Citizen Power

Van Jones is the author of “The Green Collar Economy” (read an excerpt below) and he answers the questions about “green jobs” in this interview from December 2008 . Examples of green jobs can be found in his book’s definition:

Green-collar job

: blue collar employment that has been upgraded to better respect the environment

: family-supporting, career-track, vocational, or trade-level employment in environmentally-friendly fields

: examples: electricians who install solar panels; plumbers who install solar water heaters; farmers engaged in organic agriculture and some bio-fuel production; and construction workers who build energy-efficient green buildings, wind power farms, solar farms, and wave energy farms

Van Jones is a very likable guy and he has some great ideas. He’s also a good communicator. However, I don’t agree that green jobs have to be blue-collar jobs or even trade-level employment, and I think some of these jobs would increase CO2, not decrease it. I don’t think we need to build a lot of new buildings in the U.S., just weatherize the ones we have. But he is right that these ideas would be implemented in other countries to keep people out of mega-cities, and he emphasizes conservation, which is crucial. Even so, this definitions seem a little too narrow to me and his list doesn’t include jobs that the average woman would seek out. The jobs he describes are mostly traditionally male jobs. There are many more potential definitions of Green Jobs than “blue collar” type employment. I think PhDs can have green jobs if they are adding to the eventual lowering of C02 and energy efficiency in the world. I think people in NGOs and the Peace Corp can have very useful green-collar jobs helping people learn all kinds of environmental things anywhere in the world.

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