must ensure that American manufacturers have the resources they need to build clean wind energy components and by doing so, help establish America as a global leader of clean energy technologies.”

• To read the full report, please click here.
• To read the press release from the Blue Green Alliance, please click here.

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The Blue Green Alliance is a national, strategic partnership between labor unions and environmental organizations dedicated to expanding the number and quality of jobs in the green economy.

By Bruce Katz

If there's a silver lining to be found in the Great Recession, it's that it has forced the nation to step back, take stock of where we've been, and begin to shift our priorities toward more productive, sustainable economic activities.  In the process, it has also brought long overdue attention to the older cities and metros of the country's industrial heartland, particularly those most impacted by the near-collapse of the auto sector.

On May 18, over 300 government, civic, educational, business, and philanthropic leaders from these communities traveled to D.C. to talk with members of Congress and the administration about how they can partner together to transform their long-struggling economies.  The Summit, entitled "Auto Communities and the Next Economy: Partnerships in Innovation" featured a stellar cast of speakers and panelists, and an audience eager to hear what they had to say.  The optimism in the room at the onset of the day was tentative (decades of economic decline tend to quell expectations).  By 5:00, however, the mood had radically changed.

Ed Montgomery, the executive director of the White House Council on Automotive Communities and Workers, helped set the tone early as an announcement was made about the administration's crucial decision to dedicate $836 million of federal dollars to help clean up environmental problems at closed automotive sites, and put these blighted facilities back into productive use.  The announcement was critical both substantively-such an investment is vital to auto communities' efforts to renew their economies-and symbolically, as it demonstrates, in very real ways, the commitment of the federal government to these places.

As the event progressed, however, hope continued to swell for reasons perhaps less tangible, but equally significant.  Throughout the day, program participants broke away from more traditional talk on revitalizing distressed urban communities and began to engage instead in a very different discourse, one focused on how the big economic decisions made in Washington-on trade, on capital, on tax, on manufacturing-impact the ability of state and metropolitan leaders to develop and commercialize new technologies, export their goods and services to countries abroad, and ultimately create and preserve jobs and businesses.  It was the 'macro' meeting the 'metro' right there on the dais, conveying, maybe not even with full intent, a powerful message that everyone in that room knew departed from traditional orthodoxy.

Our collective charge forward is to strengthen this connection and build the public and private partnerships needed to help propel America's older industrial communities into the Post-Recession economy.  As we at Brookings have argued, this "next" economy will be one that is at once export-oriented, low-carbon, innovation-fueled, and opportunity-rich.  It will be an economy where we export more and waste less, innovate in what matters, deploy and produce more of what we invent and make education a competitive priority for the nation. And, importantly, it will be an economy that could play quite well to the global market experience, the research and educational prowess, the advanced manufacturing expertise, and the other distinctive strengths of auto-impacted and older industrial communities.

As the Summit revealed, countless state and regional innovations aimed at re-tooling these metros are already underway, driven by growing alliances among business, nonprofit, government, and philanthropic leaders like the Surdna Foundation, whose longstanding investments in older industrial cities and metros have made such efforts possible. But they can't do it alone:  They need a responsive federal government to help them overcome their challenges, leverage their assets, and take creative ideas, policies, and programs to scale.

The imperatives of the next economy are well understood, demonstrated by President Obama's call to double U.S. exports, expand federal investment in science, technology and education and modernize the nation's infrastructure to help our communities compete globally.  Central elements of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), as well as dozens of programs and investments enacted in the president's FY 2010 budget, and proposed in the president's FY2011 budget, will help move the ball forward.

But this is just a start.  Ensuring a competitive position in the next economy demands that the United States thinks and acts more boldly and strategically about what it will take to spur the kind of economic growth that will not only bring about a healthy recovery, but make the nation strong and prosperous in the years to come.  In practice, this means establishing a common national platform for private-sector led economic growth, particularly in emerging markets like clean energy.  It means getting smarter about how, where, and on what precious federal dollars are spent to stimulate innovation in both new and existing industries.  And it means designing programs and policies that are attentive to the attributes and market realities of the nation's auto-impacted and older industrial metropolitan areas so that they can be full participants-indeed, leaders-in the country's economic transition.

The level of dialogue and participation that was achieved at the Summit provided good reasons to be optimistic, however cautiously, about the future of these communities.  It's now up to local, state, and federal leaders and stakeholders to use it as a launching pad from which to grow and nurture their assets, and build a stronger nation in the process.

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Bruce Katz is the Vice President and Founding Director of the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC.

After Hurricane Katrina, Earth Economics set out to assess the value of restoring the Mississippi River Delta.  The newly released report, "Gaining Ground - Wetlands, Hurricanes and the Economy: The Value of Restoring the Mississippi River Delta," evaluates 11 natural system goods and services.  They include: water supply, water flow regulation, hurricane protection, food production, raw materials production, recreational value, carbon sequestration, atmospheric composition regulation, waste treatment, aesthetic value and habitat value.

Earth Economics proposes these factors be taken into consideration when defining the importance of restoring the delta, its ecology, and its potential for commerce.  Additionally, the report urges restoration of the Mississippi River Delta wetlands that have lost more land area since 1930 -- 2,300 square miles, greater than the size of the state of Delaware -- by using the energy, water and sediment of the Mississippi River to rebuild them.  By providing the economic justification for these large scale restoration projects, this analysis strengthens ongoing planning efforts proposed by the State of Louisiana's Comprehensive Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast and the Multiple Lines of Defense strategy developed by the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation and Surdna grantee the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana.

The study points out the threatening confluence of oil pipelines, flood protection and Mississippi River levees that collectively have degraded the wetlands that protect against hurricanes, climate change, and sinking land.  By assuring water supply, buffering climate instability, supporting fisheries and other food and fur stocks, maintaining critical habitat, and providing waste treatment, these natural systems can provide $12 billion to $47 billion in benefits every year.

To view the full report, please click here.

 

 

The Surdna Arts Teachers Fellowship Program (SATF), an initiative of the Surdna Foundation's Thriving Cultures Program, recently announced Fellowship recipients for the tenth round of its national awards. Fifteen outstanding arts teachers, representing 14 specialized public arts high schools and arts-focused magnet and charter high schools from around the country, were selected from an initial pool of 67 applicants.  A total of $76,950 was awarded to teachers, and an additional $1,500 to their schools for post-Fellowship activities. The teachers excel in a broad spectrum of visual, performing, and literary arts.

Award recipients were evaluated by a peer review panel based on demonstrated excellence both as artists and teachers.  All permanently assigned, full- and part-time arts faculty in eligible arts high schools were invited to submit applications.

"We're thrilled to be able to offer these Fellowships to teachers of the arts.  By focusing on their own creative work and interacting with professional artists and colleagues, these teachers are exposed to new ideas and practices that they can carry back to the classroom.

After ten rounds of Fellowships-and close to 200 Fellows-we've witnessed the transformative effect of the Fellowship experience on both the individuals and the schools," said Ellen B. Rudolph, Program Director for Thriving Cultures, Surdna Foundation.

For a list of this year's Fellows and descriptions of their Fellowship activities, click here. Applications for next year's fellowship program will available in July.  Details will be available on the Surdna Website.

Surdna's Board met in May to approve 96 grants totaling $9,621,450.

Grants included support to: Green For All, to advocate for a green economy, strengthen local infrastructure, and build a movement to promote green jobs and the environment in urban centers throughout the United States; Fund for Our Economic Future, to establish NEO@Work, a program designed to seed, nurture, connect and scale successful initiatives that better prepare the most vulnerable citizens of Northeast Ohio to meet the needs of the emerging regional economy and to connect them to tangible, attractive employment opportunities; Energy Action Coalition, a youth-led movement to raise awareness and build a clean and just energy future; and Mill Street Loft for their Art Institute which helps career-minded, economically disadvantaged teens of diverse backgrounds to develop and express their ideas and build skills in the visual arts through intensive long-term experiences with professional teaching artists.

Click here for the complete list of grants.

 

By Robert Pollin, Department of Economics and Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

On March 22, the Surdna Foundation convened a small conference of researchers at its New York City headquarters on the topic of "Major Economic Challenges Ahead in Building a Clean-Energy Economy in the United States."  I had the opportunity to work with colleagues at the Surdna Foundation in helping to organize this event.

The aim of the conference was to bring together a wide range of researchers whose work either directly or indirectly addresses the economic challenges of transforming the United States into a clean-energy economy over the next 20-30 years.  The conference participants who have been working explicitly on matters of clean energy included Marilyn Brown of Georgia Tech, Mark Delucchi of UC Davis, Gary Gereffi of Duke, Skip Laitner of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, and Robert Repetto of the UN Foundation, as well as my University of Massachusetts colleagues James Heintz and Heidi Garrett-Peltier.  Those who work in other areas related to clean energy included Eileen Appelbaum of Rutgers, who works on labor markets and gender issues; Fred Block of UC Davis, whose recent research is on U.S. industrial policy; Richard Freeman of Harvard, whose research covers a wide span of issues in labor economics; and Chad Stone of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, who is interested in linking a clean-energy agenda with measures to reduce poverty.  The other conference participants, offering important perspectives as non-specialists, included John Hawkins and Beth Herz of Surdna and Debbie Zeidenberg of PERI.

Read more...

Surdna's Director of the Strong Local Economies Program, Kim Burnett, participated in a study tour organized by the German Marshall Fund last October to examine how regions in Germany were embracing clean energy as a means to revitalize their economies while reducing their carbon footprint.

The German Marshall Fund, in partnership with the Transatlantic Climate Bridge Initiative of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, invited thirteen political and civic leaders from Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina to participate in the briefings, panel discussions and site visits hosted by German energy policy experts, regional leaders, policy makers, planners and energy industry representatives.

Read the report...

Surdna is currently accepting letters of inquiry for the first of several Thriving Cultures new or revised lines of work: Teens Artistic Advancement.  In addition, we are currently exploring additional priority areas and will update these guidelines in Spring and Fall 2010 to reflect the results of these explorations.

Click for further details...