The Myth of Green Jobs

Great piece on the myth of green jobs here.

The one thing the author did not mention is that many of the manufacturing jobs for the green technologies, such as wind turbines, smart meters, electric cars, will all be overseas jobs. And while the United States may, may have the R & D jobs, those will be miniscule compared to the potential manufacturing.

The wild herd running toward green jobs might want to think a little before leaping off the cliff. Certainly the number of jobs created will not replace those eliminated, much less make up for the huge and vast unemployment we currently have.

Travel and the Environment

While I thought some of the thoughts in this piece were more than slightly elitist (as in, I can pay for my "sins" by donating money), the comments are also interesting. It's true, those of us who work toward trying to make as little dent on the Earth as possible must continually ask about the impacts of economic growth. There are no such things as green jobs and smart growth.

Are We Surprised By High Unemployment?

During the last decade we not only failed to create jobs in this country, we went backwards in terms of population growth (we grew) and job creations (we eliminated).

And for all the talk about small businesses and innovation, a recent City of Seattle order to a parking lot near our brand spanking new light rail, to stop selling parking spaces because some urban planner has a utopian vision that people should live, shop, and walk to and from transit rather than park and take the train. So now we have a parking lot attendant unemployed. Great.

What is that giant sucking noise?

Green Jobs and Free Trade

Here and there I have been reading snipes at the Obama Administration's manufacturing policy. The best one liner was something to the effect that while we may be heading for a "green economy," the actual "green jobs" are being created, right now, in China. Most of the turbine windmills are being manufactured in China then exported here. Now that's a carbon footprint if there every was one!

So it seems we should be thinking about what exactly those green jobs entail, and how do we create and sustain them. Part of this discussion, I suspect, means we re-visit the ideas of free trade. China artificially suppresses the valuation of the Yuan, which means we are able to get stuff cheap from them. And they dump a lot of products here in the US, making it virtually impossible for our manufacturers to compete.

How about we say to the world that we need to make the beginnings of the green economy a local issue. Local manufacturing of the components for green energy generation. And using local engineering talent to site the green energy production. Or how about really figuring out how to make our automobile manufacturing the best in the world, energy efficient and cool looking, keeping living wage jobs here in the US.

It just seems hypocritical to me if we talk the talk but certainly don't walk it.