In this section of Birmingham Weekly, we will be talking a lot about green jobs. That likely has a lot to do with President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan (otherwise known at the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) which appropriated $61 billion dollars for energy investment, in the hope that a chunk of change as substantial as that will employ some people and improve America’s energy efficiency. And that’s basically what a green job is (at least according to Wikipedia.org, which is all-knowing): “any job in an organization that provides a product or service that allows consumers to either consume less, either because of the lower price or greater efficiency, or produce more due to the utilization of this product or service, both of which actions reduce total energy use and environmental impact on the planet.” Building and installing solar panels allows us to consume less fossil fuel (such as coal), so that’s a green job. Building a new coal power plant is not a green job. Those things are easy, but it becomes complicated when we get to things like farm efficiency—is a massive commercial farm “greener” than a small organic farm that produces less food per acre? That’s a tough question. E-mail Madison@bhamweekly.com or Jesse@bhamweekly.com and let us know your thoughts.
sunny
