“You look better with the lights off” — admittedly, the catchy chorus of this terrible pop song is not the most lyrically tasteful, but it may be sending just the message I’m trying to deliver. While some may argue that turning the lights off in the bedroom is an act of intimacy, I think there’s another implicit message in the lyrics — one that relates to the environmental impact of our obsession with energy. Sure, we’ve all heard the spiel from our parents to turn the lights off when we leave a room, but what is the real significance of that action?

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Save water, drink beer. As Isla Vistans, we’ve all heard the saying, but what does it really mean? Most I.V. residents would argue that this slogan advocates the copious consumption of a frothy liquid until the point of drunken debauchery, but as an environmentalist, I would argue a much different message — one of conservation and limiting consumption of the world’s most precious resource — WATER. Water sustains life. It helps plants grow. It hydrates the earth when it rains (and athletes when they’re thirsty). It cleans our kitchens and bathrooms. It helps cook our pasta dinner. It makes up that sick wave you rode this morning. It fills up our Brita water pitchers. It provides a refreshing swim in your pool on a hot day. It is ESSENTIAL to life — so why do we insist on thinking that it is endless?

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The number of problems the U.S. faces today seems to be infinite. Whether you have come to this realization through opening up your CNN homepage or even the walk from the Davidson Library to the Arbor, I’m sure you have been confronted by headlines, news articles and active petitioners pining for your attention regarding issues of unemployment among veterans and the poverty line, the raise in tuition prices and educational program cuts, oil drilling and the environmental movement. Often times they are presented as separate issues disregarding any sense of interconnection. But in fact, these issues are connected at the core and can be solved by a single solution: Green Jobs.

Van Jones, the former Green Jobs White House advisor to president Obama, came to the Marjorie Luke Theatre on Oct. 29 to speak of the connection between our economy, environment and everything in between, advocating for the promising future of Green Jobs. UCSB Environmental Affairs Board members listened as Jones talked about the “next generation” and our generation’s responsibility to halt the exploitation of the earth’s resources by big business and individuals.

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