Green Labor Journal - Working for a Substainable Future

Why this Earth Day is about Hip Hop and Hard Hats

Green For All's "Green the Block" Campaign

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On April 22nd, 1970, twenty million Americans took action for the first Earth Day, marking the unofficial birth of the modern environmental movement.

Forty years later, April 22nd, 2010, Earth Day is as much about hip hop and hard hats as it is about polar bears and Ponderosas.

Over the past few years, the green movement has seen a fundamental shift: the realization of the economic opportunity created by fighting the climate crisis.  Improving the environment and transitioning to clean energy can spark a wave of jobs in the United States, particularly for low-income communities and communities of color. 

This gives us an opportunity to bring about the America we’ve always dreamed was possible – one that offers equality and justice to all.

In 2010, the face of the green movement can be found on Coal River Mountain, West Virginia. After generations of losing their safety, health and hills to coal mining, residents are advocating for wind farms that can sustain America’s energy needs, the health of the planet and their local economy.

And the face of the green movement looks like Markese Bryant, who grew up in a low-income African American community in East Oakland, CA, where asthma and incarceration rates soar.  As a Morehouse student, Bryant is now organizing his campus around green jobs and educating his community through hip hop.

Watch his music video!

This April, thousands of people like Markese, who are motivated by bringing health, opportunity and a brighter future to their communities, have taken a pledge to bring Earth Day to their blocks. 

They’re taking 10 simple steps for the environment and their neighborhoods, and urging our leaders in Washington to pass a comprehensive climate and energy bill.  Join them by taking the Earth Day on Every Block pledge.

What’s remarkable is how many of these folks are not environmentalists; how many are Black Eyed Peas or Drake fans who went to a concert this spring, and walked away with a head full of ideas about strengthening their communities through a green economy.  That’s because these musical talents are spreading the word about the green economy. 

They have partnered with Green For All and the Green The Block Campaign to engage new audiences in the movement.  As a result, we’ve touched thousands of people who otherwise would never have taken the day to focus on environmentalism.

The transformation is taking hold in Washington, D.C., as well, where the Congressional Black and Hispanic Caucuses have become some of the biggest champions of innovative green jobs bills.  Most recently, Representatives Bobby Rush, Barbara Lee and others championed the Home Star bill, which will soon be voted on by the full House of Representatives.  (See Green For All’s GLJ article of March 25, 2010, about the Home Star program.)

The bill is designed to create 168,000 jobs quickly by making American homes more energy-efficient, a win for our environment and a win for our economy. It includes strengthened job quality and access provisions, which will help to ensure that low-income people and communities of color have access to these job opportunities.

So this Earth Day, let’s celebrate how the green movement has grown and expanded to be more inclusive of all of America’s communities and concerns.

We are awakening to the interconnectedness of environmental and economic issues that exists in of all of our communities.

This awakening comes just in time to take on the challenges of today, which are even more daunting than they were 40 years ago.  As much as we need innovative policy solutions and technology to transition to clean energy (and we do), what we need most desperately is the political will to fundamentally shift how we run our economy and how we treat our planet.

Only an inclusive, expansive movement for people and the planet can build this will.

Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins is the Chief Executive Officer of Green For All, a national organization dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans through a clean-energy economy. Green For All works in collaboration with the business, government, labor, and grassroots communities to create and implement programs that increase quality jobs and opportunities in green industry – all while holding the most vulnerable people at the center of its agenda.  (http://www.greenforall.org)