Biden Plans to Build a Jobs Corps to Save the Planet — California is Already Ahead

President Joe Biden signed an executive order to create the Civilian Climate Corps, telling government agencies to come up with the plan by the end of April.

A climate corps should solve two problems at once: the climate crisis and the economic crisis induced by the pandemic.

Grist reports, however, that California has already launched a similar program.

Announced by Governor Gavin Newsom last year, the California Climate Action Corps is the first statewide program of its kind, and hopefully a potential model for national adoption.

David Saldaña spends his mornings driving around the Harbor area of Los Angeles, scouting out local businesses. When the 28-year-old spots one, he’ll walk in, give them his business card with FoodCycle LA, and ask them to donate food to local pantries — not stuff that’s fresh off the shelf, but the stuff that’s past the sell-by date and destined for the dumpster even though it’s perfectly edible.

The California Climate Action Corps takes on climate change by planting trees, protecting homes from wildfires, and rescuing food waste across the state.

Saldaña says they fight food waste by donating surplus food to hungry people instead of letting it go to landfills where it rots and release methane.