Students and Arizona citizens gathered at ASU to hear from a pioneer in clean-energy economy speak about the importance of sustainability.
Van Jones, who served as the green jobs adviser for President Barack Obama in 2009, came to the Tempe campus as part of the Global Institute of Sustainability’s Wrigley Lecture Series that features speakers who are leaders in sustainability.
Jones advocates a solution: green-collar jobs.
“Take the people who most need work, and let them do the work that most needs to be done,” Jones said. “The work of re-powering America with clean energy.”
He said America is in trouble because it is growing more ethnically diverse, but less economically prosperous, which isn’t the recipe for the common ground needed to solve environmental and economic problems.
“Your generation is in great danger,” Jones said. “You are in danger of inheriting a nightmare scenario.”
Jones emphasized that American citizens need to utilize the abundance of renewable energy sources that are available here.
“That is going to keep us from baking the planet, that’s going to keep us from fighting wars overseas for oil, that’s going to keep us from shipping the jobs overseas,” Jones said.
ASU prides itself on sustainability and innovations that aim for a clean-energy America.
ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability was established in 2007, and is the first of its kind. The school takes a transdisciplinary approach to its curriculum while focusing on solving global challenges ranging from renewable energy to water quality, according to the school’s site.
“You can’t really not go green at this point,” sustainability junior Amy Bobel said. “The solution to so many of our problems is through sustainability, and the longer people deny it, the worse problems are going to get.”
Jones urged America’s youth to voice ideas regarding the future of the environment, particularly toward the Environmental Protection Agency. EPA plans on eliminating the Clean Air Act because of doubts of its essentialness, Jones said.
“We won’t be able to regulate, we won’t be able to tax, we won’t be able to sell permits,” Jones said. “We’re just going to be cooking the planet and losing jobs.”
When asked about Gov. Jan Brewer’s decision on backing out of the Western Climate Initiative and the cap-and-trade program earlier this year, Jones said it was very unfortunate.
The WCI is a collaboration of independent jurisdictions working together to identify, evaluate, and implement policies to tackle climate change at a regional level, according to the WCI website.
“My hope is that all political leadership in Arizona will look again at the opportunities that are available in a state that’s so rich in renewable energy resources,” Jones said.
He hopes that Arizona makes a new commitment in the future.
“We need to look for different solutions,” political science junior Twyla Haggerty said. “I think we need to encourage our peers to be sustainable, and to make sustainable decisions.”
A group of students, Amy Bobel among them, presented the Discovery Climate Proclamation prior to Jones’ speech.
It stated that they would no longer tolerate various practices that contribute to the degradation of the planet, and will support a clean-energy economy.
The document, which aims to start a student climate movement, will travel to NAU and UA.
“You have no idea how much good you can do,” Jones said. “The only thing you can do is know that if you make that small act based on love, there’s a possibility of incredible positive change.”
Reach the reporter at ktenagli@asu.edu
