Discussion Question 7 - Van Jones' Work

I think Jones has wonderful and very efficient energy/environmental ideas (no pun intended) - essentially he's killing two birds with one stone (not to be taken literally, of course, since I'm an environmentalist). He's addressing poverty and job creation, economic woes, energy security, budget deficits, environmental concerns, etc. This multi-faceted approach is the best way to tackle such a far-reaching, comprehensive problem - as Jones points out, climate change has to be addressed by everyone but in different ways. Upper-middle class white collar workers have specific ways that they can help ameliorate the climate crisis, and middle-lower and lower class individuals must contribute in their own ways. The more appealing a thematic strategy becomes, the more grassroots and corporate support it garners, and the more it is effectively addressed both in policy circles and in vocational schools.

Jones' numbers also offer hope. He says that, with just $350 billion (half of the bailout sum), we could launch an all-inclusive green initiative that would save millions of dollars in energy costs, create millions of new jobs, and make the world cleaner and more comfortable for everyone. This definitely conceptualizes climate change and puts it in context so that it no longer seems to be an insurmountable problem.

The only thing I worry about is who is going to address this at this point in our history? It SHOULD be expeditiously tackled as a long (and short) term solution to many of our country's problems, but, unfortunately, I worry that most policy-makers will get caught up in our economic problems and will turn to more "traditional" ways of dealing with them, such as more regulation, more financial packages, more interest rate adjustments, etc. Of course, green measures could supplement all of these "conventional" remedies, but I'm concerned that this won't happen, if past actions are accurate indicators for future actions.

More people like Van Jones should work on this and similar plans to address climate change. Political will is necessary to make this work on a large-scale, and I hope that the American public at large will find it in themselves to rise to the challenge.