Posts tagged Environment

A lot of great photos paired with an appropriate song.

We’re hearing a lot about “green collar” jobs now, and I suspect we’ll be hearing the term even more now as the G20 approaches.  But what does this term actually mean?  I think it’s potentially a term that could encompass both traditional white collar and blue collar jobs if we define this grouping as “any job relating to sustainable living, the environment, or clean energy.”  But what is the significance of the distinction?  In some sense, I think the term suggests a kind of classlessness - not blue, not white, but green.  ”Green,” however, is not the class or type of work being performed, but rather a type of industry.  In this sense, the term is a misnomer.  It would be like calling anyone who works in the steel industry, in any capacity, a “steel collar” worker, as if there were no divisions of labor within the industry itself.

This is not to say that the development of this industry is insignificant.  In fact, I think it’s, potentially, quite the opposite.  The world view driving the industry’s development draws sharp contrast to, say, that of the steel industry, who, along with the majority of other industries, understood themselves (and more broadly, humans) as separate from their environments.  As a result, industries moved forward with little consideration of how their environments might, subsequently, affect them.  But I think it’s clearer, now more than ever, how we are connected to our environments and each other.  And with the birth of “green” industry we’re seeing a recognition of ourselves as nature through industry. Now, my question is, “how will this new world view, one in which we understand ourselves as “nature,” affect other ways we do business?”

I’m not sure why this video was made, but it almost seems as if it’s trying to sell the city - as if it’s trying to say, “please have a G20 summit here!”

I had a conversation with a friend a while back about the economics of going green, and more precisely the profitability of the idea of going green.  I was struck by the number of ads during the Super Bowl appealing to traditional, idealized forms of nature - especially this one by Coke - as ways of selling products.  To state the obvious, “green” has become, well, “green.”  But it seems as though Pittsburgh has gone well beyond good, green marketing; we’ve integrated it into our industry and into the literal construction of the city.  Perhaps our convention center,”the largest LEED-certified convention center in the world,” is one of the best examples of this.

But to what degree has this new attempt to re-image Pittsburgh taken hold so far?  As I said in my previous post, I’ve heard the idea mentioned a number of times on TV and radio today alone, each time unrelated to the G20.  I think we’re starting to see it enter the city’s bloodstream in more ways now (take for example the SCA), but how will this “rust to renewal” manifest itself in our culture?

Maybe a Pittsburgh basketball team… The Pittsburgh… Trail Workers.  I like it!