By Nick Rascona
The Green New Deal (H.Res.109) is a necessary complete overhaul of the way we operate as a nation and ultimately the entire world. Debunking conspiracy theories regarding this has become more of a task than writing the bill itself. The Green New Deal addresses fatal flaws in all industries that cause climate change.
The myth that America can’t afford a Green New Deal disregards a larger truth; that the cost of continuing down this path in the current climate crisis will be much worse and larger than any investment we make now. We can not afford to continue to ignore this.
The Green New Deal involves:
- Committee on Energy and Commerce
- The Committees on Science
- Space and Technology
- Education and Labor
- Transportation and Infrastructure
- Agriculture
- Natural Resources
- Foreign Affairs
- Financial Services
- The Judiciary
- Ways and Means
- Oversight and Reform
Personally witnessing Los Angeles and Atlanta before and after quarantine provided perspective on a number of matters such as evidence of human activity being the “dominant cause of observed climate change over the past century” (H.Res.109). No one can deny in these two cities, the fact that it is cooler outside than ever remembered in recent years. The absence of the scorching heat of Atlanta and the hot Santa Ana winds of California is alarming. Why does it seem like its cooler than usual everywhere? This was what people were saying a few months ago. Now, fast forward to July 2021 and we have the hottest temperatures to date in history happening in the Las Vegas Desert as well as other places.
The Green New Deal is not only possible, it’s actually practical. In its pure form the GND is a transformational national project with the task aimed at the following:
- A rapid transition to a forward looking society of broad opportunity.
- Equal justice
- Productive Prosperity
- Environmental Sustainability
- Combating Environmental racism: Environmental racism for example, manifests in systemic red lining of minorities into pollution zones where factories dump toxic waste.
- Unionized labor with gainful wage
- Environmental Classism
Popular Myths about the Green New Deal
First and foremost these myths are pumped out by the status quo in the GOP; Big Oil, Big Tobacco, Big Pharma, and the Global Banking system.
- “The Green New Deal will cost 200 Trillion Dollars”
- INCORRECT, the Green New Deal will cost roughly 15-20 trillion dollars over the course of 20 years. Amounting to a drop in the bucket of the annual gross domestic product.
- “The GND will be a waste of money and will bankrupt our country”
- INCORRECT. The Green New Deal will act as an investment, not a liability. It will be a system of investing in our infrastructure, creating new jobs, businesses, and inventions. Any pre-existing businesses who do not meet the guidelines of the GND will be given ample time to become GND compliant. The GND is not aimed at eradicating any industry. Just modifying it to combat global warming and climate changed caused by human influence. The projects put in place will in fact pay for themselves and free up more economy.
- “GND is going to take away my steak”
- INCORRECT. The Green New Deal is aware of the carbon footprint cattle farms causes and would be part of the overhaul of new technologies.
- “It will take away planes and cars”
- INCORRECT. The Green New Deal will invest in a carbon-neutral transportation system and invest in improvements that help us in the present and the future. A carbon-neutral system that improves all of our lives. For example, a high speed rail from New York City to Boston that will make short trips between those 2 major cities easier.
- “The GND is going to take away oil”
- INCORRECT. The GND will take away the laws protecting power plants that operate on fracked oil with low wages. It will tackle the overuse of oil as our main fuel source. Its goal is to achieve a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in 10 years. “Net-zero” means: after counting all the greenhouse gases that are released and subtracting those that are removed, there is no net addition to the atmosphere. This is not the same as calling for no greenhouse emissions.
Statistics and projections that point to the need of Green New Deal
If we don’t act NOW these are the following projections:
- Global warming at or above 2 degrees Celsius beyond pre-industrialized levels will cause wildfires that, by 2050, will annually burn at least twice as much forest area in the western United States than was typically burned by wildfires in the years preceding 2019.
- A loss of more than 99 percent of all coral reefs on Earth.
- More than 350,000,000 more people to be exposed globally to deadly heat stress by 2050.
- A risk of damage to $1,000,000,000,000 of public infrastructure and coastal real estate in the United States.
- Mass migration from the regions most affected by climate change.
- More than $500,000,000,000 in lost annual economic output in the United States by the year 2100.
The Green New Deal is in the same school of thought of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. It’s a complete systemic overhaul to tackle real issues our nation must solve. The same sense of urgency is in this, just like the New Deal was a vehicle to get out of the Great Depression. We must now tackle the serious environmental death sentence we have bestowed upon ourselves. It will transform the economy, the environment to succeed in manifesting sustainability, equity, freedom from the status quo, and happiness.
