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Changing Nature: The Promised Rise of Green Infrastructure-Building Careers in the United States

With the rapid growth and increasing sophistication of green technology, the task of realizing new visions for a green economy will fall on the flagging U.S. construction and manufacturing sectors. Having suffered crushing losses over years of globalization, these industries today are a shadow what they were decades ago. But the new demand to replace existing, decaying infrastructure with innovative green technological production promises an imminent, radical change in this downward trajectory. In fact, this transformation is already on its feet.

Federal, state and local governments have already taken bold initiatives to invest in environmentally-sustainable projects, as part of a surging tide of social and economic change which has come to be collectively known as "The Green Revolution". Thousands of private interests have also been endowing large sums of capital into green ventures, interested in gaining returns from what promises to become the most encompassing economical change since the nineteenth century. But these myriad and diverse projects will require much more than clever researchers and daring entrepreneurs-it's important to remember that the lion's share of the actual labor will fall to labor.

The American labor force as it stands does not have the manpower to execute such far-reaching plans; therefore, its only recourse is to grow. Job growth in manufacturing, construction, skilled labor, engineering, and other infrastructure-building professions is expected to shoot up and mushroom-with massive amounts of both public and private funds already stoking the fire and more and more fuel pouring in all the time.

Take, for example, the Obama administration's plans for a new, smart energy grid. The 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act granted billions of dollars to the monumental task of replacing the existing chaotic criss-cross of wires with an efficient, safe, and intelligently-designed electrical grid. This will be a massive undertaking spanning years, and may require a small army of trained electricians and electrical engineers. Add to that the plans to replace our rusted, dilapidated railroad tracks (almost never used for passenger travel) with new high-speed railways to spider out all over the 48 continental states. It may be impossible to forecast what legions of workers it will require to undertake such ambitious objectives. But these make up only a fraction of the total battle plan for the Revolution-which is already upon us.

The list of future green energy goals goes on and on. Building vast, sprawling solar panel installations and stark white fields of wind turbines will also require staggering amounts of manual labor. Add to this the credible possibilities being opened by current research: the mass production of biofuels, carbon capturing, and clean coal technology, among others.

The Industrial Revolution 2.0 has begun, and for it to burgeon and thrive the United States labor force will have to increase in size by orders of magnitude. These jobs, which will keep our air and water cleaner, make the way we travel safer, and reduce unnecessary wastes of energy cannot be farmed out overseas. The American labor force is set to rise and flourish once again.

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