The Anti-green Jobs Hoax

“The biggest environmental challenge is, of course, that posed by climate change. Scarce environmental resources are treated as if they are free. All prices are distorted as a result, in some cases badly so. …. we have seen how distorted housing prices distorted the economy … The distortion in environmental prices is of equal magnitude; it has led to the using up of key resources in an unsustainable way; the correction is imperative; and a delay likely to be even more costly.”

- Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate Economist

The core functions of an economy are to properly allocate resources and to serve societal needs. Liberal democracy and a balanced market economy contribute to a just and prosperous world. But efficient markets can also produce outcomes that are inconsistent with our fundamental values. Social contracts, so critical to a just society, are broken as exploitation, economic inequality, wage inequities, and environmental destruction goes unchecked. The private sector does not worry about societal returns. Its motivation is solely what benefits it can appropriate to itself.

The study of economics began as an exploration of morality. Adam Smith may be known for Wealth of Nations, but Smith’s first major work was The Theory of Moral Sentiments, an examination of man’s moral character. Published in 1759, some twenty-seven years before Wealth of Nations, it sought to explain the ongoing conflict between man’s propensity for good and his inclinations toward selfishness.

Once considered a scientific discipline, economics has become an ideologically driven defense of free market capitalism. Reality and empiricism no longer matter. “Karl Marx has simply been replaced by Milton Friedman.” That the poor and working class have suffered under the new economic order is unquestionable. Economic inequality is greater than it was in 1915 when 18% of the nation’s income redounded to the richest 1% of Americans (today its 24%).

Economic “distortions” are no less prevalent when it comes to our adverse relationship with our physical world. The true cost of our endless consumption of material goods is not “marked” to the actual costs the earth’s living systems and its inhabitants (including us) incur. The gigatons of pollution we dump into our atmosphere and ocean, the countless flora and fauna we extinguish, the poisons we unleash, the top soils that blow away, and the wars that are fought to defend our access to raw materials and energy are simply not part of the equation we use to calculate the value of a television set, a smart phone, or a toaster. The endless stream of products we consume each carry with them hidden costs that the so-called “invisible hand of the market” shelters from us. But just as the banks hid their inflated assets and mounting losses from the public eye and brought down the world’s financial system, so too will our reckless treatment of our finite resources be our demise. We can no longer conduct business as usual, as if the Earth’s bounty is free without consequence.

Recently, there has been a rash of opinion pieces that have attacked environmental law, advocacy, and science. One author, Lou Desmond, went so far as to explicitly state that green jobs are a hoax, yet another attack on the poor. Fortunately, Mike Garland of Pattern Energy exposed the inaccuracies of Mr. Desmond’s commentary.

Now I’m heartened that neo-liberals are finally developing a soft spot for the poor, but their baseless attacks are becoming nonsensical. Tilting at windmills is just counterproductive. A green economy is not just about generating energy from wind.

Regardless, we simply do not know how many green jobs there are at present. There simply are no reliable metrics, just speculation. We do know, however, that there is an untapped potential for these jobs. For example, there are over seven million construction workers and a very large percentage of them are unemployed or underemployed (roughly 800,000 are directly involved in the construction of new homes – not exactly a thriving industry since the implosion of the real estate bubble in 2008). This underutilized source of skilled workers could be put to work converting coal fired power plants to natural gas, building advanced transportation systems, renovating and retrofitting existing structures to make them more energy efficient, and modernizing our transmission grids.

We can no longer afford to be swayed by kneejerk, reactionary voices. A sensible approach is needed to assess potential green markets. Fortunately, one is on the horizon. The Bureau of Labor and Statistics has received funding “to develop information on the number of and trend over time in green jobs, the industrial, occupational, and geographic distribution of the jobs, and the wages of the workers in these jobs.” BLS will be collecting data over more than 300 industries where green jobs have been identified. The obvious goal of this initiative is to assist policy makers and the business community with solid information about economic trends relating to activities that protect the environment and conserve natural resources.

Green industries and technologies are in their infancy. They will need to be nurtured and encouraged. Public/private partnerships will be crucial. Government and market decisions will need to be made based upon real data, not ideologically driven blather.

We can turn the corner. America’s creative potential is enormous. A green economy is only limited by our own imagination but the conversion will not occur overnight. We’ll be using fossil fuels for awhile. We’ll need a transition plan and the government and industry needs to lead. And, yes, the transition may be costly. We’ll need to help the poor through it.

Simply, our current course is unsustainable. An economy that serves not just us but future generations is our only equitable and just path. Of course, we can always dither and let the Chinese fill the void.

Copyright Frank Schiavone 2011