Job Growth May Depend on Green Economy

Stiff new regulations designed to protect air quality, along with the concern for global warning, have led some to complain about the resulting effects on jobs. Detractors have estimated that as many as four million jobs will be lost by cap and trade legislation, designed to limit the amount of carbon released into the air by manufacturers.

As dire as those statistics may appear to be, they do not take into account the number of green jobs that will be created from future efforts. While it may be true that some of the traditional blue collar jobs will disappear, many of those same workers can transition to green collar positions, often paying equal, if not higher wages. However, the designation of green collar jobs may get lost in translation with many industries providing both types of positions.

For example, the auto industry, which has taken a bad rap for producing vehicles with low gas mileage and polluting exhaust, is now steering more towards energy-efficient, cleaner vehicles. The common definition is that those building trucks and sport utility vehicles are working in the blue collar trade while those building hybrid vehicles are employed in the green industry. When automakers transition to producing more hybrid vehicles, or all electric vehicles, all of those blue collar jobs will fade to green.

To better understand the reasoning behind cap and trade legislation, the type of pollution that is being regulated has to be considered. Most consider the carbon dioxide released by industries needs to be capped, to prevent additional pollution. By capping the amount of carbon released by any particular industry, cleaner air can result. When one industry reduces the amount of carbon they are permitted to release, they can trade the remaining amount to other industries.

It is this practice that is being blamed for a loss of traditional jobs, but is also blamed for the creation of jobs in green or environmentally friendly industries. Some compare the trade-off of when the world transitioned from the horse and buggy to automobiles. Smiths that performed work on buggies and horseshoes went out of business with many finding new jobs in the auto industry.

In similar fashion, blue collar workers will be able to find positions in the green industry to which their blue collar roots are related. For example, workers in the steel industry can find jobs building or constructing windmills or solar arrays to provide green power generation.

Green Career Resources
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• *Global Warming Is Good for Business: How Savvy Entrepreneurs, Large Corporations, and Others are Making Money While Saving the Planet
• *The Plot to Save the Planet: How Visionary Entrepreneurs and Corporate Titans Are Creating Real Solutions to Global Warming
• *Starting Green: An Ecopreneur's Guide to Starting a Green Business from Business Plans to Profits

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