Jobs in Renewable Energy Will Eventually Have Real Meaning

A colleague in the run-of-river hydro business sent me this piece earlier today, on the ascension of green energy jobs in general.  Worldwide, 5.7 million people worked in the clean energy industry in 2012, about 10% of whom were Americans (China and Brazil collectively represented about one-half of the world’s work-force in this space). My overall reaction is extremely positive.  Two quick points:

1) This figure is significantly larger now, since solar went “through the rooftop” last year.

2) (More importantly) Cleantech is the only industry on Earth that is literally bound to grow.  The world will survive with or without Doritos, theme parks, Buicks, and drugs to combat restless leg syndrome, but it will most assuredly not survive our pretending that we don’t have a problem with energy generated from fossil fuels.  To put it another way, the success of cleantech is a requirement, a sine qua non, to the success of humankind on this planet.  Eventually, that’s going to mean something. I freely admit that it doesn’t seem to mean much now, but, trust me on this, it’s only a matter of time.