The Green New Deal is an emerging idea that is gaining momentum because it gives us a vision of a better future and a way forward that includes everyone.
Imagine living in the United States of America where clean air, clean water, healthy food, a safe place to study, work, and live, and an opportunity to thrive is available and accessible to everyone.
Even though the framers of the U.S. Constitution were not a diverse bunch (being all white men), I still think they envisioned the America that I described above and said so in the preamble to the Constitution using late 18th-century language.
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Everyone needs a habitable planet to live on but the U.S. federal government is actively making climate change worse by ramping up fossil fuel development, dismantling protections for people and the environment, and denying that there is a problem.
Apparently, many of our elected officials have forgotten whom they work for or just do not care. We the people need to take back our power and demand that they either step to the plate or take a hike (we made progress during the last election).
The Green New Deal could be the rallying cry we so desperately need to unite us and mobilize our country to do the work necessary to keep Earth habitable for everyone.
So, what is the Green New Deal? After a quick refresher of the 1930s New Deal that inspired the Green New Deal, we will take a look the green version.
1930s New Deal
The stock market crash of 1929 led to the Great Depression that was well underway in 1932 when Franklin D. Roosevelt accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for president and declared,
“I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people.”
By the time he took office on March 4, 1933, the banking system had collapsed, unemployment was at almost 25%, and millions of people had lost their homes and farms.
As he had promised the American people, President Roosevelt immediately set about making the New Deal a reality.
From 1933 to 1936, millions of federally funded jobs put people back to work on projects as diverse as planting trees to building bridges to painting murals, new federal agencies formed, and Congress enacted legislation reforming the banking industry and stock market, strengthening protections for workers, and setting up the social security system.
A lot has changed in the United States since the New Deal ended some eighty or so years ago. The Green New Deal is for the country we are today.
2020s Green New Deal
Ideas for a Green New Deal have been swirling around for well over a decade but had not gained much traction, until just after the November 2018 elections.
On November 13, 2018, young activists wearing black Sunrise Movement t-shirts and holding yellow signs saying “Green Jobs for All” and “What is Your Plan?” occupied soon to be Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s office. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a newly elected congresswoman from New York stopped by to add her support for a Green New Deal.
The Sunrise Movement’s message is simple, audacious, and inclusive.
“We’re fighting for a just transition to 100% renewable energy within 12 years—the time frame set by the world’s leading climate scientists.”
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and other representatives supported the formation of a House Select Committee for a Green New Deal with the authority to develop a detailed national Green New Deal plan and draft legislation in 2 years or less, with implementation taking place the following 10 years (currently there is no plan to do anything).
Major goals of the Plan include:
- Transitioning to 100% renewable energy
- Building a national smart electricity grid
- Making all buildings energy efficient, comfortable, and safe
- Eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing, agriculture, and other industries
- Upgrading water infrastructure to ensure everyone has access to clean water
- Investing in drawing down greenhouse gases
- Making “green” a major U.S. export and helping other countries bring about a global Green New Deal
- Guaranteeing a living wage job to every person who wants one
- Helping people transition from fossil fuel energy jobs
- Providing a just transition for all workers and people living in disadvantaged communities
Speaker of the House Pelosi, who has the power to establish committees and appoint representatives to committees, nixed the idea.
Instead, she decided to resurrect the Select Committee on Energy Independence & Global Warming (2007-2010) renaming it the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis and appointing Rep. Kathy Castor of Florida to chair it. This committee will not be working on a plan for a Green New Deal.
The thing is the proverbial genie is out of the bottle. The Green New Deal idea is garnering increasing media attention and gaining proponents in the House of Representatives. Even a few 2020 presidential hopefuls are talking about it.
“Green is the new red, white and blue.” – Thomas L. Friedman
What Can You Do?
- Learn more about the Green New Deal. Of course, you can read whatever you want; however, on your behalf, I have slogged through dozens of articles and selected several that I think will give you a good grasp of the topic and will point you to other articles and resources.
- Talk about the Green New Deal with your family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and community leaders.
- Tell your elected officials that you want them to support the Green New Deal and share with them what is important to you.
- Join an organization that is mobilizing to support the Green New Deal.
- Participate in a Green New Deal protest march, sit-in, or rally (please refrain from hopping on an airplane to do so).
I am in. Are you in?
Featured Image at Top: Piece of paper in a typewriter with the words “If not now, when?” – Photo Credit iStock/IvelinRadkov
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- Find it in the Federal Register – Government Transparency
- Gasland – The Movies
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- Make Your Voice Heard on Regulations.gov
- Rise for Climate Wherever You Are on September 8, 2018
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- The Green Collar Economy – Book Review
- Voting is an Environmental Act
Resources
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: The Rookie Congresswoman Challenging The Democratic Establishment – Interview by Anderson Cooper, CBS 60 Minutes, 01/06/19
- House Dems formalize climate committee plans without Green New Deal language – by Timothy Cama, The Hill, 01/02/19
- Ocasio-Cortez understands the promise of a ‘Green New Deal’ – by Michelle Romero and Van Jones, CNN, 12/11/18
- The Game-Changing Promise of a Green New Deal – by Naomi Klein, The Intercept, 11/27/18
- The Green New Deal, explained – by David Roberts, Vox, 01/07/19
- The Green New Deal has Strong Bipartisan Support – by By Abel Gustafson, Seth Rosenthal, Anthony Leiserowitz, Edward Maibach, John Kotcher, Matthew Ballew, and Matthew Goldberg, Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, 12/14/18
- The Green New Deal Rises Again – by Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times, 01/08/19
- What They’re Saying About The Green New Deal: O’Rourke, Warren, Waxman – by Carolyn Fortuna, Clean Technica, 01/09/19
