Climate change and its impact on Florida will take the stage, front and center, when the Florida chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) holds its 2008 statewide meeting later this month.

“As greater awareness of global climate change emerges, each professional involved in planning, designing, managing or governing Florida communities has an obligation to know the facts and potential solutions to this grave threat,” says Rick Hall, chairman of CNU’s Florida chapter.

The Florida chapter meeting, scheduled to be held Jan. 24 and 25 at Rollins College in Winter Park, is aimed at highlighting the message that “New Urbanism is the convenient solution to the inconvenient truth.”

Among those expecting to attend the statewide gathering are Anthony Wayne King of the Carbon-Climate Simulation Science Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, who will discuss global climate change; Stephen Adams, lead staff member for Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s Interim Climate and Energy Action Plan; and Lizz Plater-Zyberk, dean at the University of Miami’s School of Architecture and principal of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co.

The concept of New Urbanism holds that “walkable, human-scaled neighborhoods (are) the building blocks of sustainable communities and regions,” according to the national Congress for the New Urbanism.

Image courtesy of the Congress for the New Urbanism, taken by Michael E. Arth

There’s good news for the future of green-collar employment, but it comes with a caveat: maximizing job growth in green industries will require the right public policy support. That means law-makers need to approve measures such as a renewable portfolio standard, incentives for renewable energy, public education programs and adequate funding for research and development.

If such measures are put in place, the U.S. could see as many as one out of every four workers employed by a renewable-energy or energy-efficiency industry by 2030, according to a new report from the American Solar Energy Society (ASES). That’s promising for both U.S. employees and for anyone concerned about reducing greenhouse gas emissions and our dependence on fossil fuels. But it will happen only, as the ASES report says, under “an aggressive deployment forecast scenario.”

That means we, as citizens and consumers, are going to have to apply strong and steady pressure on legislators — local, state and national — to do the right thing. And that, we all know, isn’t easy.

Still, if — as the saying goes — money walks, green-collar types might see Beltway support grow as green industries expand their economic muscle, which means more dollars for lobbying and campaign financing. And, in that regard, the future looks bright.

In the U.S., renewable-energy and energy-efficiency industries are already generating 8.5 million jobs and nearly $970 billion in annual revenues, according to the ASES report. “To put this in perspective,” the report states, “(t)otal sales for Wal-Mart, Exxon-Mobil and General Motors in 2006 were $905 billion.”

While companies on the energy-efficiency side — things like better windows, efficient appliances and insulation — are making more of the money right now, the renewables side is growing more rapidly.

The ASES predicts the hottest, fastest-growing industries will involve solar power, wind energy, ethanol and fuel-cell technologies. With the right level of public support, it says, we could see up to 40 million people employed — as everything from accountants and biochemists to engineers, mechanics and truck drivers — in the renewable-energy and energy-efficiency sectors by 2030, with annual green-industry revenues of $4.5 trillion.

Getting there, though, will require much more than a business-as-usual approach, the ASES report warns.

“This scenario requires appropriate, aggressive, sustained public policies at the federal and state level during next two decades,” it states. Getting decision-makers to come on board might take oil shortages, fossil-fuel price increases, growing security concerns or a greater awareness of the impact of climate change. The fear of suffering economically at a global level might also be a motivator.

“If we fail to invest in (renewable energy and energy efficiency), the United States runs the risk of losing ground to international … programs and industries,” the report concludes. “For the United States to be competitive in a carbon-constrained world, the (renewable energy and energy efficiency) industry will be a critical economic driver.”

If you haven’t heard yet, peak oil is here: the Energy Watch Group released an analysis this week indicating that global oil production peaked last year and is now likely to start dropping by several percent annually.

Ironically, on the same day, the InterAcademy Council announced a new report titled, “Lighting the Way: Toward a Sustainable Energy Future.” While that report didn’t include the peak oil news, it did emphasize that the world needs to start moving now to ensure both a dependable energy future and a climate that doesn’t tip dangerously into overdrive.

And here’s where the conundrum comes in: coal, the InterAcademy Council report acknowledged, is the most abundant fossil fuel we’ve got … but also the most potentially damaging. Coal-fired power plants, which are springing up in growing numbers around the globe, could help provide the energy safety net we need if the peak-oil analysis is true. But the emissions from coal-burning plants would only speed up today’s rising greenhouse gas levels.

So what’s the solution? Do we throw everything we’ve got at developing safe and cost-effective ways to capture and store the carbon from coal plants? Or do we “Just say no” to coal and invest like mad in renewables research and development? We need an answer in the near future apparently, but which will it be?

How much do Americans know about nanotechnology in the products they buy? According to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, about as much as you could measure on a nanoscale … which is to say, a very, very little amount.

That’s part of the reason the Project on Emerging Technologies got started in the first place. Established in 2005 by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Project on Emerging Technologies says its goal is “helping business, government and the public anticipate and manage possible health and environmental implications of nanotechnology.”

So what is nanotechnology? As the project’s website puts it in its “30-second primer,” “Nanotechnology is the art and science of manipulating matter at the nanoscale (down to 1/100,000 the width of a human hair) to create new and unique materials and products.”

Matter does some pretty weird stuff when you get down to that scale. For instance, at the nanoscale, copper becomes transparent and gold becomes liquid. The unique properties of nanomaterials promise all sorts of innovations, from stronger materials for construction to cheaper ways to generate and store energy to better cures for diseases.

For now, though, most of the nanomaterial-based products on the market are cosmetics, sporting goods, food storage containers and the like. Still, there’s a lot more of them than you might think: nearly 600, according to the last update to the project’s Inventory of Nanotechnology Consumer Products. And the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies is concerned that a) much of the buying public doesn’t know what they’re buying and b) if they find out about what they’re buying thanks to even a minor product scare or false alarm, consumer confidence could collapse and public support for the real potential benefits of nanotechnology could shrivel.

In a poll conducted by the project this summer, only 6 percent of Americans said they had heard “a lot” about nanotechology. And many of those who hadn’t, once given a quick briefing on potential risks and benefits, expressed concern about the technology’s safety.

“As in previous polls, the results of this survey indicate that public wants more information about nanotechnology,” said David Rejeski, director of the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies. “Most Americans will be reluctant to use nano food and food-related products until they know enough to evaluate the merits of these products.”

And that’s where the project’s website comes in so handy: not only does it offer a regularly-updated database of nanomaterial-based consumer projects, which makes for eye-opening browsing, but it also provides lots more information about nanotechnology in the marketplace that’s hard to find anywhere else. There are articles, blogs, research updates, podcasts, links, resources and even online events. In fact, the next event — “Consumers Talk Nano” — set for Oct. 23, offers the public a chance to chat online with experts from the project, Consumers Union and other institutions.

It’s one way in which the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies is hoping to take something small and turn it into something much bigger, and more meaningful, for the buying public.