Green Jobs...For All?
A Matter of Degrees
Dr. Leah Stokes, Dr. Katharine Wilkinson
4.8 • 533 Ratings
🗓️ 26 July 2021
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
President Biden's American Jobs Plan promises big investments in the clean-energy economy, including clean energy workforce and education programs. Economic progress and clean climate action are inextricably linked.
But how can we make sure that those dollars go to communities of color who have already been most impacted by climate change and consistently shut out of past federal programs promising transformational change? And to gender minorities who are underrepresented in certain green fields?
This week, we hear from folks in government, the nonprofit sector, the renewable energy space and academia about what it will really take to usher in a just transition.
Katharine Wilkinson speaks with solar entrepreneur Bob Blake; The Partnership for Southern Equity's Chandra Farley; New Jersey Deputy Secretary For Higher Education Diana Gonzalez; and Brooking Institute Fellow Christina Kwauk.
Resources:
- More on Bob Blake's Company, Solar Bear
- The Partnership for Southern Equity
- More about Diana Gonzalez and her work in NJ
- Christina Kwauk's Green Learning Agenda
- Christina's 'Education Moonshot' Plan
Follow our co-hosts and production team:
A Matter of Degrees is a production of Post Script Audio. For more episodes and transcripts, visit our website.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Bob Blake is a member of the Red Lake Nation tribe and a resident of the Twin Cities in Minnesota. |
| 0:06.2 | He has a positive, infectious personality, the kind that makes it difficult to imagine, his spirits ever get low. |
| 0:14.0 | But like everyone, of course, he's faced hard times. |
| 0:17.7 | About 10 years ago, Bob's brother passed away, and he ended up becoming a kind of |
| 0:23.3 | stand-in dad to his brother's kids. This like unconditional love came over me to like protect them. |
| 0:30.8 | And I thought to myself, I want to do something like tangible to help them. He had an idea of |
| 0:36.7 | how, a big idea. |
| 0:38.8 | At the time, it seems simple enough, but like, why don't I solve climate change for them, |
| 0:43.3 | you know? |
| 0:43.6 | I just started looking at this extractive colonial capitalism predatory system that |
| 0:50.7 | preys on these, like, communities, and I don't like bullies. And I was just like, you know, |
| 0:57.6 | someone's got to do something. But beyond that, he didn't quite know what that would mean or |
| 1:03.9 | even who to ask. Luckily, someone came to him. This imaginary, like, big polar bear. |
| 1:13.9 | And he's wearing sunglasses. |
| 1:17.8 | And his name is Solar Bear. |
| 1:20.9 | And he just started making me, like, do the right thing in all aspects of my life. |
| 1:29.1 | And I was just like, hey, you think we could save the planet? |
| 1:33.3 | And he's like, yeah, we can save the planet. |
| 1:35.4 | Solar Bear was like, we got to do something. |
| 1:50.1 | This is a matter of degrees. Stories for the Climate Curious. I'm Dr. Catherine Wilkinson. |
| 1:51.7 | And I'm Dr. Leah Stokes. |
| 2:05.0 | So Catherine, solar bear, I am very intrigued. He seems very cool. He is very cool. And we'll be hearing more from Solar Bear and Solar Energy entrepreneur Bob Blake later in the episode about the journey that |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Dr. Leah Stokes, Dr. Katharine Wilkinson, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Dr. Leah Stokes, Dr. Katharine Wilkinson and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.