Do Green Jobs Create Greener Americans?

nytimes.com:

Most "green job" training programs aim to teach low-income workers the job skills necessary to join the nascent clean-tech economy: energy-efficiency retrofitting, wind turbine maintenance, brownfield remediation, and so forth.

PhotoSolar Richmond "I'm getting greener," declared one recent graduate of a San-Francisco area program that trains solar panel technicians.

But do these programs train low-income individuals to become environmentalists, too?

Read the whole story: nytimes.com

Comments

[liberalcynic]

of course green jobs makes America Greener, just as everywhere else, the only problem is there isn't the necessary support from governments globally for green jobs and sustainable development.

[Lorianne]

Huge Texas Wind Farm's Turbines Will Be Made in China

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2009-10/huge-texas-wind-turbines-will-be-made-china

[CommunistUtopia]

I still don't know of anyone who works a "green job". I guess if you count the kid who cuts my grass, is that a green job?

[jsarets]

They say the ultimate exercise of free will is our decisions to pay attention to certain things. What we do for a living affects our attention, which affects our beliefs and behaviors.

When I was a Linux developer, I paid a lot of attention to the power of information and cooperation. Now as a computational energy modeler, I pay a lot of attention to resource efficiency as a social and economic imperative. I also pay attention to the intersection of these ideas.

A job isn't just an income, it's also an influential part of the prism through which we view the world.

[PhilipTaylor]

THE STIMULUS PACKAGE KN0CKED 5.0% Off Unemployment Rate Compared to THE BUSH TREND!

Bush and Republicans are responsible for 88% of the INCREASE in Unemployment to Date!
=(4.2% Bush Increase) /(4.2%+0.9% 0BAMA Increase) = 88% Bush Responsible
__________ __________ __________ _

DATA, FACTS and Calculations:

4.7% Unemployment September 2008

8.9% Unemployment Rate at End of Bush Control - February 2009 Signed began in March

4.2% Increase With Bush in Control

9.8% September 2009 Unemployment Rate

0.9% Increase Since 0bama took control (9.8% - 8.9%)

+Bush increase last Five months 4.2% Total or 0.84%/ month

14.8% Bush Projected Unemployment Rate for September 2009 = 8.9% +0.84% X 7 months= 14.8%!

5.0% Reduction in Unemployment by Stimulus Package compared to Projected Bush Unemployment (14.8% Bush Projected Rate - 9.8% Actual = 5.0% Savings)

http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=usunemployment&met=unemployment_rate&tdim=true&q=unemployment+rate

[hulagirrrl]

Yes, I think that will happen. When I lived in Europe and witnessed the emerging of environmentalism it was not an overnight thing either. What is important though is that we teach the children. I always think how the Europeans incorporated these issues in the school curriculum, and how the children then made the parents aware. I know that we missed an entire generation, but hopefully now it will happen. Germany moved to green jobs when some of the traditional manufacturing jobs moved off shore, and their universities are now bringing about students who are innovative and contributing to making the change in the way we build and consume.

[fifty8]

Do green jobs create greener Americans?

Yes, they create greener Americans, for thinking there are green jobs.

[spikeykitten]

No - they are less green
after having all their money taken from them in the name of "green"

[LewisWalsh]

Spikeykitten, please consider this note to be helpful criticism. After your Mao comment, I took a look at some of your other comments. It appears to me that you speak before you think or study. It is fine to disagree with others, but you must make an effort to disprove their arguments.

[SonofLiberty1]

What green jobs?

I don't see any.

[totalliberal]

They're not on your mom's basement.

[spikeykitten]

"do these programs train low-income individuals to become environmentalists, too?"

Not so much "train" more like indoctrinate - as in a cult.

and "train" to be a socialist under the veil of a environmentalist.

[totalliberal]

It involves job training. But you wouldn't know anything about that down in your 'holler".

[jsarets]

How is it "socialist" to work for private businesses that help their customers reduce their energy bills and make lifestyle/process changes that add value to their lives/businesses?

The cornerstone of efficient market theory is that value is subjective. The subjective value of ecological responsibility is changing, for some people more than others.

This isn't indoctrination. This is freedom. People are learning more about how living systems operate and interact, and their values are changing accordingly.

Not because of government mandate, but because of freedom of speech and open access to information about how the way we live and work affects our future and our children.