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The Green Collar Economy | 
 enlarge | Manufacturer: HarperCollins e-books
Category: EBooks
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $9.99
You Save: $9.96 (50%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  34 reviews
Sales Rank: 840
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Dewey Decimal Number: 658
Publication Date: October 7, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 29 more reviews...
 Perfect Timing! October 11, 2008
23 out of 27 found this review helpful
The Green Collar Economy, How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems, by Van Jones, could not be more timely. As our economy (and perhaps the world economy) enters a period called stagflation--meaning, a stagnant economy coupled with inflation--Jones offers a sound solution.
Van Jones gets right to the point in the first sentence of the introduction: "The pain at the gas pump is just the beginning...This weakness can and will send the entire country into a particular kind of a tailspin." Jones writes that oil can't keep up with the demand and that it is running out. This is a fact--we cannot keep on living as we have, sucking up finite resources as if there is no end.
"Clean coal", (an oxymoron, he explains, and part of a clever marketing campaign,) nuclear power plants, and off shore drilling are not the answer to our problems. We need to invest in sustainable resources--like the sun and moon--for the future of the planet and people.
Using corn for fuel was also a huge mistake. I love what he wrote: "Government-mandated and subsidized ethenal from corn will go down in history as the 'Iraq war' of environmental solution."
The solution to the problem lies within our people. Jones believes we need workers--and lots of them--trained to green our economy. Most of the jobs would be considered blue-collar, and little more than a high school education and some training would be necessary. The new green collar workers have jobs "preserving and enhancing environmental quality." Jobs run the gamut of installing solar panels to energy auditors.
Yesterday on the radio, I heard a plumber complain that he hasn't had so little work in over 20 years. That he considered a good day when he could work until 1pm. These people are who Jones writes about and are the workers who would most benefit from the new green economy.
Let us hope that The Green Collar Economy becomes the reality.
Highly recommended.
By the author of the award winning book, HARMONIOUS ENVIRONMENT: BEAUTIFY, DETOXIFY & ENERGIZE YOUR LIFE, YOUR HOME & YOUR PLANET.
We can solve this October 31, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Great book presenting a number of important ideas on how the private sector, government and the citizens need to work together to create a clean, green economy that is inclusive. Especially like the break down of the Green New Deal to mobilize the nation, get people back to work and address the climate crisis.
great toolkit October 7, 2008
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
it helps to learn so much about the new idea which basically combine what seemed to be so contardictive: environmental awareness and disadvantaged people..awesome
Covers the best stories of what is happening on the ground October 8, 2008
10 out of 13 found this review helpful
This book covers people like People's Grocery in Oakland and Solar Richmond who are leading the way in creating a new green economy. Includes a list of what should be done in the first 100 days of office.
Best quote in the book:
"If the crusade to racially integrate the dirty, gray economy represented the height of nobility in the last century, then how morally compelling is the calling to build an inclusive green economy in this one? If Dr. King and other activists were willing to face attack and dogs and fire hoses and murderous mobs to get everyone included in the pollution-based economy, then what should you and I be willing to do today to ensure that the new, clean , and green economy has a place in it for everyone?"
van-j: the blueprint October 7, 2008
12 out of 16 found this review helpful
just got my copy this morning, and i can't put it down. this book provides one of the most important blueprints for creating economic development opportunities in urban centers and saving our dear planet.
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