National Initiative to Create 250,000 Green-Collar Jobs for Urban America

Submitted by Richard on October 1, 2007 - 5:34pm

Tree Hugger Article
By Jasmin Malik Chua
Treehugger.com

Green for All, a new national campaign dedicated to bringing green-collar jobs to urban neighborhoods, launched today at the Clinton Global Initiative. Created by Van Jones, the co-founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, the group wants to harness the power of the growing green economic wave to bolster predominantly black, low-income communities in areas such as Detroit, Baltimore, and New Orleans.

“It’s time the African American community had a part in the discussion on climate change,” said Jones. “We’re not going to solve global warming just with expensive consumer choices like buying hybrid cars and shopping for organic food. People need to realize that you don’t have to be white or wealthy to benefit from going green.”

The goal: To secure job training for 250,000 workers from urban communities for the emerging green job market, a two-prong attack on social injustice and environmental degradation. Which goes to show, really, that environmentalists and civil-rights activists should just sew their pants together.

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Good idea. I completely

Submitted by Richard on October 2, 2007 - 7:31pm.

Good idea. I completely agree. Audits are the way to go.

A radical thought

Submitted by captainlarab on October 2, 2007 - 8:41am.

Can I suggest something that I think would help the urban poor tremendously? Let's have free and mandatory energy audits (which should include a blower door test) for all residences, and financial aid for people whose homes have obvious air leaks that are easily remedied and the costs of which will quickly pay for themselves with decreased heating and cooling costs. If we have mandatory emissions tests for cars, why not mandatory energy efficiency testing for residences?

captainlarab

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