The Environmental Movement = Jobs for Liberals

I have long felt that a very large goal of the far left is to create high paying positions for people that produce absolutely nothing of value. Think about "curricula" such as gender studies and women studies which only produce people educated with the ability to teach more gender and women's studies. Likewise, environmentalists have created an industry around getting people that are actually doing something to ask the environmentalists what they think about it, and then pay them for that answer. In my business, the U.S. Green Building Council doesn't build anything. Ever. They just sit around selling stuff and certifying buildings that are constructed to meet their convoluted criteria. They charge hefty fees for "membership" and for the privelage of receiving their blessing. They also sell "checklists" and all sorts of documentation of their "requirements." Ironically, this is a very paper intensive process, requiring all sorts of submittals and approvals in writing.

Here's further confirmation that my theory of environmentalism as a jobs program for unproductive environmentalists is not completely off base:

In his quest to make San Francisco the greenest city in the nation, Mayor Gavin Newsom recently created a $160,000-a-year job for a senior aide and gave him the ambitious-sounding title of director of climate protection initiatives.

One might think one six-figure position would be enough. But it's only the latest in a line of such employees:

One might expect someone with such an exalted handle to solve global warming and save the rain forest all in a day's work.
But the new climate protection initiatives director is just the latest person to join the city payroll in the name of tackling global climate woes, raising questions about whether environmentalism is becoming the latest excuse for a bloating government payroll.
San Francisco has at least two dozen other city employees already working directly on climate issues at a cost to taxpayers of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Now these people aren't really doing anything for the taxpayers. As the article says, they're working on issues.While some people are alarmed that this is all a little bit excessive, it's not enough for San Francisco mayor Newsom. He has plans for more of this nonsense:

But officials in the Newsom administration say that even 25 people working on climate issues is not enough and that having a director in the mayor's inner circle is necessary to coordinate all the city's climate initiatives.
"If there are 25 people working on climate protection issues for the city, that's a good start," Newsom spokesman Nathan Ballard said. "Ten years ago, there probably weren't any. It's smart policy to have one point person at the highest level of city government to coordinate all 25 of them."

And, as I mentioned at the beginning of the post, a big part of the effort is telling productive people what to do:

Nowhere in the two-page job description does it say Crowfoot will solve global warming, but the job does require the director of climate protection initiatives to lobby for federal climate protection legislation. He also is tasked with creating incentives that encourage local private companies to use vehicles that run on biodiesel and get employees in the habit of taking public transportation.

That's right, the San Francisco taxpayers are paying an environmentalist $160,000 to "lobby" government and "encourage" companies to promote "good habits" in their employees.