EESI Briefing on Green Jobs

I'm putting up anther video on green jobs. This one was an Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) briefing on Capitol Hill in October 2008 -- yes, I know, this is like a pre-historic post in Internet time terms, but I feel it's still useful. I was one of four panelists, speaking about the report we wrote for UNEP. (Bracken Hendricks of CAP was another panelist, plus we had speakers from the US Conference of Mayors and from Johnson Controls).

The Power of Symbolism

UN at Geneva_Broken Chair-08
Originally uploaded by mgrenner57

Symbolism is important. In front of UN headquarters in Geneva, a gigantic "broken chair" calls attention to the world's landmines and cluster bombs. It was initially installed in 1997 and intended as a temporary display, but the failure of some major powers to sign the landmine convention led to the chair becoming a more permanent fixture.

In light of the fact that so-called "small arms" cause much of the killings and maimings in today's violent conflicts, this seems a more appropriate sculpture than the twisted anti-aircraft gun barrel that's on the opposite end of the same square.

But the extent of militarism in this world demands far more symbolic statements. As just one suggestion, it would be telling to create a sculpture with two piles of money, one representing military spending, the other for instance spending to reduce poverty, or address climate change, etc. You can imagine that the first pile is huge, the second barely visible in comparison.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.