“I consider myself fortunate to be friends and cohorts with John Moore. We met through a mutual friend and colleague who believed John and I could make a difference and pay it forward. John is an intelligent, passionate, and knowledgeable person with a strong sense of community that I have tremendous respect and admiration.”
We both were participants of the brain gains in New Orleans during the rebuild, rebirth and renewal of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. A few years removed from the Hurricane, John, and I both relocated from New Orleans to Los Angeles to pursue our respective ambitions.
I reached out to John a few months back to get his thoughts and opinions on renewable energy, AI, and the impact on neglected, devalued, and marginalized communities of color.
TERRENCE SANDERS-SMITH - Please give our readership a little background history of your work in the field of renewable energy.
JOHN MOORE - My passion for renewable energy began during my days as a college student at Morehouse. I was enrolled in an environmental studies program with the Associated colleges of the south. Through that program, I learned about green building and sustainable design. That fellowship program ultimately led to an internship with Southface Energy Institute in Atlanta. As an aspiring architect, I had the great fortune to meet and work under some of the industry’s best designers and engineers learning about every green building rating system there was. I was exposed to some of the most exciting renewable energy projects that were happening in the area and across the country. It had a significant impact on my career trajectory. I was ultimately recruited from there to work in New Orleans on a variety of sustainability projects. As the energy and environmental policy analyst for local government in the City of New Orleans I ultimately managed grants from the department of energy and EPA on renewable energy. I was very proud of the work I did while I was there.
TSS - The World is transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy and AI. These changes will certainly cut global emissions, stimulate economic growth, create jobs, and greatly improve public health. How will this benefit the poor and neglected communities of color?
JM - One of the relationships that I was able to make while working in New Orleans on sustainability projects was with Van Jones, of the organization Green For All. I think he captured the zeitgeist when he coined the term “green jobs”. I was always inspired by a joke he would tell many times when giving speeches. “Pookie in the hood doesn’t care about polar bears, but he does care about green jobs.” When I entered the green building industry in 2005, it was not very diverse at all. Everything was about bigger and better projects, utilizing the most advanced technology that existed. Around 2008 when I met Van, he helped shift that conversation in a different direction. The focus on everyday people and jobs is what I think grounded the conversation. That is what was missing from some of the current conversations about technological advancements. The human part of the conversation revolves around jobs, not automation. Those two conversations are often in conflict, and I do not think they need to be. Ultimately, if you are talking about how to help workers to work smarter instead of talking about replacing them, you are starting the conversation in a manner that has a common ground to it and they won’t be as defensive.
TSS - This major shift will phase out millions of jobs as new ones are created. How will the high school dropout, the person with a high school diploma and or GED, sustain themselves in this environment?
JM - When working with Van and Green For All, I recall one of the legislative bills in congress that they had worked on was about this topic. Eventually, Van began focusing more on technology and teaching coding to inner city students. Around that time, I recall many saying that within the next two decades, if you are not able to code, it will be seen as the equivalent of being considered to be illiterate. That is a scary thought when you think about the education gap that you have just pointed out. When working with Green For All, one of the consistent conversations we used to have centered around community colleges and making community college training more affordable. As an example, if we are talking about Workers needing to learn how to code machines, what better place to have those trainings happen than at a community college. I think this is an area where it is totally appropriate to direct government funding in a way that prepares the workforce of the future for the work of the future. I was proud to be a part of those conversations, and that work while working for government, and working alongside Van. I think it is a matter of continuing to keep that conversation in the forefront so that the right people continue to get the focus and attention that they need.
TSS - How can the giants of tech influence and or inspire the American Government to educate displaced workers offering new opportunities and the education and skills needed to adapt to the current climate?
JM - I think it is a matter of the tech industry world committing to some “hire local” policies. Jobs are often outsourced out of the country for cheaper labor. That is not a new phenomenon. Work that could be done here needs to be incentivized so that the workforce of the future can be created. There is a constant debate between whether the billionaires in the country, are job creators, or the people with the innovative ideas are. I think the honest answer we must embrace is that it is a combination of both. Take the story of the BlackBerry which was made into a movie and based on the company. You can see that the tech needs coupled with the ideas were able to bring those concepts to fruition once they met their “wolf of wall street” character that helped them do it. Similarly, Tesla was a successful company that couldn’t meet the economies of scale until Elon Musk came along. So, the question is: how do we create more local “Blackberry” and “Tesla” stories? How do more common folks get a shot at having “the next big idea” and how do we make these companies into more long-term sustainable business models that don’t just have 30 year runs before they go out of business and some new guy comes along with the next big thing. We need to return to business models that have worker equity models in place, more long-term community based economic strategies that prioritize long term sustainable job growth as opposed to making a rich billionaire even richer for an idea they more than likely never came up with and only monetized.
TSS - Menial jobs held by common people of all ages, races and genders will be phased out of the workplace by renewable energy and intelligent machines. People who are barely making ends meet will have no skill to survive. What are they going to do? They can’t read the writing on the wall. What’s to become of them and their families that depend on their income to survive?
