Our own HotJobs points out several top recession-proof fields right now. The areas of education, energy, health care, and the environment itself are all good bets. And greenies will be glad to know that these overlap with E: The Environmental Magazine‘s list of booming eco-friendly job sectors.

Other hot fields include environmental law, information technology, government planning and land use, and waste management and recycling. Plus, jobs such as accounting, human resources, and project management continue to be needed within environmental organizations of all types.

So where do you start your green job search? We’ve collected some of the best websites for job listings and other resources for a new earth-focused career.

• Sustainable Business Green Dream Jobs: Large list of positions at all levels with environmentally conscious employers. From solar water heating system installer to web producer, from human resources assistant to fish campaign organizer, you’re bound to find something intriguing here.
• Idealist.org Job Search: Openings at nonprofits; search on “environmental & ecology” or “energy conservation & green living” for unique listings such as organic farm manager in Southwest Florida and video editor for the Clinton Foundation.
• Green Jobs: This site is all about the burgeoning area of renewable energy. If you’re interested in solar, wind, or biofuels, whether installing, engineering, or selling, check this one out.
• EnvironmentalCareer.com: Lists hundreds of jobs, especially in environmental sciences and energy fields. Also has opportunities to transfer existing skills into green businesses — for example, a senior billing coordinator position for environmental consultants.
• Business for Social Responsibility Jobs Board: Worldwide positions at companies that value people, communities, and the environment. Includes big names such as the Walt Disney Company.
• Grist Job Board: Environmental groups from around the country post their jobs here. Also, Grist’s Kevin Doyle has a series of articles about the green job market.
• TreeHugger Job Board: Dozens of green business and organizations list their openings here. Subscribe to the RSS feed for the latest updates.
• Jobs With the National Park Service: Love the great outdoors? You could work anywhere from Hawaii’s volcanoes to Yellowstone’s geysers. The park service has 16,000 permanent employees and another 10,000 seasonal employees each year.
• World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms: If you’re interested in the fast-growing field of organic food (no pun intended), you could volunteer on a farm to get experience. This site connects volunteers with farms around the planet.

Another green tip: Many companies encourage applying online these days, so you can email your resume. But if you have to print it, look for high-quality paper made with recycled fibers. No point killing trees when you’re applying for an earth-friendly job!

The country made huge gains in wind energy in the past couple of years and that increase obviously created huge gains in employment as well. Last year, there was a 50 percent increase in installed wind capacity and a 70 percent increase in wind industry jobs over the year before. Off those jobs, 13,000 were in regions of the country that had seen a loss of manufacturing jobs in recent years.

This is great news that shows that with the development of renewable energy industries in the country, there will be more jobs, but now we have to figure out a way to move some of these renewable energy projects into areas where people have long relied on coal mining jobs. In a recent post, we emphasized the need for green job training for those who may ultimately lose their coal mining or other industry jobs as renewable energy replaces other sources of energy. While it’s very exciting that the wind industry is growing and creating jobs, we also need to start making sure that people are prepared to take advantage of them.

The industry is struggling to fill new solar jobs, according to the joint study by two community colleges in the bay area. Solar companies in California currently employ between 16,500 to 17,500 people. Within the next year, another 5,000 positions are being added.

Most of those jobs are in the bay area, which has about half of those jobs. Three-quarters of the 77 employers surveyed said they expect to be hiring.

But employers say it’s increasingly getting more difficult to find qualified entry-level workers. The biggest demand is for workers to install the photovoltaic panels on homes in California.

John Carrese from City College of San Francisco and Jennifer Oliver of West Valley College in Saratoga co-authored the study, which can be read here (PDF). The jobs pay well, ranging from starting salaries of $31,200 to $60,000. Solar designers and engineers earn a median salary of $83,000.

The industry, which is still dependent on government programs to spur interest in solar panels, is hoping to gain workers from the construction sector that has been sputtering because of the housing slump.

However, green careers have emerged as a shining light in a generally bad economy. While other corporations are struggling, green companies are looking forward to a better year.

One need not look further than Ford Motor Company, which had been ridiculed in recent memory by opponents for its stated commitment to hybrid vehicles and developing greener technologies. Yet Ford has survived the downturn better than GM and Chrysler.

Green is not only emerging, it will be sustained for a long time. These next few years will give people an opportunity to join in on the ground floor of a booming industry. It’s an industry that will stretch across all economic lines.

Here are the top five industries that are likely to be major players in the green economy:

1. Landfill gas plant operator
Anything within the renewable energy market is a great green career. Try this one on for a quick turn around into a green opportunity: a landfill gas plant operator. Turning gas into energy is big right now and this can be a great fit for someone who only has a GED or high school diploma.

2. Solar panel installer
The solar field is heating up, and offers many opportunities in panel installation and sales. More colleges, technical schools, and extension services are offering programs in the sector. The North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP) offers certification programs that will train you in solar installation. If you would like to become a solar salesperson, start by contacting some of the solar panel makers. This field is also prime for the entrepreneur.

3. Wind turbine machinist
The market for wind energy continues to grow, so much so that wind power now employs more Americans than the coal industry. A bonus is that if you already have a degree or background as a machinist or engineer you may be able to turn that into a job as a wind turbine machinist or wind turbine installer.

4. Green engineer
There are likely to be many opportunities to help design a cleaner, greener society, from waste treatment and recycling facilities to transportation systems. Soon America will also be transitioning to a smart grid, requiring much work for engineers. (Unemployed car engineers in particular should stay alert for these fields). If you want to start in these areas, make sure to get an engineering background in college.

5. Green builder
The federal and local governments continue to require more certification and higher energy efficiency on all buildings. Green building, with the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, will likely become a standard in construction.

