by Van Jones

Posted 2 months, 1 week ago My family and I want to thank everyone for the outpouring of love and support that we have received over the past week or so. Read More

Posted 1 year, 1 month ago This post originally ran on Wonk Room.

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At best, the federal government's bail out of Wall Street will help the U.S. economy -- which is already in a ditch -- avoid a total meltdown. Fine. Now we need a plan to jumpstart the economy and actually get America moving again.

In my new book, The Green Collar Economy, I propose a bold, green cure for the economic mess we are in. Think of it as a comprehensive plan to bail out ordinary people -- and the planet, too.

We… Read More

Posted 1 year, 7 months ago The following are my introductory remarks to the Dream Reborn conference, beginning today and running through the weekend in Memphis, Tenn.

Forty years ago today, on April 4, 1968, a sniper assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King had come to Memphis, Tennessee, to aid striking sanitation workers. The preeminent civil rights leader of his time, he was only 39 years old.

Four decades have passed since that fateful day. As of this month, Dr. King has been gone from us longer than he was ever here. As we… Read More

Posted 1 year, 10 months ago For those of us who are a part of the movement for "green-collar jobs," last Sunday's Democratic presidential debate was a real watershed moment.

Clinton, Edwards, and Obama were in the debate of their lives. And all three of them passionately championed the importance of creating good jobs in the clean energy sector. They presented "green-collar jobs" as a way to simultaneously boost the economy and beat global warming.

Their words were like music… Read More

Posted 2 years, 3 months ago There has been a lot of discussion about the energy package that is set to pass the U.S. House this week. But the media so far has missed one of the most interesting and innovative proposals that will be voted on: the Green Jobs Act of 2007. This ground-breaking legislation will make $120 million a year available across the country to begin training workers (and would-be workers) for jobs in the clean-energy sector. When the bill becomes law, 35,000 people a year will benefit from cutting-edge, vocational education in fields that could literally save the Earth. Read More

Posted 2 years, 5 months ago Hooray! This week Congresswoman Hilda L. Solis (CA-32) officially became the most important environmental heroine you've never heard of.

Solis, a Latina Congresswoman from Los Angeles, introduced the Green Jobs Act of 2007 (H.R. 2847). The Act represents a smart, far-sighted effort to fight pollution and poverty at the same time by creating federally-funded job training within the green economy.

Guess what? On Wednesday, the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee passed her bill by a bipartisan vote of 26 to 18. This is the first step in the House toward providing job training every year for about 35,000 U.S.… Read More

Posted 2 years, 6 months ago Hooray! Hooray! Finally!

Yesterday, some House Democrats finally "connected the dots" on ways to solve two of the nation's biggest problems: failing American job security and global climate security.

By addressing both issues simultaneously, these congressional leaders may re-energize the anti-poverty movement -- and transform the debate on global warming.

U.S. Representatives Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) both sit on the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed the committee. Markey is the chair.

Yesterday the Select Committee held a special hearing, entitled: "Economic Impacts of Global Warming: Green Collar… Read More

Posted 2 years, 6 months ago Once again this year, the spring season brought a flood of green-themed magazines to super-market checkout stands and airport news racks all across the country.

And once again, the faces of non-white and non-affluent Americans were almost entirely missing.

Our new environmental movement is rapidly gaining visibility and momentum. That is very good news. Life-or-death ecological issues finally are starting to get the attention they so urgently deserve. And we can all celebrate that.

But now we would be wise to start paying closer attention to the kind of coverage that we as environmentalists are getting. Because I see… Read More