Former White House environmental adviser and Green For All founder Van Jones recently spoke in the very green city of Seattle, Washington, a far friendlier place than the other Washington he joked. You can watch the full speech, which is worth it, at worldchanging.com

I’m starting his book The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems and I can’t wait to share what I’ve learned as I go along.

Here’s a quote from the speech he made in Seattle on May 27th. This is the kind of stuff that made me a believer in the first place and now I’m inspired all over again. Here’s his much needed take on BP’s massive oil leak.

What they did is criminal. You have this company that’s making $63 million a day… everyday in profit…that decided, for some reason, to save money and not put a$500,000 safety valve in place and have destroyed the Gulf. Destroyed it…because somebody somewhere decided to take a small little act of greed to try to save $500,000…

We’re living in a world where we can have nonlinear bad outcomes. Dramatically, unbelievably bad outcomes when somebody makes a small act based on greed.

Which means, in a rational universe, that we can have nonlinear good outcomes. Unbelievable, good outcomes Totally, wildly, unpredictable, good outcomes from small acts based on love.

Just like that person who made that decision had no idea how much bad he or she was going to do, you have no idea how much good you can do. You have no idea. No idea at all. No idea at all…

When it gets harder to love, love harder.

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