Last week Andrew Revkin wrote a very timely article for the NY Times Dot Earth post regarding the real meaning of Green Jobs. I think it is an important post - and some great responses too.
One thing I might add is the need for breakthroughs in education - not just for our kids (who, frankly, seem to know more about these issues than their parents), but education of our political leaders and perhaps more importantly our present and future business leaders. Yes, I agree that we need to put more money in the hands of scientists and technologists who can do blue-sky thinking -perhaps in a university lab or out of a garage - we should do a combination of both. We also need a breakthrough in understanding on the part of the business community. Business leaders must accept that the future of industry is not about putting the biosphere in the service of the economic system but rather aligning the economic system with the aim of the biosphere. Biomimicry is part of that breakthrough - a fascinating new area that is opening the eyes of many in the business community to realize that there is more to be gained from understanding and aligning with the biosphere than in simply exploiting it. So, I suggest we need to fund new ways of educating our future business leaders. A good start would be a course in every MBA program in the country with a title such as: “An Appreciation for the Global Economy as a Sub-system of the Biosphere” or “Economies like Ecosystems.”
