WHEN I TAUGHT A GRADUATE-LEVEL SEMINAR titled “Technology and Society,” one of the projects we had in class was to trace our family work histories over time. I myself have gone back three generations in plotting my family’s work history.

Mid- to late 19th Century — Basic Trades

My mother’s grandparents lived in Bohemia, a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The men were blacksmiths and stonemasons. The women were skilled in all the domestic arts, including gardening, poultry and cows, sewing, crocheting and pastry making. My mother’s mother, my grandmother, went to Vienna to study baking with relatives, while her boyfriend, soon to become her husband, was recruited by the American railroads for his blacksmithing skills. After saving a thousand dollars, he sent the money and a box of cigars to my great-grandfather and asked for my grandmother’s hand in marriage. She accepted and sailed on the Bremen to New York, and eventually met and married my grandfather in Chicago.

Twentieth Century — Rail and Communications

After they married, they followed my grandfather’s work through the Dakotas and on to Havre, Mont., making steam piping and boilers for train engines. His skill as a blacksmith carried him through to retirement where he had worked in St. Paul, Minn., for American Hoist and Derrick.

I’ve mentioned before that my father worked many jobs, from moving trains around the stockyards to a 42-year career in the U.S. Post Office. As a young girl, my mother worked in a dime store and then had a career as a clerk typist for the state of Minnesota’s Department of Fisheries. My sister, Roberta, got a job during high school at NorthWestern Bell Telephone Company, and I followed her to become a telephone operator during my university years.

Twenty-First Century — Information

Roberta switched jobs and ended up as a postmaster. I retired from telecommunications and continue to work in higher education.

There were students from all over the world in my graduate seminars. The patterns of work were similar, except for those students whose families had their lives disrupted by war and other political unrest. But everyone’s livelihoods followed the technologies of the day.

The things that made us Americans mobile, both socially and economically, were the expansive American horizon and the freedom and ability to pick up and move thanks to our transportation freedom. The energy that fueled our economy and our ability to move around was predominantly based on fossil fuels.

In this era of NBIC (Nanotechnologies, Biotechnologies, Information Technologies and Cognitive Science), many still argue that maintaining the status quo for fossil fuels and the jobs they create is essential and necessary. There is no argument from me, anyway, that as a society we have huge energy appetites and that addressing our energy needs is absolutely essential. But that old “hinge of history” is swinging to an intelligent and wise use of our resources. Coupled with that is the realization that we should not be bound by old business models that both metered and locked all the energy resources and that don’t account for “externalities” — i.e. the damage done to the environment and people along the input-throughput and output process of production. Sunshine and wind are plentiful and nearly universally available as partial resources for energy.

While the U.S. Department of Labor and Bureau of Labor Statistics don’t yet have a code to track renewable energy jobs, they do have a lot of employment industries classified. I thought I’d take a tour around the Bureau of Labor Statistics to see just how many people are actually employed in petroleum refining in the U.S.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is a heady place to plow through, not for the faint of heart — but I found some interesting data that has given me perspective on the refining industry compared to other fields.

The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for all entire Petroleum Refining is 324. U.S. employment for March 2013 is listed at 108,891 (see above). At the same time, my alma mater industry, telecommunications (NAICS 517), shows 850,773 employed (below).

Now, 100,000 employed in any industry is nothing to be sneezed at. But to get a sense of how that number relates to other industries, take a look at Real Estate (NAICS 53) with 1,944,762 and Arts and Leisure (NAICS 71) at 1,871,744, as of March 2013. Even Car Washes (NAICS 811192), with 143,719, employ more than Petroleum Refining.

I still think the admonishment, “Standing on a whale, fishing for minnows,” bears repeating when we consider where the hinge of history is swinging and where the jobs of today and the future reside. Clean technologies and jobs in renewable and clean energy will pave the way forward and merit our investment. Fossil fuels represent a precious and scarce resource. Further, if extracted, refined and used as they are today, they will lead to continued consequences for life on our beautiful spaceship Earth. Moreover, a promise of jobs in petroleum refining is nice, but it isn’t that significant when compared to other industries.

Let’s opt for intelligent use and conservation of our fossil fuel resources — and for a renaissance in design and work in newly emerging and sustainable careers.

Next week, Dr. Jane Goodall!

Learn more

• NAICS codes: bls.gov/iag/tgs/iag_index_naics.htm

• Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages: bls.gov/cew/cewind.htm#year=2013&qtr=1&own=5&ind=811192&size=0

Constance Beutel is a the chair of Benicia’s Community Sustainability Commission. She is a university professor and videographer and holds a doctorate from the University of San Francisco.