“The national effort to curb global warming and oil dependence can simultaneously create good jobs, safer streets and healthier communities. That is the chief moral obligation in the 21st century: to build a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty.”

So says Van Jones, head of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and convener of the Oakland Apollo Alliance, in a new joint report sponsored by the Apollo Alliance and Urban Habitat. “Community Jobs in the Green Economy,” a framework for cities, communities and states, argues that not only does a 21^st century, clean, efficient, modern energy system benefit major businesses, but it can also bring jobs and capital back to America’s cities and jobs to low-income communities.

Jones continues: “We have no ‘throw-away’ resources or species. Nor do we have any ‘throw-away’ children. All of creation is sacred, and all our people are precious. And we must act again as if we know this truth. When we do so, our dying blue-collar towns and neighborhoods will bloom again—as dignified, ‘green-collar’ meccas. Urban youth, too often fodder for prisons, could instead be trained to create zero-pollution products, heal the land and harvest the sun. Urban America can be put back to work, rebuilding our cities for the clean-energy future.”

Read the report here.

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