6 months ago I saw perhaps one of the most interesting Poptech presentations on the role of citizens in “greening” the economy. Van Jones

Discussing his four quadrant theory on how people view global warming differently, and that people at the low end of the income band should be given the opportunity to participate in it.

It was funny, eye opening, and inspirational.

So I went out and bought his book The Green Collar Economy, which unfortunately failed to live up to my expectations.

Without a doubt, Van Jones has a strong point that underlies his position.  The people who have been marginalized by the last 50 years of development should be given the opportunity to participate, but more than that, as people with trades they have the skills to be an integral part of the greening process.

The core problem of this book for me was he spends the first third of the book reflection on the cruelty of history’s past, and that because of these wrongs, these people deserved to participate in the green economy. A problem that bothers me for a number of reasons, but few more important than the fact that (1) there are a lot of people – regardless of color – who have been taken advantage of in American history and (2) the people who he believe are qualified are qualified, but now because their ancestors were slighted.  they are qualified because this group are certified trades men and women in construction, electricity, etc

With that said, I do believe that if governments around the world embark on investing in cleaning up their economies, that it is an excellent opportunity to train up their students and trades people, and that as I have never met a millionaire who still roofs their own house – that means that the opportunities will largely go to those who are qualified in performing the tasks needed.

In China, where I think this is a good time to move this idea forward is that with many engineering students in China finding it difficult to find jobs now, there is now an opportunity to put them into civil service jobs installing solar panels, water purification tanks, and do the research across China that will drive new solutions.  Training people on the lines of automotive firms to assemble natural gas buses, retraining managers from Lenovo to manage up and coming battery firms… and so on.

the key to this, and the key to his book, is simply that we have an opportunity now to bring a lot of benefit to a lot of people, and that this needs to be done in an equitable manner, and i would take it one step further by saying that those who are already in trades are already in the best position to take up this opportunity.