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Van
Jones Stressed the Importance
of “Green Jobs”
to the Class of 2014
By Tiffany Brown
University News
August 24, 2010
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During
the first week of their
collegiate career, the
freshmen class peeked
into their future through
green lenses. Van Jones,
who previously served
as President Barack Obama’s
Special Advisor for Green
Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation
at the White House Council
on Environmental Quality,
implored students to explore
and champion sustainable
industries.
“You
have made a very wise
decision to be in Washington
D.C. at Howard University
at this time in history,”
Jones said. “You
are in the position
to learn the new science
to make things cleaner.”
Jones
addressed any skepticism
about the effects global
warming has had on the
environment by referencing
the abnormal weather
conditions that the
country and the world
has experienced recently.
“One-third
of Pakistan is under
water today, and it
will get worse next
year,” said Jones
commenting on the recent
flooding that occurred,
leaving millions of
people homeless.
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He
stressed the need for
active involvement of
African-Americans in
this climate changing
industry. Jones expressed
to the students that
the opportunities green
industries offers affect
the whole world including
Black communities.
“If
you want to see the
future stop looking
down those [oil] holes
and start looking up
at the sun,” Jones
said. “We have
the Saudi Arabia of
wind energy right here
in America.”
Jones is an environmental
advocate, civil rights
activist and attorney
from Yale Law School.
He is a co-founder of
three non-profit organizations,
Ella Baker Center for
Human Rights, Color
of Change and Green
for All. Currently,
Jones serves as a senior
fellow at the Center
For American Progress
and holds a joint appointment
at Princeton University
as a distinguished visiting
fellow in both the Center
for African American
Studies and in the Program
in Science, Technology
and Environmental Policy. |
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