DRAFT FOR RESEARCH PAPER!

Cheng Hang
Ms. Booker
English 102
11 April 2009
Are Green Jobs really being created?

Since the creation of primates in the world, tools have been essentially to their survival and well-being. These tools could have ranged from a small stick to a large boulder. Although simple, these tools were crucial and viable. Now, fast forward to 2009, people use tools far more complex and sensitive than those of the first primates. A few things that the first primates lacked were the technology and intellectual capacity to build cars and skyscrapers. We as humans had the intellectual prowess to build the first skyscrapers, the first cars, and the first modern day power plants. Although we have created one of the greatest inventions of all time, we have also created one of the most devastating and horrific global warming events ever to date. The permanent scars seem to be more and more prominent as the last few years winded down. Now, not only have talks of implementing green renewable resources into our lives begun, but also the creation of jobs associated with renewable resources have started taking place. Since the beginning of the recession that plagued the United States several years back, millions of Americans have lost their jobs due to economic instability. Now a green movement has started, but will it induce the creation of millions of jobs that will help those ailing Americans get back on their feet?
Over the years, a plague has disrupted the environment’s natural balance and its beauty. This plague is called pollution. Pollution has many effects on the Earth such as global warming. Global warming is the emitting of green house gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, chlorofluorocarbons, and nitrous oxide or as described by Andrew Goudie as “The process by which the Earth may be become warmer because of the role of mechanism such as the green house effect” (Goudie 83). The release of carbon dioxide is partially due to the burning of fossil fuels, “since the start of the industrial revolution humans have been taking stored carbon out of the earth in the form of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas). They burn these fuels releasing Co2 in the process” (Goudie 93). The most common sources that emit greenhouse gasses are from the burning of fossil fuels in our vehicles and factories such as steel mills. The reality in releasing greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere is that the buildup of these gasses creates a thick barrier that traps sunlight within the atmosphere. Thus we have a greenhouse effect which is “A climatic effect caused by permitting incoming solar radiation but inhibiting outgoing radiation” (Goudie 83). The trapped radiation furthers the effects of global warming by melting the polar ice caps, causing increased temperatures, and a rising sea level. Then you ask yourself, what if all of the polar ice caps melted? If all of the ice within the polar ice caps melted the sea level would rise significantly enough to cover large seaside cities. The increasing amount of greenhouse gasses within the last several years has caused a national movement towards green and renewable technologies. Global warming is not just caused by driving our fossil fuel powered vehicles but it is also caused by “the burning of low-quality fuel in the densely populated townships” (Goudie 109). If enough of these greenhouse gasses, or sulfur dioxide are released into the atmosphere acid rain will be produced. Acid rain is precipitation that is unusually acidic causing death amongst “plants, fish, and wildlife” (Nye 96). The last several decades of burning fuel without thinking about the consequences have started a global scare. A scare that has forced a new movement to be induced, this movement involves the creation of alternative energies.
What will happen when the world runs out of fossil fuel deposits? The only viable answer to that is to use and implement renewable resources because we simply just don’t know how much fossil fuel is left and we don’t know when it’s going to end. Adamantly, there is a green movement in the U.S that seeks to use more renewable energies. A renewable energy is a energy generated from natural resources such as sun, wind, and water. The most prominent of all green energies is solar power. Solar energy is used to heat up water to turn turbines and in effect creates electricity, “The reflected sunlight heated the water into steam, which turned a turbine. Voilà , sun-powered, utility-scale electricity” (Eweres 21). Currently solar power is a reality with the company BrightScource, who’s already built their first plant, Ivanpah, near the Nevada border which supplies 140,000 homes with electricity (21). Not is the company only doing well it has also found customers such as Southern California Edison, the utility company that supplies electricity to Los Angeles. The company has agreed to buy enough electricity from BrightSource to power over 850,000 homes. Furthermore, with the recent signing of the stimulus bill, there will be a $60 Billion loan available to companies like BrightSource who are every so diligent working towards a solar powered nation.
Not is there only one source for a green future, but there are many. The next most prominent technology to be implemented is wind technology. The use of wind technology has increased at a significant amount within the last several years. Wind technology consists of a turbine with blades that are lifted when airflow is present. Although wind technology “has the greatest energy producing potential” (Wald 2) that doesn’t necessarily mean there aren’t any problems associated with it. Wind technology has the potential to rake in large amounts of energy but currently there are only few models that have the capability to capture about %50 of the energy in the air that passes through them (2). Fuel cells are another example of a renewable technology. Fuel cells consist of an electrolyzer, which breaks up water in to hydrogen and oxygen molecules. The hydrogen molecules then run through the fuel cell to make electricity. The only exhaust that comes out of the exhaust pipes is water. That is why fuel cells are being highly sought after. Since fuel cells are only starting be implemented into our vehicles, they come with a high price tag with the “capital cost in the thousands of dollars per kilowatt of capacity, and the round-trip efficiency through the electrolyzer to the fuel cell and then back into current is less than 50 percent--meaning that for every two kilowatt-hours put in the bank, only one comes back out again” (4). Fuel cells are already a reality in the Honda FCX Clarity which runs entirely on water and only emitting water as an exhaust.
