Quality Control

The only jobs will be government produced jobs. The Green Jobs movement is not self sustaining and will wither and die the moment the government turns it back.

This is nothing more than social engineering.

We are a world-wide steel company that is ISO 14001 certified at the corporate level with the un-funded mandate to be ISO 14001 certified at each facility. While the facility I work at is relatively new, becoming 14001 was quite easy for us as we already had the programs in place, we just had to put the proper name on them. But for other facilities in our organization that are either older or in less developed areas of the world, it is a much more difficult task to undertake.

Green jobs in general will be a permanent part of the organization for those companies that have the appearance of being the worlds polluters. In my case, the steel industry, we are always viewed with critical eyes, even though we make up a very small percentage of the world's carbon footprint.

I agree with Anonymous Hero, in-part, that the government drives the type of jobs created out of environmental related legislation and that the green jobs in and of themselves are not self-sustaining (we're overhead, no doubt about it) we consume cash flow while developing programs and procedures that may reduce production through-put in order to insure we stay compliant with emission restrictions. This is a very generalized statement, but you get the picture; we're overhead and generate no tangible value so of course we're not self-sustaining.

But this only holds true for those industries that existed pre-green as we need to modify our practices almost daily to stay both compliant and competitive. As for those industries, renewable energy, that came to exist as a result of the movement; they are self-sustaining. Each day the science gets a little better and people get a little smarter and in the not so distant future the green-debates that have fractured the scientific community will end and there will be consensus - Renewable energy is the only logical choice and thereby sustainable engineering will thrive.

But, I disagree that we are social engineering... although the results of our impact have social implications. The foundation of the green movement is in the sciences, almost every scientific and technical discipline can be found at the root of the green movement.

And finally, I don't think the governments will be turning their backs anytime soon for two main reasons: First, there is a good revenue source for them through fining non-compliances. And, second, their constituents will not allow them as each passing day people begin to see past the rhetoric and smog and realize that although there is debate on where to go from here, we must go somewhere. And regardless of which other path we take, it will have to be greener than the one we are on.

In closing, to answer the original posters question: As a society we have no choice but to become greener than we are now and this basic philosophy will create new jobs. But, probably not as many as will be lost from the death of the non-green dinosaurs that are still out there. So, over-all, there will be job loss, that is until we find a greener material to replace steel and figure out how to alter DNA to prevent cattle (and my father-in-law) from exhaling and farting.

JavaHead

A lot of the green technology money goes for training in jobs for retro fitting existing housing with better insulation, weather stripping, and double pane windows. There are millions of leaky houses out there, and they cost their occupants actual money every month. This is money being wasted (unless you work for or own stock in the energy company). Good insulation saves these people money which they can then spend on other things. If they spend that extra money on goods and services that are more labor intensive than providing fossil fuel, then they boost employment. These savings are long term: they last as long has the house does. So even if some of these jobs are short term (meaning they only last as long as it takes to upgrade our housing stock), this training is a wise investment.

Another big chunk of this money goes to stimulate and subsidize alternative energy, to make it competitive with (subsidized) fossil fuels. You don't need to be an environmentalist to appreciate the upside to this. We are going broke importing gas and oil from people who don't really like us much, and who use some of the profits to harm us. This is a national security issue.

I heard on the news last night that construction is starting in Texas, on the largest US wind turbine installation. The wind turbines are being purchased from China. That means more jobs and money for China. We could be building this equipment here.

You could be building that equipment here if you are willing to work for 175 dollars a month, the average industrial worker's wage in China.

Green Jobs include all the regular jobs just the end product is changed. Private Electric producers are fighting to keep comtrol of thier profit margins and prevent the new power grid from being built the extends to green power porducers.

The Economy needs a driving force. People retrained for the new Service Industry jobs that devolped as Financial Service jobs not tech or manufacturing.

Not everyone can be a financial managers and robots are replacing even people in labs doing reaeerch.

What is needed are robot Soldiers instead of robot workers.