Editor's Note: the following is an excerpt from the introduction to Van Jones' new book, The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems, published by HarperOne and available starting today. Van Jones is a environemental and social justice activist, and founder of Green for All, we are glad to have the opportunity to bring his inspiration to Celsias readers.

First, the bad news: the pain at the gas pump is just the beginning. Because our society has remained so dependent on oil in every aspect of our lives, petroleum prices are the Achilles' heel of the entire economy. This weakness can and will send the entire country into a particular kind of a tailspin.

The reason is straightforward. It takes energy to make anything and everything. So when energy costs go up, all prices tend to go up. At the same time, those very same steep energy prices eat into consumer confidence. They depress nonessential spending and discourage hiring. So consumers stop buying, employers hold back on making job offers, and tourists travel much less. As a result, the economy starts to stall-with all the attendant job loss and pain. Yet prices throughout the economy, driven by rising fuel costs, keep going up just the same. The result is that society finds itself stretched on the rack, with soaring costs and plunging jobs pulling the body of the nation in opposite directions.

And so we find ourselves stuck with a dual crisis and a major dilemma. Should we use even dirtier fossil fuels to rev up the economy and in turn bake the planet? Or should we stop using oil and coal tomorrow and wreck the economy?

Whom do we love and care about more? Our children-and their immediate need for a viable economy? Or our grandchildren-and their long-term need for a viable planet? Go ahead-choose one.

Fortunately, this dilemma is a false choice. It is true that we cannot drill and burn our way out of our present economic and energy problems. We can, however, invent and invest our way out. Choosing to do so on a massive scale would have the practical benefit of cutting energy prices enough-and generating enough work-to pull the U.S. economy out of its present death spiral. But the true benefits would be much greater than that.

The possibility of an economic recovery based on clean energy (to increase supply) and on wasting less energy (to cut demand) is not a daydream. There is already a huge green economy developing. It is growing despite inadequate and inconsistent support from a public sector that is still easily cowed by the big polluters. In 2006, renewable energy and energy-efficiency technologies generated 8.5 million new jobs, nearly $970 billion in revenue and more than $100 billion in industry profits. This is happening while the government is still giving billions of dollars in subsidies to the oil and coal companies. Imagine what would happen if the public sector fully and passionately supported the shift to clean, renewable power-and gave those supports to the next generation of power producers. Fossil fuels are a finite resource doing infinite damage. As long as we rely on fossil fuels to power our society, our economy is at risk for stagflation-and our planetary home is at risk too.

Ironically, that's where the good news begins. The generations living today get to retrofit, reboot, and reenergize a nation. We get to rescue and reinvent the U.S. economy. We may as well do it right the first time. We may as well move the society as dramatically as we can, in the direction of a fully clean and renewable system. The more aggressive we are, the better off we will be. There is a better future out there.

So who will do the hard and noble work of actually building the green economy? The answer: millions of ordinary people, many of whom do not have good jobs right now. According to the National Renewable Energy Lab, the major barriers to a more rapid adoption of renewable energy and energy efficiency are not financial, legal, technical, or ideological. One big problem is simply that green employers can't find enough trained, green-collar workers to do all the jobs.

The "green" in "green-collar" is about preserving and enhancing environmental quality-literally saving the Earth. Green-collar jobs are in the growing industries that are helping us kick the oil habit, curb greenhouse-gas emissions, eliminate toxins, and protect natural systems. Today, green-collar workers are installing solar panels, retrofitting buildings to make them more efficient, refining waste oil into biodiesel, erecting wind farms, repairing hybrid cars, building green rooftops, planting trees, constructing transit lines, and so much more. California has shown that a state can still grow its economy while reducing the rise in greenhouse-gas emissions. The nation can do the same thing.

We have the chance now to create new markets, new technology, new industries, and a new workforce. Let's do it right-with good wages, equal opportunity, and pathways to success for those whom the pollution-based economy left behind.

Imagine a Green New Deal-with a pivotal role for green entrepreneurs, a strategic and limited role for government, and an honored place for labor and social activists. Such a force would change the direction of our society. It would put the government on the side of the problem solvers in the U.S. economy, not the problem makers-and bring us all together.