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GREEN JOBS |
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We all witnessed
the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina where thousands suffered and hundreds
died in New Orleans. Before we could catch our breaths, tsunamis flooded
Asia and killed thousands. A bridge soon collapsed in Minneapolis. A
cyclone swept through Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), destroying
homes and entombing thousands in watery graves. An earthquake toppled
school buildings, snuffing out the lives of countless children in China.
This summer’s temperatures have hit 100 and over in more and more U.S.
cities. Levees along the Mississippi River were breeched, leaving parts
of the Mid-West partially underwater. Wildfires are spreading in
California. A typhoon in the Philippines stranded and killed hundreds.
Sadly, too many tornados have torn through the country this year. A week
ago, one even blew through New Jersey. While we watch nature’s fury
unfold, we know that our earth is certainly in peril. As we see these
natural disasters, we wonder why? To find the answer, we turn to “An
Inconvenient Truth,” the Al Gore film that squarely places the blame
on the earth’s warming. And we learn from this documentary that
turning a deaf ear will lead to calamity. But what can we do
to help save the earth? First, we must begin with ourselves. We can, for
example, do simple things in our homes, apartments and workplaces to
combat global warming. Because as the Environmental Defense Fund reminds
us “the energy we use at home accounts for a fifth of U.S. global
warming pollution.” With this knowledge, we must begin cutting back.
We must turn off more lights and use energy saving light bulbs. We must
cut down on air conditioner or heater usage and buy units that conserve
energy. At our workplaces, we must ask our employers to do much more to
preserve the environment. If our earth is to
survive, we must become energy independent and less dependent upon our
current energy sources. Our inventors and entrepreneurs must put on
their thinking caps and come up with innovative renewable energy
technologies such as biomass, solar, geothermal, wind and water. More than ever, we must stop polluting the earth by
driving big cars, trucks and other vehicles. We have to start buying and
driving more energy-efficient means of transportation such as hybrid
cars. We must take more public transportation to commute to schools and
work. We must use less-gas guzzling and emission-spewing vehicles and
rely on bicycles, scooters and motorcycles to get to our destinations. In addition to these strategies, we must create a new, green
workforce that will help preserve the environment. To make this a
reality, Congress must allocate the $125 million in green job training
programs promised by the 2007 Green Jobs Act, a bill introduced by Hilda Solis, a California
Congresswoman. Once trained,
“Green Job” workers will retrofit our homes and buildings to make
them more energy efficient. They will use plant crops, wood and other
materials to produce fuel and power for our country.
They
will develop geothermal (heat from the earth) technologies or harness
the sun's heat and light to create new ways of heating and cooling
homes, schools and buildings. And they will find new uses of wind
turbines to create energy. Although many Green
Jobs will be in the construction or blue-collar trades, a good number
will be in science and engineering. Other opportunities will also be
created in a wide variety of “Green” related careers including
career coaches, work transition specialists, global marketing
specialists, automobile salespeople, investment bankers, loan
specialists, entrepreneurs, designers of green products, etc. To make America a
truly “Green Society,” we must all pull together and start
protecting the environment by conserving energy. We must stop polluting
our earth. We must encourage people to fill millions of “Green
Jobs.” If we do, we will
make a better world for our children and grandchildren. And we owe it to
those future generations. As Al Gore, the Oscar winning creator of an “Inconvenient
Truth” and former Presidential candidate said while accepting his
Nobel Peace Prize in Sweden, we must pay attention to the warning signs
and truly believe that something’s amiss. We must begin to start
fighting global warming. “If we each do nothing,” he
emphasized, “our descendants will certainly ask: “What were you
thinking; why didn’t you act?’”
Image Source: http://www.nrel.gov/learning/re_geothermal.html |