There will be many careers available within these industries. Take the time to get the training and schooling that will be needed.

If you have something to share or a job to offer please use my contact page and i will list it in green jobs section.

Thanks

The Copenhagen Climate Council study said the United States would gain that many jobs if its electricity use grew by just half of 1 percent a year and a quarter of its electricity came from wind energy and other renewable sources.

EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told the CEOs of major international corporations that similar investments could produce a million new jobs in European Union countries.

“Change also brings big economic opportunities,” he said.

The predictions came at a global business summit where corporate leaders are focusing on how to help politicians negotiate a new global climate treaty to succeed the Kyoto treaty that expires in 2012.

In 2007, EU leaders pledged that by 2020 the European Union would cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other major warming gases by at least 20 percent from 1990 levels, and increase its reliance on renewable energy sources to one-fifth of all its energy used.

“Achieving a 20 percent share for renewables, for example, could mean more than a million jobs in this industry by 2020,” Barroso said. Such a plan must be joined, he said, by “a satisfactory international climate agreement in which other developed and developing countries contribute their fair share to the limiting global emissions.”

Barroso said the EU intends to limit the cost of its package to about half of 1 percent of its GDP.

“Some people, however, have questioned whether this is the right direction for Europe during the economic crisis,” he said, but the answer is that “the costs of climate change will be much higher if we don’t make adjustments now.”

He said the hoped-for December agreement in Copenhagen on a U.N.-administered treaty will be “a major milestone on the path to a global carbon market which would increase business opportunities, particularly for European industry, and help to bring average carbon costs further down.”

BP PLC Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward said most executives he had spoken with agree the world “is going to establish a carbon price” — making carbon emissions a global commodity, with a universally accepted price, probably through a so-called “cap-and-trade” system by governments and the marketplace.

“I think we can craft some pretty clear direction,” Hayward said.

That approach requires governments to sign a new U.N.-administered treaty for regulating greenhouse gases to set limits on carbon dioxide and then issue permits to companies that divvy up how much of the overall pollution each of them can emit. Any unused portions can be traded to other companies.

The other option is a direct carbon tax, favored by some at the meeting.

Also Monday, at a meeting in Paris, France’s environment minister urged the world’s biggest polluters to slash carbon emissions to slow what he called the probably irreversible tide of global warming.

Just how far governments are willing to go is the key question at talks in Paris this week among top environment officials from the United States, China and 15 other high-polluting nations.

“No one contests the urgency of the problem,” French Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said in opening the Major Economies Forum talks. “No one contests the probably irreversible character of the problem.”

Activists say governments of rich countries are not being ambitious enough in their emissions targets, and protests outside the French Foreign Ministry are planned during the two-day meeting.

The environment chiefs also are discussing how to raise $100 billion a year to help poor countries adapt to climate change. Getting such countries on board is seen as important to reaching the global climate pact at meetings in Copenhagen in December aimed at replacing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

The countries represented at the Major Economies Forum account for 80 percent of the global emissions of heat-trapping gases.

Solar and wind-power companies, energy-efficient light bulb makers, environmental engineering firms and others expanded their work force by 9.1 percent from 1998 to 2007, the latest year available, according to Pew.

The average job growth in all industries was 3.7 percent during the same period.

The entire energy sector has experienced growth in recent years as well, according to the Bureau of Labor. Bureau data shows coal mining jobs jumped 16 percent from 2003 to 2009. Oil and gas extraction jobs jumped 28 percent.

The Pew study does not include employment data from the past 18 months, a volatile period for the energy industry.Since the data was collected, the government has said it would pump billions into renewable energy and effiency programs. The banking meltdown made it nearly impossible to raise cash and oil prices have collapsed.

Alternative energy companies have been hit hard by the recession, with a string of bankruptcies in the ethanol industry and layoffs in the wind-power industry.Lori Grange, Pew’s interim deputy director, said that while green industries will certainly benefit from the influx of billions in stimulus dollars, the report shows that the clean energy sector has proven itself sustainable.

States like California, Texas, Florida, and New York continue to employ the most people in the industry. However, states experiencing the largest growth rates were Idaho, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming, according to the report.

Michigan, which has lost hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs, saw a 10.7 percent increase in clean energy jobs from 1998 to 2007.That is not to say that clean energy jobs have kept pace with overall job losses.Pew counted 22,674 clean energy jobs in Michigan in 2007. To put that into perspective, Michigan lost 38,400 jobs in April alone.

Many of the new manufacturing jobs do not pay as well as traditional union jobs, either, yet workers who have made the shift say the industries are moving in different directions.One cast off from the auto industry is Bob Mamo, 50, who was director of business development for a Dearborn, Mich., auto parts supplier until he was laid off in November. He was in the industry for 20 years.

Last month, he landed a job as vice president of manufacturing for Free Flow Power, a hydropower company based in Gloucester, Mass.The auto industry “just looked like it was going in the wrong direction,” he said. “Green energy is definitely on the upswing. Green energy was what I was really after.”

Liesl Clark, deputy director for Michigan’s Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth, said the state is doing what it can to help manufacturers shift operations to supply parts for wind turbines, such as gear boxes and drive trains.

For its study, Pew used private jobs data that included information about employers, and Pew researchers spent nearly a year determining which ones could be considered part of the clean energy economy.

“Our numbers are probably conservative,” said Kil Huh, who directed the study. “If we couldn’t identify as part of green energy, it wasn’t part of our count.”

The Pew jobs data was dominated by environmental engineering firms and other pollution cleanup specialists that have been around for years. But the report showed that the fastest growing areas include companies that make hybrid diesel buses, traffic monitoring software, liquid biofuels, and jobs related to solar and wind energy.

“The explosive growth is really in clean energy,” Huh said.