Provocative, personal, and inspirational, The Green Collar Economy is not a dire warning but rather a substantive and viable plan for solving the biggest issues facing the country—the failing economy and our devastated environment. From a distance, it appears that these two problems are separate, but when we look closer, the connection becomes unmistakable.

In The Green Collar Economy, acclaimed activist and political advisor Van Jones delivers a real solution that both rescues our economy and saves the environment. The economy is built on and powered almost exclusively by oil, natural gas, and coal—all fast-diminishing nonrenewable resources. As supplies disappear, the price of energy climbs and nearly everything becomes more expensive. With costs and unemployment soaring, the economy stalls. Not only that, when we burn these fuels, the greenhouse gases they create overheat the atmosphere. As the headlines make clear, total climate chaos looms over us. The bottom line: we cannot continue with business as usual. We cannot drill and burn our way out of these dual dilemmas.

Instead, Van Jones illustrates how we can invent and invest our way out of the pollution-based grey economy and into the healthy new green economy. Built by a broad coalition deeply rooted in the lives and struggles of ordinary people, this path has the practical benefit of both cutting energy prices and generating enough work to pull the U.S. economy out of its present death spiral.

Rachel Carson's 1963 landmark book Silent Spring was the pivotal ecological examination of the last century. Now, rising above the impenetrable debate over the environment and the economy, Van Jones's The Green Collar Economy delivers a timely and essential call to action for this new century.

Customer Rating:
Summary: An Excellent First Draft Vision of What America Could Become
Comment: I just finished reading "The Green Collar Economy", and I can't ever recall reading a book that changed my way of thinking so dramatically. Van Jones' presents a well-written, excellent first draft vision of what America could and should do to revitalize its standing in the world community. And it matters not whether you believe that global warming is a serious threat to future generations or a cyclical phenomenon. If you are concerned about the current economic woes, you owe it to yourself to read this book.
Richard E. Kelly - Author of "Growing Up In Mama's Club" and co-editor at http://justoneopinion.com/

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Customer Rating:
Summary: This Book Will Foster or Does Foster Some of Obama's Major Policies
Comment: As pollution concerns evolve to become disasters waiting to happen, America and the remainder of the world must conceive of projects to prevent the bad from getting worse.

But, Van Jones seeks to do more than stop the hemorrhaging - he seeks to merge the environmentalist concerns with other civil activist targets for the "new `social-uplift environmentalism': equal protection for all people, equal opportunity for all people, and reverence for all creation." His hard task seeks to do more: he seeks to unite the people in making jobs and improving the economy while suppressing the environmentally unfriendly behavior we and our parents grew accustomed to.

His efforts are predominantly hard pressed as blacks and other minorities see environmentalists as, "a few Hollywood celebrities eating tofu, doing yoga, and driving hybrids." The vegan Prius-driving whites appear to "care about nothing but polar bears and can afford to shop at health-food stores and put solar panels on their second home." And, to be fair to the author - one does not need to be an impoverished minority to make the generalizations mentioned above.

But, sometimes timing is everything. "At this point (in time), it is tempting to say that we don't need a U.S. president who will fix everything; we just need one will stop breaking everything." "The Bush administration has been a disastrous failure in the areas of environmental stewardship." "Government-mandated and -subsidized ethanol from corn will go down as the `Iraq War' of environmental solutions; ill-considered, costly and disastrous. In a world full of hungry people, burning food should be criminally punished - not financially subsidized - by the U.S. government."

The Iraq War too is an environmental disaster - costing hundreds of billions of dollars, misdirecting federal funding to burning fuel and wasteful energy manufacturing, instead of creating Manhattan projects for renewable energy sources or similar productive processes to be rid of oil dependency. In fact the purpose of the Iraq War must be reviewed and extracted from our civil pact. When one reviews that war's purpose, it comes to one answer - oil dependency.

Part of the gift of the author's project is employment to the Green-collar economy. The average employed person will be more often holding a caulk gun than a lab coat or a computer-generated sheet outlining engineering devices to save our planet. Why? Because "each nonweatherized building is an open spigot for pollution and wasted energy dollars," And so the "next administration should work with Congress to pass a range of efficiency policies, including commercial and residential building codes, retrofitting public buildings to higher standards, establishing incentives for distributed energy; extending energy-efficient home mortgages; and assisting low-income and public housing stock to improve energy efficiency through stronger incentives . . ."

