Public Employee Press

Book Review
Environment and economy both need more green jobs

Candidate Barack Obama called for investing $12.5 billion a year in building the “green-collar” economy. But since developing green infrastructure and manufacturing not only improves the environment but also creates new jobs, green investment plays an even larger role in President Obama’s recession recovery package.

Van Jones started out organizing for green jobs in his community and has now leaped onto the national stage with his important new book, “The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems.”

Jones pushes hard for creating millions of new jobs by growing the green economy with both entry-level positions, such as insulating buildings and installing solar panels, and high-tech jobs building massive turbines to capture wind power and a whole new electric grid to transmit all the new power more efficiently.

As a community organizer, first at the Ella Baker Center and then with his own organization, Green for All, Jones has fought for African Americans and other workers of color to get a fair share of the new jobs. In Oakland he argued that many of the buildings needing insulation are in the poorest neighborhoods, residents should be trained for the job.

Minority workers fought hard for the decently paid jobs many hold in the auto industry, which are now disappearing in the recession. Jones suggests converting some auto factories to produce the huge turbines needed to convert wind power to electricity — just as those plants were converted during World War II to produce airplanes and tanks.

We need this solution now more than ever. The book is available in the Education Fund Library, Room 211 at DC 37. For more information go to www.greenforall.org.

—Ken Nash, Librarian