A New Green Economy

Today I found a website called greenjobsnow.com. Saturday September 27, 2008 is the national day of action for green jobs, asking the Presidential candidates to take a good look at the economy, with the high unemployment rates, AND global warming. This seems to be a sound notion to pull the economy out of a slump and address the global dependence on depleting oil supplies, why didn´t we start this in thte 70´s with the first oil crisis? Well, as I am not a policy maker, I can only conjecture as to why it has taken and additional 30 odd years to get green power back on the table on a massive scale.

I remember reading Stud Terkel´s book "The Good War" in 1984, that was the beginning of my confusion over the issues of war. Somewhere in the book I recall reading, war is good for the economy, jobs as soldiers were created and then of course jobs created to build the weapons neccessary to sustain the war. This seemed to be paradoxical to me at the time, and still does. Yes, we create jobs, but is war psychologically the best way to employ the masses in hard times? I have a hard time believing that, the devisivness created in a persons psyche to build those weapons of mass destruction...I believe it to be detrimental to individuals and society as a whole.

As for WWII, if you ask my mother, dropping the A-bomb on Japan was absolutely neccessary to a.) prevent more deaths (in United States mind you, Japan drew the short straw on that one.) b.) end the war. Well, the A-bomb definitely ended that war and left a legacy, how future wars will be fought. I still hear about rules of engagement during war but it seems we must all be cheating when bombs are dropped from the sky and there is no face to the people below you that are now perishing. Let it be known, most countries conduct war this way now and I am critical of that process, not just one country. This year U.S. arms sales are projected to be around $34 billlion, that´s a lot of money for one industry to pull in, it´s also 45% more in arms sales than 2007. Does anyone else think this is a staggering jump? Furthermore, we´ve all seen footage from 9-11, why continue to make more bombs, airplanes can be used as weapons of mass destruction. All the "smart bombs" in the world won´t help if people are smarter and more dasterdly than the weapons being produced.

The point of my diatribe on war, arms proliferation, massive global spending for weapons the U.S. produces: Do we fully expect the weapons won´t be used against the united States? I do, remember my blog post about an eye for an eye? Really folks, you don´t have to become entrenched in government, policymaking and diplomacy to see the writing on that wall, observing my children makes a clear case for avoiding an eye for an eye. So now, I think about the $34 billion being spent by foreign countries on weapons. That is a big chunk of change that could be used for R&D of sustainable living and help an entirely new market of green power emerge, globally. A new emerging market to invest in that would be for the good of the planet, is that really a revolutionary idea? Definitely green power seems to be the most sane choice for this family.

All I am asking of global leaders is to inspect the choices, what sort of world would they like to create for their children and grandchildren? Are we so vastly different that we can´t make decisions that sustain life on our planet, OUR world? I believe in the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." in 1776, we were declaring independence from a "despot regime" today I think we need to consider independence from oil. There is a whisper of change occurring and it becomes our job, as citizens, to stop whispering and project our voices for change. This Saturday you may not have a green job but evaluate your actions and determine, how can I make my world green and sane? And if anyone knows how to turn our cars to solar powered vehicles, I have a spare bedroom and a muy comoda casa for you to enjoy while we work on that!