Global Green News
Commentary: Green way to create jobs, save cities
CNN. APRIL 22, 2009. By Majora Carter
Editor's note: Majora Carter founded a nonprofit environmental justice solutions organization to improve the economy and environment of the South Bronx in New York City (Sustainable South Bronx) and was named a 2006 MacArthur Foundation "genius" Fellow. She is president of The Majora Carter Group, LLC., hosts "The Promised Land" on radio and has been named one of Essence Magazine's 25 most influential African-Americans.
NEW YORK (CNN) -- In the midst of our economic and environmental crisis, I am grateful our new president embraces the potential of green ideas.
He faces challenges from two directions. Often, advocates forget to manage expectations about how the green economy will grow. In addition, those vested in the pollution-based economy desperately want "green" to fail. Both sides of the debate require equal attention.
An extreme example of the former was a journalist who recently asked me: "How are green jobs going to help crack addicts?" They aren't. Crack addicts need a different kind of help first.
Green jobs are not a panacea. Moreover, if they falter at all, green economic solutions are not likely to receive a similar level of support as do automakers or short-sighted bankers. Like any new industry, there will be some trial and error. The beauty of smart strategies that lean heavily on green is that even our mistakes result in lives changed for the better.
I know firsthand. I grew up in an ongoing economic and environmental crisis called the South Bronx, New York City. Joblessness and environmentally borne health problems keep people from realizing their potential and keep governments burdened with growing social welfare, public health, incarceration and infrastructure costs.
...Our cities are getting hotter, and storms have become more intense. Our air is dirty, and in some places -- often where it is dirtiest -- there are no trees. If we put plants of specific varieties on green roofs, along our streets, on exterior walls, throughout parking lots, everywhere, we will put a living machine to work, 24/7. This is horticultural infrastructure, and it's an important part of the solution because of three main benefits:
1. It cools cities, allowing them to use less energy when it's hot
2. It absorbs heavy rains, reducing the massive costs of pumping and treating runoff in our sewage systems
3. It cleans local air -- resulting in less asthma -- while sequestering some of the carbon dioxide.
It turns out that these are all climate-driven employment areas, too -- trends that will grow in demand as climates change because our urban plant life will have greater demands placed on it.
This is important because most green jobs will be easily filled by skilled workers who are not on traditional construction projects anymore. We need to develop new labor markets in areas that don't quite exist yet to absorb both the people and the change in climate.
