GREEN JOBS: A LETTER TO THE ECONOMIST (April 6, 2009)
Many governments are now trying to kick off Green New Deals of all sorts so as to save their economies from rapidly rising unemployment. Green jobs would help a great deal while dealing with another ominous threat—global warming. Your article on this topic ends up by warning that investing in green technologies is not necessarily the best way to create jobs (“The Grass is Always Greener,” April 4, 2009). But it begins rather comically, too. “Saving the planet and creating jobs may be incompatible,” you point out smartly. Gosh! What are we to do now? Shall we save the planet or create jobs? Now, let us think about this problem a bit more carefully. Here we are facing a really tough one!