Article on Encyclopedia of the Earth (http://www.eoearth.org/):
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Environmental_protection,_the_economy,_and_jo
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The relationship between environmental protection, the economy, and jobs has
been an issue of harsh contention for decades. Analysts and policymakers of
all points of view seem to agree that a strong relationship exists between
environmental protection and jobs; the debate is over the sign of the
correlation coefficient. Does environmental protection tend to harm the
economy and destroy jobs or to facilitate economic growth and create jobs?
If the latter is the case, can the positive affects be quantified and
estimated at a meaningful level of detail? Here we address this issue by
summarizing the initial results of the Jobs and the Environment Initiative,
a research effort funded by nonprofit foundations designed to quantify the
relationship between environmental protection, the economy, and jobs. We
estimate the size of the U.S. environmental industry in 2003 and the numbers
of environment-related jobs created at the national level and in the states
of Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, and Wisconsin.