Since these green technologies are only in a developmental stage, there are numerous stake holders. For example, a stake holder would be the government because the government, who supplied loans for companies in the renewable technologies sector, made a large investment in the future. Imagine if the government gave large amounts of money to these growing companies and they did nothing to better our energy crisis. What if none of these companies actually did what they said they were going to do? Simple, the government would in part be angry and nonresponsive to any future bidding for an energy bill that will help get this nation into the future. Another stake holder would be the companies that are developing these alternative energies. They as producers have a goal to meet by developing these crucial technologies that will in part help us become a better nation, be more energy efficient, and work towards a waste free nation. The last and most important stake holders are we the people. We the people are hurting in this bad economy, and from the creation of green jobs we will help more people back on the right track. Like so many other countries that are largely using ethanol based fuel, we as Americans are only using as much as 10% of ethanol in our fuels. With the diminishing fossil fuel deposits in the world, we are only prolonging our skeptical dreams that fossil fuel will carry us into the next 100 years. The truth is we don’t know how much is left. That’s why we as Americans must have an alternative source for energy or we will be left behind as the world moves forward.
Looking at other similar texts, such as David Nye’s, Technology Matters, which was discussed in class we can see that David Nye shares some values with Andrew Goudie. David Nye holds a neutral approach to the topic about technological effects on nature as he does in most of the questions that arise in his book, Technology Matters. From Nye’s point of view he talks about the effects of technology that has negatively impacted nature, “Likewise, burning coal produces not only electricity but also smoke containing sulfur dioxide that falls to the earth as acid rain, destroying plants, fish, and wildlife” (Nye 96). The burning of fossil fuels is not the only disadvantage of technology but there are other technologies that cause negative effects on our soil, “In the twentieth century alone, the United States lost to erosion topsoil that took 1,000 years to form, and it continues to lose topsoil at a rate of 1.7 billion tons a year” (Nye 98). Here we see the negatives and positives that technology brings to the table, yet the ideas and issues that Nye brings up in his book are only a small percentage of what the real effects of technology are. In Andrew Goudie’s, The Earth Transformed: An Introduction to Human Impacts on the Natural Environment, he talks about all the negatives that the burning of fossil fuel does to the atmosphere and in part creates a large problem for all its inhabitants. For example, “High levels of ozone concentration have several serioius consequences. Humans suffer from eye irritation, respiratory complaints and headaches” (Goudie 114). Andrew Goudie also states that “Rigourous controls on vehicle emissions can greatly reduce the problem” (Goudie 114). I believe that David Nye’s reaction to Goudie’s work would be rather amazed due to the fact that Goudie has numerous supports for his work while Nye has only a significant amount of detail in his work in order to get his point across. The reason for this is because Nye tackles all the questions associated with technology and in this particular part of the book, the ecology and technology. If Nye were to devote this whole section of the book to pure global warming it would be rigorous to take on all the questions that are presented in Technology Matters.
With all these new alternative energies being implemented, are there really jobs out there that deal directly with the green energies sector? Ultimately with the economy in a slump, the amount of green jobs being created isn’t as expected “Sapped by the recession and collapsing oil prices, the fledgling green movement needs big government support to snap back in the short term” (Wolgemuth 18). Since the green movement is labor intensive (18) the amount of workers is going to be a fairly large number. The amount of money is correlated to the number of workers it will create, “$100 billion in green investment would create 2 million jobs, while $100 billion handed out to households (as in the 2008 stimulus package) would create 1.7 million jobs, and $100 billion spent on the oil industry would create only 542,000 jobs” (Wolgemuth 18) according to the Political Economy Research Institute. Putting 2 million Americans who lost their jobs during the recession back to work is a great sign for our economy and our nation. Not will it only decrease the unemployment rate but this movement will insure that the future is an actual future and not just a hefty dream. Those employed will be working and receiving a higher pay than those of the traditional workforce because labor unions are “already are angling for a hand in the green workforce, promising to lift pay” (Wolgemuth 18). The workforce that is needed will be mostly be blue collar workers due to that fact that a “commercial-scale wind turbine has more than 8,000 parts and uses an amount of steel equivalent to 225 midsize cars” (Wolgemuth 19). That means the amount of steel needed will be a significantly large amount which mean it’ll put to work those steel workers. Also the new technologies sprouting up will require training that is crucial to new workers. As classes for solar training are starting to be implemented they are beginning to fill as stated by Tria Case the Bronx Community College's executive dire, “We can't run them enough” (Wolgemuth 19). Now that new green jobs are going to be enforced, older jobs that are ran by coal or fossil fuels will suffer “The part of the economy that's going to be hit the hardest will be the electricity generation, because that's done with coal. If you look at fossil fuels, coal has the most carbon dioxide per Btu [British thermal unit]. So, if you put a tax on carbon dioxide, it's going to be felt the most by the electricity industry” (Wolgemuth 19). Initially the outlook for green technology looks to be a positive one, but there are risks involved with moving a nation towards that goal. It will mean hard times for certain sectors of the economy, but in the end a green movement is inevitable.
With the green movement starting, the effects of global warming due to the release of greenhouse gasses will eventually ease off, and new green technologies will begin to replace those of the past century. All those who invested in the green movement will see a brighter future as solar energy, wind energy, and fuel cells are a reality. The implementation of new green technologies will mean great news for those millions of workers who lost their jobs in the recession that plagued this great nation. Green technology is here and it will continue to be here as long as there are companies like BrightSource who are willing and eager to move to a new era of alternative energy.