In March, the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), which has vast experience advising industry on energy conservation, recruited 40 out-of-work Hsinchu Science Park engineers to serve as its "energy conservation vanguard," spreading the word on saving energy.

"We formed the vanguard to 'arm the nation,'" says Richard Kuo, deputy general director of ITRI's Technology Center for Service Industries. Kuo explains that training out-of-work engineers to deliver services to industry will make small and medium-sized enterprises more competitive, spur the development of the green energy industry, and give the Earth a chance to catch its breath.

The future looks bright for those in so-called green-collar jobs. When US President Obama took office in early 2009, he began an aggressive push to develop the green economy, which he forecast would create 5 million jobs.

The Taiwan Association of Energy Service Companies this year estimated that if 300 energy conservation projects were carried out per year (including energy audits, improvement projects, equipment and technology sales, and follow-up service and support) the energy conservation industry would create 3,000-10,000 jobs.

In Hot, Flat, and Crowded, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman argues that as warming becomes more intense, local governments will demand that buildings become more energy efficient. He believes this will create jobs renovating existing buildings through measures such as the installation of solar panels, insulation, and new climate-change-resistant materials. And, importantly, these are jobs that cannot be outsourced.

Friedman quotes Van Jones, founder of the Oakland Green Jobs Corps, stating that green-collar jobs offer those who didn't attend university a way out of poverty. According to Jones, "You just have to put down the handgun, and pick up a caulking gun" and undergo some training. In economically disadvantaged communities in the US, where many own their own homes but have only meager incomes, rising energy prices have had a real impact on people's lives. If the US government were to pay the workers that Jones' group trains a reasonable wage to conduct energy audits and install insulation in old homes in these economically fragile communities, it would provide the disadvantaged young people in these communities with jobs while also conserving energy.

Taiwan too should take its energy conservation efforts into neighborhoods. Environmental groups have suggested that in addition to promoting the development of the energy conservation industry, the government ought to educate the public by turning the tens of thousands of local mom-and-pop electrical and plumbing shops, the kind that always have people out in the neighborhood changing light fixtures and laying wire, into community-level energy-conservation and carbon-reduction service centers.

"These plumbers know how to connect pipes, but don't know how to improve water quality or turn wastewater into gray water that can be reused. They also don't know which equipment is more energy efficient," says He Qiuquan, director of the Taiwan Energy Service Association, adding that energy conservation requires knowledge of system integration. He argues that manual laborers can become green-collar workers by simply upgrading their skills.

With the rise of the green economy and green job opportunities, the energy conservation vanguard is likely to spread from the business sector into the community at large, bringing us one step closer to realizing our goal of rescuing the economy and reducing unemployment while saving the planet.