Apr 05 2009
Green Energy Should Grow During Recession
The economy is bad everywhere. Where I live, unemployment is now about 10%. Early last week one day when it had snowed a lot, I was out in the backyard with my new puppy. While I was watching her, a man in his 30s walked through the alley with a shovel. He paused when he saw me, seemed to hesitate, and then asked, “Do you need anything shoveled?” At first I thought, “what a nice person”, even though I told him “No thanks”. Then I realized he was asking me for a job. He was probably unemployed, and looking for a few dollars here and there shoveling snow for people in my neighborhood. Then I felt sorry for him, but he probably wasn’t the only man trying to use the snow to get some work that day.
This recession is driving people to make money from jobs kids used to have. How many older people do you see stocking shelves at local stores, or delivering newspapers these days? It’s really kind of depressing because you know that isn’t the type of work they were doing a year ago. It’s hard to believe the economy will get even worse, but that’s what we hear is coming. If it does get worse, I really fear for people, and what might happen to them.
Even so, there is optimism that the green energy and jobs revolution we were hoping for will still happen. In fact, it could really help the situation! Even the Wall Street Journal has noticed that green jobs could help the economy. I’ve noticed a few articles about environmental issues lately from their website. And like the mayor of San Jose just said, “We’ve got to create not just green jobs but green careers.” We need long-term green jobs to really help the economy and people, not just jobs that start now and end in a few months. You can read a WSJ story on green jobs here.
I agree that a jobs and energy revolution should include long-term plans for a real green revolution, not just create busy jobs like repairing roads and building bridges. That won’t even help global warming, because it might even encourage more car traffic, and right now that’s not a good idea. Let’s not get too carried away with transportation-related work and instead focus more on planning for what U.S. transportation should look like in 50 years.
