With all the bad economic news pouring in these days -- oil at $140 a barrel, mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac apparently teetering on the edge of collapse, the volatile stock market -- it's good to remember that there's one bright spot in the global economy: the growth of green-collar jobs.

A recent report from the Worldwatch Institute estimates that currently about 2.3 million people work directly in the renewable energy sector or indirectly in supplier industries. The research paper, "Jobs in Renewable Energy Expanding," notes that "this is in all like­lihood a conservative figure" given the difficulty of collecting comprehensive data.

Strong government policies encouraging renewable energy have allowed Germany and Spain to become leaders in this area. Even in the U.S., where federal policies have been notably weak, the renewable energy sector employs almost 450,000 people directly and indirectly.

According to the Worldwatch findings, dramatic job gains will take place in the near future in the manufacturing of solar panels and wind tur­bines. Pointing out that jobs in installing, operating, and maintaining renewable energy systems tend to be more local in nature, the report sees a promising future for a wide range of countries, including India, China, Kenya, and Bangladesh. which has one of the fastest growing solar PV programs in the world.

Together, solar and wind power industries could account for as many as 8.4 million jobs by 2030.

To help foster the growth of green-collar jobs here in central New York, a group of Ithaca community leaders have been working to establish the New Roots School, which will make sustainability a central theme of the curriculum and prepare students to become leaders in the rapidly emerging green economy. I'm honored to be part of this effort as a member of the school's board of trustees. We're off to Albany this afternoon to meet with the review panel at the SUNY Charter Schools Institute tomorrow morning.  We submitted our application -- over 500 pages! -- last month and this group interview is the next stage in the process.

Wish us luck!