The basic appeal requests the following: establishing the clean-energy smart grid; supporting green jobs and worker training for the same; improving efficiency in consumption; increasing production of renewable energy; investing in low-carbon mass transportation; increasing fuel economy; changing the systems for fueling bodies (centralization fo foodstuffs and reducing energy wasteful movement of same); blocking production of new coal plants; providing sustainable/low-carbon fuels from switchgrass, wood chips or agricultural waste; eliminating federal tax breaks and subsidies for oil and gas; trading gas guzzlers for hybrids; and anything else to slow down the problem.

By the end of the book, one understands that the major opponents are corporate enterprises deeply rooted in having profits derived from the abusive habits of oil dependency. Marketing strategies by the same have included labels of "Stop the War on the Poor" where African Americans believe the above-misguided stereotypical white elitist persons are imposing environmental programs which steal welfare funds delivered to the poor - all to the disadvantage of the minorities. But, this author and the newly elected president are both of the minority color. And the Obama team's embracing of the author's concepts have led that marketing ploy to rest.

Gingrich's "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less" is receiving limited press. The blunt reality of that request to drill offshore is that the savings is 7-years' removed and at a paltry $.02 per gallon - not a true solution.

The slogan "All of the Above" requests a policy of going simultaneously with the new clean energy policies while continuing with our old dirty habits. But, strip mining mountains, burning clouds of black coal, infusing our environment with everlasting nuclear waste and not changing personal use will not solve the problem. Continuing with the old policies will not address the social needs, and will only allow the bad habits to continue.

Interestingly, this book seeks more than the ending of the bad habit. It employs a strategy whereby new concepts will affect the bad habits, and employ new people. Two problems left by the Bush administration to Obama are touched by this thesis: improving the sickly environment while improving the economy. Sounds too good to be true. But, after reading this book, I can only believe that Obama will heed to this author's advice. It will come as no surprise that many of the concepts included herein become part of the new administration's policy.