JM - I disagree that these industries will totally phase out work opportunities for the next generation. Many people said the same thing about trains, and then computers. I think the work force of the future is evolving, and people need to evolve with it. Renewable energy for instance has created many new job opportunities and has innovated the type of jobs that are available in the energy industry. Coal mining and nuclear power plant jobs have notoriously caused a litany of health-related issues in lower income communities. The environmental justice movement, and the current justice for the initiative in the federal government is a huge Focal point for this issue. For renewable energy, I think the conversation is much more about new jobs for a new workforce. When it comes to AI, I think the conversation becomes a lot more nuanced. AI will create a very nuanced and specialized workforce that will require significant training. Those jobs don’t involve hammers and screwdrivers. You are not just learning about how to screw something different in a different way. I think the workforce of the future needs to have a voice for itself. I am proud to have been a part of several government work groups that were working on this topic in the past. These conversations are ever evolving, and I think the people who will be most affected by it need to get more involved in it.
TSS - What about the future economic growth, identity, and inequality of urban cities in comparison to rural areas in the wake of technological advancements?
JM - I have seen many models in inner cities where programs are being made available to inner-city youth to give them opportunities to be involved in this conversation. I am a member of 100 Black Men. We sponsor youth mentoring and education programs that give disadvantaged youth an opportunity to learn about STEM and other training programs. When working in Los Angeles, I had the fortune of being introduced to a place called the ‘Beehive’. This is an example of a place where inner-city youth are given access to stem training programs for very cheap. Inner-city youth need to be made aware of these opportunities, and they need to be funded so they can be made available also in schools and community colleges and not just via nonprofit and philanthropic organizations.
TSS - My generation’s workforce is dependent on an outdated business model and believe they are too old to start over. AI will make most of their college degrees worthless. There is a rise in enrollments in vocational and technical schools. Is this the new normal? What is more important, a degree or knowing what we know?
JM - I would say, vocational skills will definitely be the way of the future. Even from my generation, I have friends who have six figure jobs that do not have degrees. They were smart enough to get ahead of the curve and learn everything that they could about computers while we were in high school. Those guys are doing way better than many guys I know who have college degrees. Every situation is different, and I don’t think there is a catchall solution. But I think it is safe to say that the workforce of the future will need to focus on vocational skills over degrees.
TSS - I’m afraid if we do not educate the now and next generations, we will in turn see a crime wave coupled with rampant incarceration of old and young people of color being imprisoned for attempting to put food on the table. A civil war between the have and the have-nots. What are your thoughts and or concerns if the government does nothing as we see job losses in the millions mostly affecting the neglected, disenfranchised, and marginalized communities?
JM - I think you are already starting to see evidence of crime related to these income disparities. Several recent, notable crimes that occurred in Los Angeles come to mind. Robberies of notable people that live in Beverly Hills. I think it is safe to say, you will see more of this if the polarity of haves and the have nots in this country continues the path that it is currently on. I am not one of those people who prescribes to government only solutions. I think that we all know that government is ultimately heavily influenced by private interests, and billionaires. In my opinion, we need to become less selfish as a country. The haves need to stop wanting to have more and need to focus on equity models for the sake of the future of this country.
TSS - What are the new tech hubs for jobs? Where are people migrating to in hopes of finding jobs and or opportunities?
JM - I really like the ‘Beehive’ model in Los Angeles. When I worked with Van Jones, I was exposed to many more models like that across the country. The technology training hubs that exists should be funded by philanthropic efforts, and coupled with increased trainings at community colleges and organizations such as the 100 Black Men mentoring programs. These are the kinds of solutions that we need to see more of.
TSS - The World in which we have known for the last 100 years will be taken over by machines and that’s the honest reality. We must adapt and relearn to secure our place in this new World. What jobs are not threatened by this shift? Who gets to keep their job and who will lose their job?
JM - Honestly, I think every job will be affected by automation. Rather than run from it, we need to lean into it. As an example, in the movie Westworld on HBO, they showed workers of the future, having exoskeleton like machines, so that they can lift heavier objects, and do more complex work on construction projects. I think it will look something like that. If we are talking about buildings, airplanes, and other devices being more advanced, then the workforce of the future we will also need to be more advanced. I see it as an evolutionary conversation, and not, one of a gloom and doom scenario that will play out. I think people need to be ready to embrace the change and lean into what’s coming by preparing themselves to be a part of the workforce of the future.
TSS - Do you agree that we as the people, as humans, have a responsibility to assist neglected communities in need? Arguably this next decade will see record gains for the 1% and the lowest earnings for the rest of the population. What’s the bottom line, how does the mom and pop and the average citizen of modest means get on the same page with technology?
JM - We as human beings have an obligation to one another. I think we like to think of ourselves as being better than animals, but in many ways, we are not. Human beings can be tribal just as much as animals can. If you think of the analogy of what happens when a bunch of animals are sitting around a watering hole and the water begins to evaporate, I think what we are experiencing is a bit similar. Ultimately, if you subscribe to Rupert Sheldrake and the morphic resonance theory, eventually, the first animal will go find the new Watering-hole and everyone else will eventually follow suit. I think it is that sort of a thing. There are those out there who have already found the new watering hole, and everyone needs to prepare for a mass migration to that and abandon the current societal structure that we are all gathered around and used to.
TSS - Thank you John and I hope this conversation starts the necessary dialogue with the private and public sector to address the humanistic issues before it’s too late.
JM: No problem brother. I feel fortunate to be a part of some of the very relevant conversations that pertain to the issues that you are raising over the years. At this point in my career, I feel as though I have seen the mountain top. I have seen flashes of this new world that we all know needs to come about. Agents of change such as you and I need to get together and have these conversations more often. Slowly, but surely, collectively, we will all build this world of the future. First in thought, then, in word, then in action.
