Green Breadlines

Employers may have “shed,” as the Washington Post put it, 20,000 jobs in January alone but, fear not, the “green economy” will replace a fraction of them, with universities poised to make the delivery. “Everything’s coming up green thanks to President Obama’s priority focus on green jobs creation and training,” PR Newswire reports. “Since the beginning of this year, the U.S. Department of Labor has awarded $290 million toward green jobs training grants, and aims to prepare more than 120,000 Americans for environmentally friendly jobs by 2012.”

“Which means, across every industry, there will be a growing demand for green supply chain supervisors and managers looking to bridge the divide between an aging, fossil-fuel-based economy and a new, energy-efficient one.” Actually, it means more ghost towns if the job loss numbers so far this year are multiplied out.

Working backwards from January, that leaves six months worth of lost jobs that will be replaced in two years. In Nancy Pelosi’s backyard, that does not spoil the sunny outlook of the environmental forecasters at the University of San Francisco: “Funding for green jobs training in the U.S. is on the rise and for those interested in pursuing a green career, there’s never been a better time,” University of San Francisco online faculty member and supply chain expert Neil O’Connell says.

“Ahead of the curve are training programs like the University of San Francisco’s (USF) 100% online Green Supply Chain Management course,” PRNewswire reports. “Regionally accredited universities such as USF are doing their part to help reduce America’s carbon footprint by creating the expert leaders today’s organizations need to ‘go green’ and to successfully compete on a global scale.”

Maybe they didn’t notice the record snowstorms and cold temperatures that the U. S. has enjoyed so far this year which left only Hawaii without snow.

Malcolm A. Kline is the Executive Director of Accuracy in Academia.