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It has often been noted that environmentalism is simply a pretension for the well-heeled to feel better about their conspicuous consumptive habits. Van Jones, founder and president of Green For All, is campaigning to ensure that environmentalism is a primary motor of the 21st-century economy, whether someone lives in Oakland or Marin.
At a recent solar energy seminar, he starkly described the difference between Oakland, "where you can’t show a three-year-old flowers … because they will cry, thinking it is another funeral," and Marin, where pastoral green living is the rule. "If the hustle, drive and passion of Oakland was joined with the hustle, drive, passion and vision of Marin, what would we have? A green economy to lift people out of poverty. Can we connect the people in this country who most need work with the work that most needs to be done?" he asked.
Green For All has been working with federal legislators to pass the Green Jobs Act, which would provide $125 million for green-collar job training at community colleges. It is currently in House-Senate conference committee. The group's latest move to execute on Jones' vision of a "Green New Deal, a massive, WWII-style mobilization," is a National Day of Action called "Green Jobs Now", set for September 27.
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