Dear Story of Stuff Community,Remember at the end of the Story of Stuff film, when I said there is a new school of thought on how to organize the material economy and it is based on sustainability and equity? While there are many people doing critical work promoting this new school all over the world, I was especially thinking about my friend Van Jones when I wrote that. Van is the director of Green for All (www.greenforall.org), a U.S.-based organization dedicated to building an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty.Over the years, I’ve learned a ton from Van about strategies to promote ecological sustainability AND economic justice. Van’s message is really important because too often environmental protection and economic development are presented as at odds with each other. Just this past weekend, a member of the Berkeley City Council came knocking on my door, as they do annually, just before the election. I told him I was concerned about the Pacific Steel plant down the street which is belching out tons of neurotoxins into my neighborhood, where kids still play outside. (For more information on Berkeley’s big local polluter, see: www.shellfacts.com/article.php?list=type&type=37).
The City Council member nodded empathetically but patronizingly explained to me that he needed to balance environmental concerns with jobs. I told him that dichotomy is so 1980s. There’s a new school of thinking on this! We can – indeed we must –invest in economic development that cares for both the environment and workers. There are loads of good, clean, safe jobs to be had in a transition to a green, sustainable economy.
This week, Van released a new book which explains strategies to advance the green job agenda.
The book is called: “The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems” by Van Jones. It is a really important book that needs to be read by city planners, mayors, presidential candidates and all of us concerned with the future of our communities and the planet.Now, I don’t usually advocate buying anything, but I want to ask any of you who are interested in buying this book to do so now. You see, when a new book is published, the first week of sales makes a big difference in how much visibility the book gets. If over 5,000 books are sold this week, it can make the New York Times Best Sellers List which could raise the visibility of these crucial issues at a time when we most need it. This is the exact moment when our political leaders should be looking for innovative approaches to address the combination of environmental deterioration, the need for clean safe energy and the growing economic divide in this country. Van has provided a road map that we can help get in front of local and national leaders.I bought one copy for me and one for that City Council Member.Here’s some information below from Van about the book and how to get a copy. If you want to know more about Van’s work, check out www.greenforall.org. And if you do get the book, please post some comments. I’d love to hear how Van’s ideas resonate with you and your community.Read on! Annie
The Green Collar Economy:
How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems – by Van Jones
Get the book now! | Share it with your friends“Van Jones demonstrates conclusively that the best solutions for the survivability of our planet are also the best solutions for everyday Americans.” – Al GoreNY Times columnist Thomas Friedman quotes Van Jones, saying, “It’s time to stop borrowing and start building. America’s number one resource is not oil or mortgages. Our number one resource is our people. Let’s put people back to work – retrofitting and repowering America.” (9/28/08)
Our country is facing serious times. On the heels of sky-high fuel prices this summer, a massive financial crisis has sent the economy into a tailspin this fall.Green For All founder Van Jones has proposed a powerful green cure. His first book, The Green Collar Economy, hits bookstores on October 7.
Pick up your copy and learn how we can move the country toward a fully clean and renewable economy – one strong enough to fight pollution, cut poverty and put America back to work.Get the book now! | Share it with your friendsInside The Book – Real Solutions for Both Planet and PeopleMore than ever our country needs real solutions to our energy, economic and ecological crises. Answers to these tough questions are between the covers of The Green Collar Economy:
- How can the next U.S. president create millions of new green jobs?
- How can we lower energy prices without drilling our shorelines and burning up our planet?
- How can the government help create energy independence – at practically zero cost to the tax payer?
- What is eco-apartheid? What is eco-equity?
