Underground Green Economy Employing Millions
Thousands more people are now being employed in the “restoration economy” to clean up the oil spill. Jobs are just one more reason why we need a national effort to restore the Gulf ecosystem.
There’s a new economy springing up around the country — but it’s operating almost entirely in secret. It’s called “the restoration economy” and it’s remaking America’s landscape while putting millions of people to work.
This economy is devoted to restoring what’s been lost: degraded forests, watersheds, oceans, cities, communities, buildings, transit — and it’s the product of a major turning point in our history that’s been almost entirely missed by the press and politicians.
I recently had the opportunity to learn about this stealth green economy when I participated in a panel at the Good Jobs, Green Jobs conference about land and water-based jobs. In a telling sign, this panel (organized by The Wilderness Society’s relentless JP Leous, one of the brightest rising stars in the environmental movement) was apparently the first in the history of the conference to focus on forest, land, and water based jobs (or as I like to think of them, the ultimate green jobs).