In an economic downturn long on loss and short on solutions, few buzzwords have travelled more rapidly from the margins to the mainstream than the term "green jobs", writes Mark Sommer, host of the award-winning, internationally-syndicated radio programme, A World of Possibilities.
In this analysis, Sommer describes civil rights activist Van Jones' "green jobs" initiative: a proposal to address two long-standing challenges at once -- poverty and climate change. Van Jones' strategy is elegantly simple: "Let's connect the people who most need work with the work that most needs to be done." He proposed employing inner city youth to plant trees, install insulation and solar panels, clean up toxic waste sites, and construct mass transit systems.
Efficient as it might seem to alleviate poverty and pollution at the same time, it may prove challenging to optimize both objectives in one policy initiative. Jones compares the creation of a green collar economy that includes the chronically excluded to the construction decades ago of the Interstate highway system and the Internet - both system-changing innovations that at the time were sold not as social and environmental justice initiatives but as national security strategies, a proven winner even when the real reasons and benefits lie largely elsewhere.
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Global Issues