“Green Jobs”

What does that even mean you might ask?

Green Jobs are any type of job that is seen to help elevate the effects of climate change on the environment. These could include a manufacturing plant that produces “greener” cars such as the new Chevrolet Volt to the mechanics who install and maintain wind turbines.

Why is this important?

Well for several reasons.

First and probably most importantly we have a climate crisis that needs to be sustained and dealt with immediately. The only way we can do this is to restructure the way we produce energy and also how we handle big industry.

Secondly we are being hit by the financial crisis across the globe. The Manufacturing sector in Canada is being hit the hardest. Great paying manufacturing jobs are being replaced with lower paying service type jobs. We need to work to transform our current operations into a “green” strategy. We can do this by transforming closing or closed manufacturing plants into plants that manufacture Wind Turbines or Solar Panels and focusing our Auto Industry on more fuel efficient and hopefully soon carbon-free models.

Can this idea even work?

The simple answer is Yes.

There are examples of countries such as Germany who have been working on this strategy. Now the US is even taking this direction under the Obama administration. President-elect Obama wants to invest $100 billion in ``green jobs``, which would create 1.4 million jobs. Why can`t we do something similar to that here in Canada. We are losing our Manufacturing base, we need some way to stabilize it. I strongly support and suggest we look closely at this strategy.