The Apollo Alliance, a coalition of labor, business, environmental, and community leaders are working to jump-start a clean energy revolution. They know that it will produce millions of jobs and help the economy. Apollo Alliance claims the Apollo Space program as its inspiration to “promote investments in energy efficiency, clean power, mass transit, next-generation vehicles, and emerging technology, as well as in education and training. Working together, we will reduce carbon emissions and oil imports, spur domestic job growth, and position America to thrive in the 21st century economy.”
That’s a real “we can” attitude. Among Apollo Alliance’s partners “focused on generating green collar jobs” are the nation’s union halls. The union program is called Earth Week in the Union Halls. It launched Saturday, April 18th with the goal of creating support from unions on a national level for clean energy investments and green collar job training.
The weeklong event of the participating 70 union halls nationwide will host the movie “The Greening of Southie” that I blogged about recently with video of the trailer. The DVD documents the trials of renovating an old Boston building into a green Boston building by union construction crews.
The Apollo Alliance website has quite a long article titled “How to Find a Green Job” that states:
The New Apollo Program is a comprehensive economic investment strategy to build America’s 21st century clean energy economy and dramatically cut energy bills for families and businesses. It will generate and invest $500 billion over the next ten years and create more than five million high quality green-collar jobs. It will accelerate the development of the nation’s vast clean energy resources and move us toward energy security, climate stability, and economic prosperity. And it will transform America into the global leader of the new green economy.
I’m impressed. And I know there are at least two big-time alliances like Apollo working toward the same goal. The article goes on to say that Americans are at a crossroads. Do we keep going with our outdated fossil fuel ideas that will ultimately come to an end some time in the future while putting us at greater and greater risk for severe climate conditions, or do we seize this time as an opportunity for change for the better. We will be healthier as a result of the earth becoming a healthier place. It’s really up to us.
We’re not doing so well now anyway. People are looking for new jobs and are willing to relocate. Many have little to nothing left because of the economic crunch while others have been victims of devastation from increasingly violent weather conditions already. Still others are looking ahead for their children’s health and well-being. What better time to change? And that’s what America decided in the last election. We just need to move forward and keep moving forward—no looking back.
The Apollo article and website might be helpful for many. There is much more to read at: