Van Jones and I encountered each other last year on line when he made a broad intemperate attack on American environmentalism, charging it with racism and elitism...an old tune now that really should not be taken seriously. I said that activists and movements of color kept apart from environmentalism because they preferred movements and campaigns initiated and headed by people of color; I think this is true today. Environmentalists were and are the most progressive and the most supportive of social as well as enviromental justice...they need no defense. As for Jones' views on green jobs, he has sidestepped the whole issue of economic growth and the fact that it is cheap energy and cheap goods that have fanned the flames of indefensible overconsumption in this country, and that this will not be resolved until we have full cost pricing, particularly of energy. Jones' promotion of "green growth" to provide jobs for poor communities is also misleading because it implies that all we need is a new concept of production and new technologies to solve our ecological problems, in particular global warming. It is dishonest to avoid the truth: that traditional economic growth in production and consumption must be drastically curbed first, whether through price or regulation, and that the American lifestyle, whether in cars, food, homes, transportation and settlements, rests on the backs of the undeveloped world, at the expense of the natural world. Promises of equity, prosperity and sustainability through "green growth" are meaningless and ultimately unachievable, and the public should not be deluded into thinking otherwise. We need, first, an austerity budget  in energy and consumption, and then a commitment to redistribution of wealth, with those overconsumers and overpolluters paying most of the cost. Only then will we have the ability, economically and technologically, to indulge in the idea of a different "green growth" society. Jones needs to balance his understanding of the ecological crisis with this understanding rather than playing into the hands of those who want us to believe that we can greenwash Business as Usual and come out alive and kicking.

We need, first, an austerity budget in energy and consumption, and then a commitment to redistribution of wealth, with those overconsumers and overpolluters paying most of the cost.

I hope you don't mind -- while you're tilting at windmills, the rest of us will be building the green economy with training programs for green jobs, implementing state-level renewable portfolio standards, teaching and promoting energy efficiency, building windfarms, getting the solar tax credit passed, pushing for carbon trading, etc. etc.