Van Jones - Van Jones is the founder and president Green For All, based in Oakland, California. The mission is to help build an inclusive, green economy - strong enough to lift millions of people out of poverty.
Jones is an advocate, championing "green-collar jobs and opportunities" for disadvantaged people. He is committed to creating "green pathways out of poverty," while greatly expanding the coalition fighting global warming.
Jones has worked to combine solutions to America's two biggest problems: social inequality and environmental destruction. Under the slogan "green-collar jobs, not jails," he is calling for green economic development in urban America.
As an advocate for the toughest urban constituencies and causes, he has won many honors. These include the 1998 Reebok International Human Rights Award, the international Ashoka Fellowship, selection as a World Economic Forum "Young Global Leader," and the Rockefeller Foundation "Next Generation Leadership" Fellowship.
Van has served on the boards of numerous national environmental organizations. Presently, he is a board member of the National Apollo Alliance, which advocates for clean energy jobs. He is also a founding board member of 1Sky, a national coalition working to avert catastrophic climate change.
In 2007, Van helped the City of Oakland pass a "Green Jobs Corps" proposal; the City allocated funds to train Oakland residents in eco-friendly "green-collar jobs."
At the national level, Van worked successfully in 2007 with U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), U.S. Rep. Hilda Solis (D-CA), U.S. Rep. John Tierney (D-MASS) to pass the Green Jobs Act of 2007. That path-breaking, historic legislation authorized $125 million in funding to train 35,000 people a year in "green-collar jobs."
Van is also a co-founder of a new national coalition that promotes the idea of a national "Clean Energy Jobs Corps." This multi-billion-dollar federal initiative would put hundreds of thousands of people to work rewiring and retrofitting the energy infrastructure of the United States.
In 2005, Van produced the "Social Equity Track" for the United Nations' World Environment Day celebration. UNWED 2005 drew dozens of mayors from around the world to San Francisco, where they developed policies promoting the concept of "Green Cities."
In 1996, Van co-founded (with Diana Frappier) the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, now located in Oakland, California. Named for an unsung civil rights heroine, the award-winning Center promotes alternatives to violence and incarceration. The Center, for which Van serves as board president, incubated Green For All in 2007 and spun it off in 2008.
A 1993 Yale Law graduate, Van is also a husband and father. He is proud to champion some of the most hopeful solutions to America's toughest challenges.
Van Jones thinks "green collar" jobs could clean the United State's energy-dependent economy.
His path to a healthy green economy includes his work on the Green Jobs Act of 2007, which authorized $125 million to train people for green-collar jobs.
His first line says it all. We need to start producing again. The problem with the bailout is it goes against market principles: people clearly don't want to buy what the automakers are selling, so, as he says, they should start making things people want to buy. So be it more fuel efficient cars or, as he suggests, solar panels etc., it's definitely time to get cracking.
No more wind turbines, please. Nobody knows who is going to be responsible for taking out the 100s of tons of junk once a turbine has outlived its usefulness. They also need to establish some rules about how close they can come to people's homes. They create some serious issues for people with neurological and other health problems. If they are going to put up any more they at least need to look at different and more effecient models.
The green movement is largely a farce akin to the myth of global warming. Most Americans live in environmentally unfriendly, nondescript suburbs in the middle of nowhere. Obama has been a disaster. He gave away trillions to his corrupt, inept contributors on Wall Street, engineered a state take over of GM on behalf of his special interest UAW, and gave a paltry $8 billion to high speed rail. Van Jones is a racist who foolishly spouted off like a preacher about troubled white youth rather than addressing the real issue of an out-of-wedlock birthrate among American black folks that is over 70%. Good riddance to him.
A "paltry" 8 billion tax dollars? How much was the adminstration supposed to give? Isn't that socialism or communism or some kind of offensive ism? African-Americans will undoubtedly be pleased that you feel their marital status is the real issue. Actually there's a good chance most Americans live in cities. That's why cities are so crowded and politicians that represent states with big cities represent many, many more people. The Federal Reserve "gave away" most of that money and we don't want to interfere with the Fed's independence do we? But it is true global warming is nothing but a plot by the Left to create millions of jobs and reduce pollution and Jones who refers to everyone as brother and sister does in fact hate everyone including his actual brother and sister.
