Green Jobs and the Future of Pennsylvania

Whether you know or not, I am a media producer for Citizens Pennsylvania's Future, a group that fights for the environment in Pennsylvania through policy maintenance, initiation and transformation, and the informing of the public on issues related to the environment and the future of Pennsylvania. To that end, I would like to share the following podcast with you, which contains commentary from David Foster and several other prominent speakers attending the Good Jobs, Green Jobs Conference in Pittsburgh a week and a half ago.

Click here to listen

I am also happy to see the green job economy getting the attention of major news outlets such as the New York Times. Please read Steven Greenhouses recent piece by clicking here .

In this piece, I tend to agree most directly with Ms. Quam and this quote:

“When I first started looking at this area, many people commented on how this will be as big as the Internet. But this is so much bigger than the Internet. The only comparable example we can find is the Industrial Revolution. It will affect every business and every industry.”

There are enormous opportunities within this field, and it is absolutely necessary to fully embrace this shift in perspective about how we operate as a nation. The benefits extend widely from economic growth, to pathways out of poverty, to environmentally sound practices that will ultimately aid our country in reducing it's carbon footprint. I will also say that it is irrelevant as to whether or not climate change is a real thing, scientific or theoretical. Point being, I like to breath clean air, and you (being all of society) should too. This is undebatable.

Additionally, the importance of embracing the green jobs future is regardless of what oil and gas executives have to say about them and the clean energy future. I think that we need to realize that there are going to be winners and there are going to be losers as we transition to a more environmentally conscious global populous. Think about the transition from horse drawn carriages to automobiles. The horseshoe makers lost that battle, and were eventually put out of business. In the same right, oil and gas companies are going to have to step aside, or jump on board at some point. These industries have had a long tenure, and they will continue to for a long time to come, however, society as a whole must understand that it is merely the rhetoric of an industry who is trying to maintain it's grasp on the business world to say that green jobs have a negative connotation associated with them.

So what is a green job? A green job is any job that helps to aid in the fight against climate change. Therefore, whether it is accounting work in an office of a windmill manufacturing facility, or the physical building of a structure, the job is considered to be "green".

Please take a moment to read this article, and listen to the podcast and educate your self on the importance of building jobs in the clean energy and environmentally sustainable fields. Who knows, you may very well occupy one some day.