Getting smarter all the time?

The Flynn effect is supposedly real  It says we are getting smarter.  Steven Pinker credits it with some of the decline in violence and nastiness that he documents.

But here is the Ngram for the use of the expression "green jobs".  The use of that phrase has been taking off in recent years.  Here Mark Perry shows that job growth has been via traditional energy in North Dakota but anemic in green energy in California.

I suspect that while many Californians congratulate themselves on their high-mindedness, North Dakotans congratulate themselves on a low unemployment rate.  Perhaps feeling good about oneself comes first in some quarters.