A social, economic, and political movement is starting to pick up steam in the United States: the ‘Green Revolution’.

This movement towards environmentally sustainable development has the potential to cause the biggest socioeconomic shift since the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution fundamentally changed almost every aspect of our daily lives and the way we see the world; now the Green Revolution promises to do the same.

Like the Industrial Revolution, this movement towards environmentally sustainable development will change the very layout of our communities, the products we buy, the energy we use, and even the jobs we work.

Economic growth since the Industrial Revolution has led to unprecedented increases in living standards. However, we have largely ignored and compromised the natural environment around us in the process, leading to a situation where today we must seriously question the planet’s ability to sustain human society as it currently functions.

Despite popular belief, there is no direct trade-off between the economy and the environment: a strong natural environment is what allows the economy—and human society in general—to flourish. The Green Revolution will see the rise of a new economic model that incorporates environmental considerations and a modern economy that will require highly trained “green-collar” workers.

What is a Green-Collar Job?
It’s become a popular catch phrase, but what exactly is a green-collar job? Broadly speaking, a green-collar worker is defined as anyone whose livelihood helps to create a more environmentally sustainable society. Many definitions focus on green-collar as a modernized equivalent for blue collar, but this is too limiting as it doesn’t take into account the PhDs who work designing solar panels or the investment bankers trading carbon credits and securing funding for wind farms.

In reality, the green-collar category encompasses both what we call blue- and white-collar work.

So much focus is placed on the blue-collar aspect of the green economy largely because of the prospect that a Green Revolution can revitalize the American middle-class and manufacturing sector. As Figure 1 shows, real—inflation adjusted—family incomes in the US between 1979 and 2005 grew significantly more for the rich than the poor, increasing the inequality from the beginning of the period.

Amazingly, the real incomes of the poorest 20% of American families actually declined over this quarter century period. This picture varies radically from Figure 2, which shows that real income growth in the post-war boom (1947-1979) was fairly evenly distributed across society. The manufacturing sector has also been in steep decline in recent years. The AFL-CIO estimates that 3 million American manufacturing jobs have been lost since 2001.

^{Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Historical Income Tables, Table F-3.  Graph from Inequality.org}

Figure 2

Creating a truly environmentally sustainable society will require a new energy infrastructure, a new transportation infrastructure, construction work on new and existing buildings, and new consumer goods.

Meeting these needs will create jobs that pay good wages and allow career advancement opportunities both for highly educated white-collar workers, and also for skilled blue-collar workers, who have been watching their opportunities dry up.  ....read more