Buy your copy of The Green Collar Economy now and find out the answers to these and other critical questions of our times. See how people’s lives are changing with green pathways out of poverty and into prosperity.Spread The Word!Use our easy Spread the Word Tool to tell your friends about this timely book.Help Make Publishing HistoryNo African-American author has ever written an environmentally-themed book that became a best seller. Strong sales will pave the way for other vital new voices in the environmental movement!Buy The Green Collar Economy now and share it with your friends.Help get the message to Congress!Buy extra copies of The Green Collar Economy. Ship them to:Green for All
1611 Telegraph Avenue, Suite 600
Oakland CA 94612We’ll send you a thank you receipt for your in-kind donations and we’ll send the autographed copies to your congressperson – and to every congressperson, governor and state representative in the country. Let our policy makers know that we need an inclusive green cure for the national crisis!For more information about the book, visit www.vanjones.netP.S. Special for book groups, community groups and educators who want to study this topic more deeply: a video and book curriculum will be available on www.greenforall.org and www.VanJones.net.
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October 7th, 2008 at 2:09 am
[...] Annie Leonard wrote an interesting post today onThe Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest b…/bHere’s a quick excerptDear Story of bStuff/b Community, Remember at the end of the Story of bStuff/b film, when I said there is a new school of thought on how to organize the material economy and it is based on sustainability and equity? b…/b [...]
October 7th, 2008 at 4:52 am
Hi Annie,
I’ve seen your explanation and I liked it very much. But you forget to put there the most important point of all in this analysis. Without attacking it furiously, all other poits are not important and we are going to suffer a major genocide in no time.
The point is the grown of the population of the planet. The most important thing we have to work on before any other is solved is to stop immediately growing in numbers.
It is very easy to understand. Population grown is an exponential function, while consumtion reduction is a polinomial function at best.
It’s easily demostrable that no polinomial function can ever close up an exponential one. So that means that, if we don’t stop having more and more people in the planet, it really doesn’t matter how much oil or contaminats or trees or water every one of us are using. We are going to keep consuming more and more exponentially, and reduction of consume is only going to make things worse.
And when the day come, we’ll solve it the way they’ve designed it to be. With a huge holocaust. We are going to reduce drastically the population of the planet with a global scale war that will reduce the population from 7.000 to 2.000 milion. Two of every three people will die killed by another.
That’s the way it’s always worked when population growth has’nt been controlled. And it will happen again if we don’t put at the top of the priorities reducing the population of the planet.
This point is very important because it changes who is good and who is bad in this story. For example, all those organizations “save the children”, oxfam, etc. are harming badly the planet.
First of all because they are saving no children really. Every child they’ve suposed to save grow up to have a couple of children that will be hunger in 14 years.
A correct UN politics would order the countries by the amount of people they have. Never mind if they made them or they import them by controled or uncontroled immigration.
The more your countr grews in population, the more you pay to a common fund that invests in countrys with zero grow or negative grow.
While this is avoided and forgot, saving water or petrol or anything else is pointless, because water is not going back to the river, but they are going to build another house for another person instead.
Hope you forgive my poor english.
October 7th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
[...] The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest … [...]
October 19th, 2008 at 12:01 am
I watched the story of stuff tonight, interesting…though so many of the green movement tactics have been borrowed from the Spanish Inquisition, (it would be a sort of mental and verbal torture). They do not allow for free will and treat the commom person as an idiot, too stupid to make the right choice and so they attempt to scare them into doing the right thing. I never hear of suggestions where freedom is not taken away. Modern industrialism has brought on many evils to society, most especially making society more dependent on Big Business and Big Government. Peasants have had more independence and freedom than we do. We don’t even know how to take care of ourselves anymore. This call to stop the industrial cycle is not new. Hiliare Belloc and many others a century ago were champions of a different way of thinking, called Distributism. It is not Capitalism, Socialism, or Communism. Just google the word and there is plenty of info.
Read a book by someone who has had time for the ink to dry. Try “The Way Out”, by Belloc or “The Outline of Sanity”, by G.K. Chesterton and you will see that they could see where we were heading almost a 100 years ago.
October 19th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Hi Annie!
