Special Series
Economic Turnaround
In a Series
A Green Wave Shall Lift All Boats, Says Van Jones
Will the burgeoning “green” economy have a place in it for everyone? To a packed auditorium in Seattle on Wednesday, Van Jones said: Yes, it can. And to be successful, he says, it has to.
In the chorus of voices talking about fighting climate change, his message rings true and clear: “We have a chance to connect the people who most need work with the work that most needs to be done.”
Van Jones is a civil-rights lawyer and founder and executive director of an innovative nonprofit working to ensure that low-income, working poor, and minority youth have access to the coming wave of “green-collar” jobs. Jones -- brought to Seattle by Climate Solutions , King County, El Centro de la Raza, Puget Sound Sage, and Earth Ministry -- made a compelling case that social justice is the moral anchor that’s required to fuse the climate movement into a powerful and cohesive force. He sees that the solutions to global warming are the solutions to the biggest social and economic problems in urban and rural America.
Basically, his point is this: You can pass all the climate legislation you want but you have to provide the local workforce to make it happen on the ground. “We have to retrofit a nation,” he says. “No magical green fairies are going to come down and put up all those solar panels.” This is going to take skilled labor. “We can make a green pathway out of poverty.”
And it gets better, he says. These jobs can’t be outsourced. “You can’t put a building on a barge to Asia and weatherize it on the cheap.” This is about kitchen table issues: jobs, industry, manufacturing, health, education.
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