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Where Are All the Clean, Green Jobs?
Joel Makower, WorldChanging
The promise of the green economy and the clean-tech revolution is that they will bring a new wave of job opportunities – productive and respectable jobs at every part of the economic spectrum, from line workers to senior managers. Nonprofit groups like the Apollo Alliance have made this part of their raison d’etre. A steady drumbeat of studies since the late 1990s has told us that burgeoning markets for solar, wind, clean transportation, and other technologies would represent the next big wave of job creation. Cities and states have been positioning to become clean-tech hubs, eyeing the workforce development potential. Organizations representing low-income populations have been viewing the green economy as an entry point for those near the bottom of the economic ladder.
So, now that clean technology and the greening of business seem to be in full swing, where are all the jobs? So far, they’re nowhere in sight – at least not in any appreciable numbers.
The reasons are many and varied. Most of the big companies in the clean-energy business – the BPs, GE, and PG&E’s of the world – don’t seem to be going on hiring sprees, typically creating clean-tech business units from within. So, too, with much of the green business activity – it has to do with efficiency, with doing more with the same or fewer resources, and that includes human resources.
(21 March 2008)
Green Jobs
Robert Rapier, The Oil Drum
What Matters
Like many of you, I want to “make a difference.” I have felt this way as long as I can remember. After my first child was born, it became almost an obsession to make a better future for the generations that follow. When I see children enduring hardship, I internalize that by imagining my own children in that situation (this is why I avoid the news, as well as any discussions of “Die-Off”). Sometimes I wish I didn’t feel this way as it is often depressing, but this is the way my brain is wired. I strongly feel that we are making choices today that are setting up future generations for just the kind of hardship that troubles me. This, above all else, is what motivates me. And while I may fail to make a difference, I am compelled to try.
A big concern for me is that quality of life for a large segment of the world’s population – never good to begin with – is poised for further deterioration as fossil fuel supplies deplete. Quality of life to me starts with the basics: People have enough food and clean water, they have shelter, they live and work in safe conditions, and they have adequate access to affordable energy. At various stages of my life I have had involvement in projects in all of these areas, but most of my career has been focused on the energy portion – both in providing adequate supplies, and in urging conservation efforts to stretch our supplies.
The affordable energy piece is becoming more challenging, and we need more people working on this issue. Conservation must continue to be central to the solution, but we will still need a variety of energy options. As I transition into my new “green” job, I intend to step up my efforts on the sustainable energy front.
(22 March 2008)
Can the Smart Grid Save the Economy ?
Big Gav, Peak Energy
News round-up on the smart grid concept.
(24 March 2008)
Direction of Green Business in an Economic Slowdown (video)
Scott Nance, Energy Policy TV
Roger Ballentine, President of Green Strategies, Inc., and former environmental adviser to President Bill Clinton, is interviewed on the growing marketplace for green technology, the investment environment for such technologies and discusses climate change regulation in the United States and worldwide.
(24 March 2008)