I am a 23-year-old EFL teacher/pedagogical coordinator in Brazil, born and raised here, and have always been both personally and professionally concerned about world issues such as the ones you approach on your film back in the website. I am really thrilled by your research, and want to contribute by informing people. So, here’s my proposal: would you be any interested in having your website translated into Portuguese, so that all of our population of more than 180 million people could fully understand what your message is? I was even thinking, if you could add some info on our local economy/production/consumption, that’d be even greater! Well, I am very much open for the idea of getting the whole website translated, so in case you fancy the idea, let’s please let me know. I’m looking forward to it!
Best,
Igor Cavalcante.
October 23rd, 2008 at 10:42 am
Just watched the Story of Stuff. Some good ideas and a lot of unsupported opinions that must come from people who don’t seem to have worked in the real world of business.
Many businesses are creating this ’stuff’ because they are trying to survive to employ people who have children to feed and educate. Much of the ’stuff’ is demanded by cost-conscious customers who continue to want more for less. They call this ‘value.’
Last time I checked most people choose to get a good quick deal instead of taking the time and paying more for products and services from companies that pay their employees well and use sustainable practices. It just gets too complicated when you just want to buy an apple to eat. Maybe a ’sustainable practices’ council that would rate these companies would make it simple enough for the quick purchase decision between best price and best ‘global value.’
Finally, I suggest you check some of your toxicology. Using the term ‘toxin’ so distainfully implies you get near the stuff (pillow) and you’re gonna die. I had a great 8th grade science teacher who taught us that clean, pure water can be toxic– just try consuming 50 gallons of it in 20 minutes. You will surely have toxic effects. It’s all about exposure. Some of these toxins are saving thousands of cancer patients each day and I think they are happy about it.
For some fact-based information about Education, Government, and Health, check out: SupportingEvidence.com.
Thanks.
October 24th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Hey Annie,
What happened to my post? It seems to have been deleted. I tried to post a supportive comment, a suggestion, and some respectful criticism. Don’t you allow that?
(By the way, if we all publish our books on the web instead of printing them, we can reduce the amount of toxic chemicals used in the publishing industry and the amount of pollution created in transporting them to congresspeople.)
Thanks,
Scott Gibson
http://www.supportingevidence.com
*worth a thousand words*
October 29th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Here’s a technology that can deal with all cellulose/ biomass stuff and create green collar jobs.
Charles Mann (”1491″)in the Sept. National Geographic has a wonderful soils article which places Terra Preta / Biochar soils center stage.
I think Biochar has climbed the pinnacle, the Combined English and other language circulation of NGM is nearly nine million monthly with more than fifty million readers monthly!
We need to encourage more coverage now, to ride Mann’s coattails to public critical mass.
Please put this (soil) bug in your colleague’s ears. These issues need to gain traction among all the various disciplines who have an iron in this fire.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/09/soil/mann-text
I love the “MEGO” factor theme Mann built the story around. Lord… how I KNOW that reaction.
I like his characterization concerning the pot shards found in Terra Preta soils;
so filled with pottery – “It was as if the river’s first inhabitants had
thrown a huge, rowdy frat party, smashing every plate in sight, then
buried the evidence.”
A couple of researchers I was not aware of were quoted, and I’ll be sending them posts about our Biochar group: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/b…guid=122501696
and data base;
http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/?q=node
I also have been trying to convince Michael Pollan ( NYT Food Columnist, Author ) to do a follow up story, with pleading emails to him
Since the NGM cover reads “WHERE FOOD BEGINS” , I thought this would be right down his alley and focus more attention on Mann’s work.
I’ve admiried his ability since “Botany of Desire” to over come the “MEGO” factor (My Eyes Glaze Over) and make food & agriculture into page turners.
It’s what Mann hasn’t covered that I thought should interest any writer as a follow up article.
The Biochar provisions by Sen.Ken Salazar in the 07 farm bill,
Dr, James Hansen’s Global warming solutions paper and letter to the G-8 conference last month, and coming article in Science,
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0804/0804.1126.pdf
The many new university programs & field studies, in temperate soils
Glomalin’s role in soil tilth & Terra Preta,
The International Biochar Initiative Conference Sept 8 in New Castle;
http://www.biochar-international.org/ibi2008conference/aboutibi2008conference.html
Given the current “Crisis” atmosphere concerning energy, soil sustainability, food vs. Biofuels, and Climate Change what other subject addresses them all?