This is a book fostering future American policy. For that reason alone, it is a worthwhile read. Written in clear short paragraphs, and sewn with simple-to-read English, it is an easy read. A worthwhile easy read - sounds too good to be true. Like its message, it is not - don't miss this one.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The Green Collar Economy
Comment: Green Collar Economy by Van Jones
This is the most important book I've read in the last 15 years! If I were any kind of authority, I would make every single American read the "Green Collar Economy."
So far, most book reviews that I've read do capture several of the most important messages and ideas presented in this comprehensive book, yet most of them fail to emphasize the many complexities discussed and re-examined in the Green Collar Economy. The good news is there is no secret anymore--the green economy is the only aspect of our economy that is growing, in spite of all its obstacles. My guess is that many American readers might be surprised to discover that Van Jones writes not only about the environment, waves of environmental movement, green economy, and global economy, but also masterfully includes such a broad range of topics that are deeply interconnected with our current state of world wide environmental degradation and climate change.
If you already saw or heard Van Jones, you would probably agree that he is such a passionate, witty and motivational public speaker and story teller. Yet, in my view, he is even better as a scholar who writes for people of all educational backgrounds. Green Collar Economy and Mr. Jones' work in general are so visionary and empowering that some people rightfully consider this book and this kind of community activism centered on social and environmental justice to be one of the pillars of the 21st century. Another surprise for many American readers might be the fact that Van Jones does not talk much about individual actions and solutions. The well preserved myth that all solutions are individual and that our societies are nothing more but a sum of individuals has to be challenged now more than ever. We need our government to come up with solutions, we need collective actions and global actions. Individual efforts are not unimportant, yet they will not be sufficient to win the battle against the climate change and its devastating effects. There is no coincidence that the governments of 184 countries have signed, ratified and acted upon the Kyotto Protocol. Shamefully, the U.S. is not among these countries, nor are our representatives actively participating in Poland where even more than 180 countries prepare for the next international treaty to be signed next year in Copenhagen.
Almost every responsible politician, every local environmental activist, and every concerned member of our community can find something so very profound, courageous and inspirational in the Green Collar Economy. Many of us environmental activists struggle to understand the big picture and often find ourselves unable to overcome many divisions within the movement, commonly dominated by white members. Van Jones offers his profound wisdom and viable solutions--if we are to truly embrace the green revolution and save all life on this planet, we have to achieve social justice in that process. "War time" type of mobilization that is absolutely needed now cannot happen by exclusion and repetition of our historically observed patterns of injustice. People of color and low income community members need jobs, hope and motivation, so they have to be given the new clean energy jobs first. We cannot continue to treat our planet as a space where we can indefinitely extract and drill, and dump toxic materials where predominantly communities of color and low income people live. We cannot continue to direct all beneficial effects of environmental stewardship to materially rich, white, and socially favored communities, if we want everyone to work together to solve the deepest global crisis recorded in our written history. Such a crisis cannot be resolved by any individual, group, government, or even a group of countries. Van Jones offers powerful and memorable metaphors to illustrate this point reemphasizing that we just cannot continue to fight and exploit each other when we are all in the same sinking boat. Emphasizing the idea that "humanity might not survive on the planet," and expecting people of color, and low income groups to drop everything and start working on environmental issues does not work. It does not work because these members of our community (and the world community) have been on the brink of survival on a daily basis for at least several long centuries. It does not work because so far in our class, color, and gender-divided world the major benefits of processes that we call technological progress have never gone to these disadvantaged communities. What might work is to read very slowly, carefully, and think deeply in order to find solutions similar to what is presented in the chapter about the environmental stewardship of Native Americans and other indigenous peoples of the world. In addition, if most Americans saw "When the Levees Broke," a Spike Lee film, and read the Chapter about New Orleans hit by Katrina included in this book, after reading this with a clear mind and open heart, we should make a resolution to never repeat our social cruelty and paralysis. These two chapters are truly outstanding.
Based on my educational background I would like to bring up questions of the self-destructive, human destructive, and all life destructive nature of capitalism, while also emphasizing the important role that women must play. Women's engagement becomes even more critical from the perspective of our organic connection with nature, in life-preservation, and potential for reestablishment of harmony needed on this planet. Working on our own liberation as human liberation, women and working people have a potential to better understand what is at stake and how to fight for our survival on Earth. Van Jones does not use this kind of terminology, nor provides an in-depth analysis of the current stage of capitalism and global economy. As we all know quite well, these discussions can further divide people along political views and persuasions. Instead, the author discusses in-depth how we might enable ourselves to overcome some important dividing factors in order to work together.
I am convinced that this book will mark our entire époque. My only critique is related to the lack of discussion about major reasons for U.S. absence from international efforts to combat climate change. The U.S. imperialist role in the environmental destruction overseas is not included much, either. The world only needs the U.S. to do its own share in reversing these devastating environmental impacts. The share should be proportional to what we as Americans and our governments create world-wide.
The incoming administration already has a plan for action outlined in the Green Collar Economy. If we as a society took this platform seriously and implemented it, we could as well ensure our prolonged presence on this beautiful planet. Moreover, our generations would not be ashamed when we look our children and grandchildren in the eye. If nothing more, we have a chance to live the remaining times as responsible and mature inhabitants of the world. Van Jones does not give false hopes in the most positive outcome. His hope is hope of a cautious, wise, visionary. Many might think that this book still contains utopian ideas. If these ideas and practical proposals become utopian, it will be because of the very nature of our inhumane and eco-destructive societies, not because of the author's naïve attitude. I must confess that I wept reading the last chapter and swore to myself and future generations to work alongside "Green for All" in my own limited capacity.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Concept That Must Be Put Into Action
Comment: I just finished reading this book tonight, and I have to admit that the author makes a very persuasive argument for the means to reverse the spiraling decline of the American economy. I would recommend this as a "must read" for not only every educator, political leader, activist, and businessperson but for every working class American (whether currently employed, unemployed, or incarcerated) who has heretofore not felt personally connected to the environmental movement. Buy this book, read this book, loan it to friends, and see that it is on the shelves of your local library.

My only complaint with this first edition of the book is what I consider an unacceptable degree of sloppy editing. Has HarperCollins replaced human proofreaders with computer spell-checking software? The overuse of the em dash throughout the text is totally annoying and distracting, with as many as four within a single paragraph. Reading the text became as laborious and distracting as carrying on a conversation with a person who uses the words "you know" or "exactly" in every sentence. On the other hand, the intended emphasis would probably make this a great audio book.

That criticism aside, read this book, take its message to heart, and do everything possible to see its concepts put into action. I sure hope that this book is on Barack Obama's reading list!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Forward Thinking Reading!
Comment: It is a excellent book, well-written and stimulating the thinking... I would very highly recommend it!

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