Van Jones: The New Al Gore
It's almost hard to believe that environmentalism is where it is today. There's no doubt that it's received a full facelift after being wrestled from the hippy culture of the 1970s, even down to rebranding "environmentalism" as "green". I don't think anyone could have ever predicted that giant corporations like Walmart would even entertain talk of changing what they sell and how they do business.
So it's a kind of unfortunate irony that, while capitalists are starting to make the connection between going green and making green, there's a growing rift between the working class and "environmental elites". What started as a left wing movement is now in a position of having to win over the political left.
Which is why the work Van Jones is doing is so important. In an interview with The Sun, he talks about the need to find solutions that solve global problems, without forcing people into the impossible dilemma of feeding themselves or cutting their carbon emissions:
