Green Work

Of course, the Good Life site is mostly focused on what you can do as a consumer, or as a citizen (have you written the Prime Minister yet about getting better vehicles on Canadian roads?). But wouldn’t it be great to be able to fight climate change and help the planet during our working hours?

Which is where the debate on “green collar jobs” – as opposed to the traditional distinction between blue collar and white collar jobs – has come from. In the U.S., the debate is well under way, launched by coalitions of unlikely bedfellows such as the Apollo Alliance, the Blue-Green Alliance and Green For All. These practical initiatives are focused on taking the concept of a green, or low-carbon, economy and making it a reality. And making it real for people who have little interest in debating the relative merits of a carbon tax versus a cap-and-trade program to limit greenhouse gas emissions. 

As one of its most articulate proponents, Van Jones, is fond of saying, environmentalists like to talk about the climate crisis, but for people who already have a lot of crisis in their lives – trying to pay the rent and keep food on the table – we need to talk about the opportunities for them in the new green economy. 

This will require getting our economic strategies in line with our climate aspirations, which is a lot harder than it sounds. We’re seeing hints of this here in Canada. For example, Quebec is making multi-billion dollar investments in wind power and cleverly put a local content requirement on them so that many of the turbine manufacturing jobs are coming to the province.

The flip side of this is what to do with workers in existing industries affected by the shift to green. This is not an academic question, as yesterday we heard that GM is laying off 900 workers in Oshawa due to high gas prices killing the market for the trucks that plant makes. In response, the Premier talked about bringing a new car plant to the province. But the leading candidate appears to be a plant to build Alfa Romeo sports cars – which would be vulnerable to the same market forces that is killing the SUV market and is also likely doomed by any credible attempt to reduce greenhouse gases. 

Wouldn’t it be great if those laid-off GM workers could get jobs building plug-in hybrid vehicles, which we see as a part of the transition away from liquid, carbon-based transportation fuels? And shouldn’t public funding for any new car plant  be dependent upon that plant producing high-efficiency vehicles (and not be at the expense of the transit, pedestrian and cycling infrastructure or anti-sprawl policies which we need to reduce the amount we have to drive)? 

Just wondering.

by Keith Stewart