America Powered by Death?

Van Jones, a globally recognized, award-winning pioneer in human rights and the clean-energy economy explains that our economy is powered by an energy system based on death. Oil is the "ancient blood of our ancestors, underground that we dig out and burn in engines."   Coal is the "broken bones of our ancestors that we drag out of the ground and burn."

He goes on to say,

"It's no wonder when you take death out of the ground and burn it, that the climate scientists are now telling you, now you're going to get death from the skies and that we now have death in our oceans, because you have a society that's addicted to a death-based fuel system. And as a result, we keep pushing our energy workers to drill deeper and deeper holes.[...] Risk your lives. Die in those mines. Blow up those mountains...Go out in the ocean. Risk your life to drill deeper and deeper holes so that we can keep powering America in the same way."

It's your responsibility to tell the people who run this country that America's future is not down those holes. If you want to see the future, look up. Look at the sun. Look at the solar power we can have in our country. Look at the sky. Look at the wind. Imagine the wind turbines that could be created in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio where industrial workers are sitting idol. Look up into the eyes of those workers..."

Jones also explains why an understanding of history is so important to providing much needed perspective that prevents despair and hopelessness.

"This president has done more and achieved more in a shorter period of time than any President prior to him. The problem is that he's done superhuman levels of achievement but the hole is so much bigger than any other President has faced." -- Van Jones

Here, Van Jones addresses the Campus Progress National Conference in Washington, DC. Jones. He served as White House green jobs advisor in 2009 and is now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, as well as a senior policy advisor at Green For All.