Van Jones spoke at DePauw University as part of Earth Week.
REBECA BAGDOCIMO / THE DEPAUW

Van Jones had laughter echoing in Meharry Hall as he began his Earth Day address offering his condolences to seniors preparing to enter the real world outside of DePauw University.

Jones is a CNN political contributor and advocate for both human rights and environmental justice, attorney and author. He was the prominent advocate for the Green Jobs Act under George W. Bush and served as the green jobs advisor to Obama in 2009.

Jones came to campus this past Wednesday to speak as part of the Environmental Fellows speaker series, “What a Waste!” 

His address focused on expanding the meaning of Earth Day from saving not only the physical and natural world, but also saving the worlds people. 

Senior Alex Parker commented on Jones’s approach to his Earth Day Address.

“We hear so often about how environmentalism is so morally beneficial to saving the earth, saving the world, but what we do not hear is how environmentalism can benefit the social,” he said.  “He really gave a voice to how it is not just about saving the world but saving people. ”

Jones directed his comments to the class of 2015 as they will be graduating in just a few weeks, and will be faced with many of the world’s problems.   

“You are graduating off a cliff into one of the toughest economies,” he said.

For Jones, a tough economy consists of both economic problems such as the wealth gap and environmental issues such as coalmines. Jones argues that the solution to these two problems coexists.

Senior Rachel Massoud agreed with this aspect of his address.

“I appreciated his message that you don’t have to prioritize the environment, or the economy or social justice and that there are solutions that tackle all of these issues,” she said.

He acknowledged that most people know the world is going to waste, but in many cases, so are the world’s people. Jones illustrated a waste of talent with a statistic about imprisonment. 

“One out of every four people locked up in the world are locked up here,” Jones said. 

He also mentioned that most of those sentences are related to drug use, which he points out is directly tied to race.

When people are locked up, so are their talents and perspectives. Jones shared his philosophy that the tougher a problem is, the more heterogeneous the solution must be. Engaging in multiple perspectives for a solution is important, because when you are the one without privilege, you know a lot more about how they system works. 

This point resonated with Massoud.

“I also appreciated his perspective that we need all viewpoints because they are all correct, but one is not enough,” she said.

Jones has worked on initiatives to get people out of jail and into jobs and tackle this problem. 

“Can we connect the people that most need work to the people that need work to be done?” he asked the audience.

Jones argues that placing people into “green jobs” or those that benefit the environment are the best way to solve economic problems. 

“There is a set of ideas and solutions out there that are good for the planet and are good for the people,” said Jones. 

To relate his work back to DePauw, Jones engaged in student questions about bringing his work form the west coast to Midwest. Jones also expressed that fighting against the odds makes history. 

Jones encouraged students to set the bar high and really work. He believes with hard work a green economy can be built. He presented the idea that change will happen locally first, especially in building these green initiatives.

Said Jones: “You don’t have to start big, you just have to start.”