Biochar, the modern version of an ancient Amazonian agricultural practice called Terra Preta (black earth), is gaining widespread credibility as a way to address world hunger, climate change, rural poverty, deforestation, and energy shortages… SIMULTANEOUSLY!
This technology represents the most comprehensive, low cost, and productive approach to long term stewardship and sustainability.
Terra Preta Soils a process for Carbon Negative Bio fuels, massive Carbon sequestration,10X Lower Methane & N2O soil emissions, and 3X Fertility Too. Every 1 ton of Biomass yields 1/3 ton Charcoal for soil Sequestration.
Carbon to the Soil, the only ubiquitous and economic place to put it.
Erich
540 289 9750
November 7th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
I studied how people and organisations behave more sustainably for four years. I summarised my PhD findings in my book The Sustainable Way – see http://intergon.net/tsw for free stuff on this. Basically, we have to help people to realise that they do not have a right to behave so unsustainably. It is that simple, but the challenge is that it is not simple to do.
November 10th, 2008 at 2:13 am
Annie – great site and presentation. Have you seen Chris Martensen’s presentation about the economy as well? Very fascinating. You guys should team up, as he’s solid on the economic issues and you’re awesome on the environmental and societal aspects.
http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse
November 13th, 2008 at 10:40 am
Why in the world would you advocate buying a book, after 20 minutes of expounding on consumerism.
How about encouraging people to request the book through their local lending library instead?
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:14 am
Response to Rachele:
You need consumerism on some level and there are different types of consumerism, buying a $100 000 is different than buying a book, especially an important one. I could go on for hours with this, however I though being quick and direct was a better idea.
March 13th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
I rarely comment on blogs but yours I had to stop and say Great Blog!!
April 29th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
I am from a not-so-big town in India and whenever I think about the way I have been brought up, I feel it was naturally pretty environment-friendly and conscientious of other ppl living on the planet with us.
For us, we never threw away leafs/scraps from vegetables. It always goes to cows. We never threw away old towels, the worn parts were cut away, good parts were hemmed and used for mopping or cleaning vehicles or something. I can go on and on about small ways of life that were nature friendly. I dont remember us using a scrubber for utensils ever till very late (15 years back), we used to use the skin/shell from coconut to scrub the utensils. Even after using it for 15 days, if we throw it away, it is bio-degradable.
Even today with consumerism kicking in, things are a little worse but not so much.
I can go on and on about these little things, but I really appreciate your effort. This should be stopped and older ways need to be adapted in our lives again.
Thanks for taking this up – for us and our generations to come!
-Purvi
May 11th, 2009 at 12:42 am
This…
Have you been blogging long? Docuticker ” Blog Archive ” Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq … is a great blog, you have a great writing style too. Found this post last Monday and i’ve been reading your blog since. I’ve subscribed to your …
September 16th, 2009 at 11:54 am
Hello
what do you think of what I am promoting on my site?
September 16th, 2009 at 11:54 am
what do you think of GreenFashionLine.com?
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:19 am
I’d like to buy up 2 million copies of your DVD and put them in a landfill.
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:57 pm
I will do everything in my power to keep this idiotic propaganda out of the classroom. You should be ashamed of yourselves.
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:40 pm
wow teaching kid socilism
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:53 pm
I truly hope this liberal propoganda does not seriously make it into our schools or churches. Shameful.
August 1st, 2010 at 11:47 am
Annie – Great site and important message. Have you considered a piece on energy savings through home performance retrofits. Buildings use over 30% of our total energy production and add 40% of the total carbon. The movement to retrofit these buildings is creating a green economy that is growing rapidly. Home performance is the whole system approach to energy retrofits and is an important method to ensure sustainability.