The Green Economy- Fighting poverty and global warming in the same battle?

There's been a lot of discussion in the last few months about the 'green economy'. Most of it's been political rhetoric, but there's a truth to the possibilities it offers us.

It's apparent to anyone with half a brain that "Drill, baby, drill!" is not the answer to our problems. We as a civilization face environmental disaster within the next few generations. Global warming is a fact. Dwindling natural resources is fact. Mass extinctions are a fact. We, the human race as a whole, face a challenge. We must reform our society to better co-exist with the rest of the ecosystem, to stall and reverse the damages we've wrought.

I'm not a tree-hugging hippie. It doesn't take a lot of intelligence, though, to know that without taking better care of 'Spaceship Earth', our way of life is doomed. The clock is ticking, and we've got to start now in the process of learning how to reverse global warming, stabilize the global human population, and conserve our resources.

This is a daunting task when facing the economic troubles that our world has right now. It's harder to find money for research and development, for massive changes in how we produce and utilize energy, for educating people in how to live at peace with mother Earth, when those same people are struggling to buy food and keep a roof over their heads, when tax receipts are down and the national debt has ballooned to over eleven trillion dollars. The same set of challenges can also serve as an opportunity, however.

I read an amazing article today in the New Yorker, 'Greening the Ghetto', about Van Jones, the chairman of an organization called Green For All. His goal is to "get the greenest solutions to the poorest people." His ideas are remarkable, even if he's still figuring out how to apply them. He shares the goal of President Obama, to establish a green economy. To use government spending to stimulate an environmental renaissance, to use the massive task of rebuilding our infrastructure and reforming the way we treat the environment to stimulate the economy, provide jobs, and lift ourselves from recession. It's an admirable goal, and one that can kill two birds with one stone.

Van Jones wants a piece of the green pie, but for a good reason. He aims to combine saving the environment with providing jobs, especially for the poorest elements of the population. In his words, he wants to turn 'Joe the Plumber' into 'Joe the Solar Panel Installer'. He argues that making this an "everybody movement" hinges on making everyone have a stake in it, from the rich to the poor, and that providing jobs for the poor gives all elements a reason to support environmental reform. He wants to guide gang members into putting down their handguns and picking up caulk guns, to provide job training in the green economy for the most disadvantaged members of the populace. It's a worthy goal, and he has the support of a lot of noteworthy people, from former Vice President Al Gore to Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.

For the most part, those who are most interested in saving the environment tend to be the college-educated, older, more affluent element of the population. This is backed up by studies, but I see this myself everywhere; when you don't have the education to know why the environmental problems facing our world are so serious and/or you're worried about where your family's next meal is coming from, it's hard to worry about the big picture. To make environmental reform work, we have to get everyone involved. And it can be the perfect 'Manhattan Project' to stimulate the economy, the way that the internet did fifteen years ago or the Interstate system did fifty years ago.

He's still not giving a lot of concrete ways to accomplish these goals. He's obviously a great salesman/idea person, though, and maybe just planting the seeds of the idea is enough to start it moving.

Read the full article on the New Yorker Online here