Van Jones addresses importance of environmental protections

According to Van Jones, a single person can make a great impact on a society, no matter the circumstances.

“You think you can’t do anything, especially when you’re young, but you can always start where you are with what you believe in,” said Jones, a CNN political contributor, during his talk at Binghamton University’s Osterhout Concert Theater on April 23. He spoke to students, faculty and local community members about international climate and today’s America.

Born in Jackson, Tenn., Jones is an environmental and social activist who previously worked as the green jobs advisor to President Barack Obama. Jones is now working in the Trump era to promote the importance of the greatness that America has already attained — and what areas the country can improve upon.

Jones spoke in depth on his background in environmental policy, which he utilized throughout his career to increase the production of ecological solutions. After fighting poverty, working with young people and dealing with police accountability in Oakland, Calif., Jones started a campaign called “Books Not Bars” that resulted in the closing of five youth prisons and a reduction in California’s youth violence with no increase in youth crime.

He recalled the moment when he began to see that the young people coming home from prison were unable to find jobs.

“We’ve got all these young people who don’t have work, and yet we have all this work that needs to be done,” he said. “Solar panels don’t put themselves up — that’s a job. That’s a business opportunity for someone. Organic gardens don’t plant themselves. Wind turbines don’t manufacture themselves. I had an epiphany where I realized that we could fight poverty and pollution at the same time, if we took the people who most needed work and trained them to do the work that most needs to be done.”

Combining his passion for both American youth and environmental protection, Jones was able to get the Oakland City Council to provide him with money to start the Oakland Green Jobs Corps, in which young people would begin joining the environmental movement in a new way. The ecological solutions provided a way up and a way out for those in unfortunate circumstances.

A domino effect was soon in operation, he said, as Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi took Jones to Washington D.C. President George W. Bush then signed the Green Jobs Act of 2007, which spread the Oakland program across the country.

After reading Jones’ book about the subject, titled “The Green Collared Economy,” President Obama asked Jones to come to the White House and run an $80 billion program based on the book. But with President Trump in office, there’s a new opinion on environmental protection.

“What is happening in D.C. right now is a tragedy, and I don’t care who you voted for,” Jones said. “There is a lie that is being told, and it is not only being told by the occupant of the Oval Office. It’s a lie that is being told broadly in society, and you need to stand up to it. That lie is this: that you have to make a choice between job-killing environmental regulations and child-killing environmental deregulations. That is the false choice that is being presented to you and your country.”

The presentation by Jones transitioned from his story of growth in the political world to what people can do in this new American society as individuals, specifically in the sector of social and environmental activism.

“Children sing a song called ‘America the Beautiful.’ Well, part of our patriotic duty, for both Democrats and Republicans, is to defend America’s beauty. Which means an agenda that says, ‘Let’s have rivers that catch on fire again, let’s put smog back in every American city, let’s put asthma inhalers in the pockets of every American child,’ is an anti-patriot agenda,” Jones said.

The perspectives that Americans have are at the root of what has been causing discontent over the country, Jones said. He spoke about how people in the United States have begun to focus on what he calls “the founding nightmare,” when they should pay attention to “the founding dream.”

“We are that unlikely, rainbow-colored people, who every generation tries to close the gap between the ugliness of that founding reality and the beauty of that founding dream,” Jones said. “That’s who we are.”

Though Jones admitted his distaste for the current president, he said Trump’s election is due to the entire country, regardless of political party affiliation. Making America great is not in sight, as the environmental actions on the horizon show.

“Are these executive orders going to make America more or less beautiful?” Jones asked. “When you repeal clean water, does that make America more beautiful? When you start fracking, when you blow the tops off of mountains to scrape out the coal, does that make America more beautiful? Does it bring us closer to that dream?”

President Trump has been elected, Jones said, but the power continues to lie with the people.

“If you like this president, make him the best president ever,” Jones said. “If you don’t like him, stop him. If you like this planet, defend it. If you don’t like it, find another one.”