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Green jobs are growing 2.5 times faster than traditional jobs in the U.S.
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Our planet Earth
Everywhere you turn, you hear about going green. Did you know that for every traditional job being created in the U.S., there are 2.5 jobs being created in "green" industries? In fact, if you look at a list of the top ten jobs in our country now, all 10 are in green industries.
From the grocery store urging you to bring your own reusable bags, to solar and wind energy to power our homes and businesses, to recycling your trash, and fuel efficiency in cars and other vehicles, "green" is in. It's fashionable, and it is necessary to slow global warming, and to reduce carbon emissions into our atmosphere.
In December this year, leaders around the globe will be meeting to try to establish some guidelines to promote clean energy that will hopefully slow the progression we are experiencing towards global warming, and to clean up our planet. The focus of the meeting will be fourfold:
1. How much are the industrialized countries willing to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases?
2. How much are major developing countries such as China and India willing to do to limit the growth of their emissions?
3. How is the help needed by developing countries to engage in reducing their emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change going to be financed?
4. How is that money going to be managed?
Just reading the four topics one can clearly see that reducing greenhouse gases will require some major updating and renovations in industries that create vast amounts of greenhouse gases everyday.
Currently, there are several industries in the U.S. that are revamping their working models to go greener. Researchers at MIT and other universities are working on greener cars. They are developing electric cars, improving batteries, and studying how to make hydrogen fuel cars affordable and available on a mass production basis. Stanford University has teamed up with Volkswagen to work on EVs as well.
The Army is working with a Ricardo Inc. in Michigan to create electric powered combat vehicles.
In Ohio, businesses are converting windshield factories to make solar panels. Steel workers in Indiana want to revive America’s ailing industrial heartland by manufacturing wind turbines.
Some of the wealthiest Americans are creating venture capital funds to be in on the decision making processes that are taking place now, and of course, to potentially amass fortunes from their investments. Oil tycoon, Boone Pickens has invested already in wind energy in the U.S. heartland.
Vinod Khosla, an Indian American venture capitalist who is considered one of the most successful and influential personalities in Silicon Valley has created two venture capital funds to invest in green technology.
But are we, in the U.S. doing enough to be leaders in the green industries?
We know that the rest of the world is, in many ways ahead of us. We can trace our lag to the Kyoto Protocol which was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005. This was the first international climate convention, and it was ratified by 184 participating parties. In fact all the major industrial nations, except the United States ratified this treaty. At the time, President Bush felt that our participation would not be good for our economy.
With President Obama's focus on emerging as a leading nation in green technology and his push to clean up our environment and create green industries, it is expected that after the Copenhagen meeting, the number of green jobs will grow exponentially in comparison to traditional jobs.
We need to stand behind our administration and urge our Congressional representatives to make sure that the green jobs that are being created go to U.S. citizens.
For instance, we know that Germany already leads the way in the greening of houses internationally.
China, while still relying heavily on coal for it's energy needs, has already set a target of meeting 10 percent of its energy demand through renewables by 2012, and 15 percent by 2020. The Chinese business community is rushing to catch up. China is set to become the world’s leading manufacturer of wind turbines this year, and is already the top producer of photovoltaic cells for solar energy.
China will get the lion's share of jobs to create the wind farm in Texas because we will be importing all our wind turbines from there, and of course, Volkswagen, while partnering with Stanford, is a German car manufacturer.
Nissan, a Japanese car manufacturer has the first EV ready for mass production in the LEAF.
So, the race is on to regain our place in the green movement. Is it possible that by 2020, there will be 10 green jobs for every "traditional" job in the U.S.?
College campuses around the country are creating green technology departments.
Are you ready to take your place in this industry?
For more information on topics discussed in this article, please read:
Nissan LEAF debuts in America
U.S. Army combat vehicles are going green
U.S. and China in joint venture to build wind farm in Texas
Stanford University and Volkswagen team up to produce greener cars
Resources:
The Race is on to Dominate the Global Clean energy Market
UN Climate Change Conference Copenhagen
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