The Way Forward

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Abstract

sents a direct threat to national security while reversing these very trends that are at the heart of the deterioration so many in this country are seeing, feeling and experiencing. It’s more about job creation, health and safety, and American leadership than anything.</p><p id="1f62">Those who have read the Green New Deal know that not a single policy proposal is outlined in the document. You can <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-resolution/109/text">read it</a> for yourself, it’s not very long. And it is written, precisely, as a vision statement — an organizing document intended to align values and priorities. Which also means it’s a lot easier to read than most things Congress writes. The point is that what it attempts to do is orient us toward success. Because whatever we identify as true north on our national compass — be it success, equality, growth or just survival — the one thing that’s clear is that, in so many ways, we’re currently headed south.</p><h2 id="79d5">Our Road Map to the Future</h2><p id="2f72">If we re-orient, if we can agree on what our true north is then we can see the Green New Deal for what it is: a map. It is not the destination, it’s not even dictating how we make that journey. It’s laying out the map and saying this is the area we need to traverse to arrive at the better tomorrow we seek.</p><p id="0096">The Green New Deal still leaves it up to us to figure out how we make our journey. It lays out the important mile markers and way stations, but the methods we use to arrive at those stations are for us to decide. We know we need to decarbonize, we know we need to make massive changes to our culture of waste and disposability (both top-down and bottom-up changes). We know we need to encourage and support innovation in everything from reusability to infrastructure and energy storage to waste output. All this little document does is list these needs out.</p><p id="107d">The smart politician sees that and jumps on board, figuring out how their communities can be a part of, and benefit from, the solution. Ditto the smart companies. Bottom-line thinking, the kind that opposed it in a knee-jerk reaction, is short-sightedness in action. But using this as a guide would allow a company to figure out how to transition quickly with minimal impact to that bottom line and maximum impact on long-term success and relevance. We’re seeing more and more companies (and conservative politicians, for that matter) come around every day. However, we still see far too many fighting it, attempting to put out disinformation and scare people about what it isn’t.</p><p id="be9c">Change is as much a part of the evolutionary life cycle of societies as it is to our individual lives. I understand that no one is immune to fearing change, or at least being wary of it. But the more we understand about the problems we’ve created, the more we understand change is both inevitable and necessary. The inevitability of it is that, whether we like it or not, change is coming (and is, in fact, already here). We can’t control that. What kind of change we experience, however, is something we still have a say in. That change can either positively or negatively impact our lives and communities. The choice is ours.</p><p id="b20e">But right now many of us are refusing to acknowledge the change that’s coming. Afraid, perhaps, of the challenges it will bring. But challenge is a good thing. It’s what makes us stronger. Athletes only get better when they push themselves. Students only excel

Options

and grow when they encounter new material that forces them to think in different ways. Yet now, here we are, faced with the greatest challenge of our lives and what do we do? We protest needing to change rather than figuring out how to make the change positive and how to make our world better. Part of that, we can say, is the fault of those saying the challenge doesn’t actually exist. And part of that, is the fault of those acknowledging but improperly framing the challenge. After all, it’s hard to devote attention to saving polar bears when you’re trying to save your own job. Ironically, that’s precisely where the Green New Deal comes in.</p><h2 id="599e">Moving Forward Together</h2><p id="082e">One thing we are all united on is protecting and improving our way of life. So what would happen if we decided to embrace this Green New Deal road map and together started plotting our journey toward the destination of better opportunities and improved quality of life for all? What would that look like?</p><p id="40b2">It would look like more jobs in emerging industries, and training for those jobs. It would look like improving an energy infrastructure that hasn’t substantively changed in a century. Which would mean much lower energy bills, and operating our grid in a way that was smarter and made sure we’re not using less energy but are able to share more with those who need it when they need it. It would mean improved management of our wild areas to make sure our ecosystems (and all life within them) are thriving and lowering our risk for wildfires and the effects of invasive species. It would mean cleaner air, especially in urban areas where respiratory issues like <a href="https://thorax.bmj.com/content/74/11/1020">asthma</a> are more prevalent. It would mean building smarter structures that better integrate in, and give back to, the natural world around them. Building industries around sustainability that create lasting jobs, and establish our country as a leader in these industries. The list goes on but you get the idea.</p><p id="9c06">Now, I don’t want to make this seem like a silver bullet, it’s not. But one thing I try to stress again and again in my writing is the interconnectedness of all things. A band-aid only helps a cut if your blood will clot on its own, and it doesn’t mean it’ll keep you healthy if you already have an infection. In other words, we can’t treat one problem while ignoring all the other problems it creates. But if we create a cohesive, holistic plan to tackle the issue then not only are we truly tackling the climate crisis, but we’re making life better for every American.</p><p id="f091">We have a new administration coming in, and whoever you voted for, they acknowledge this problem and have a proposal for tackling it. One that uses, as its road map, the Green New Deal. The best thing we can all do now is learn what is in that proposal, figure out where it aligns with the problems and opportunities of our communities and then work to bring those things to life. And if there are things missing? Things that would help? Then it’s our duty to raise awareness and bring attention to those needs. The climate crisis is real and it’s accelerating, but we have a chance to make substantive, positive change that helps the planet, improves our society and returns the possibility of economic mobility and physical health to many who have long struggled. And it can also be a model for other nations to follow. All we need to do is rise up and accept the challenge.</p></article></body>

How (and why) treating the Green New Deal as a boogeyman only ensures we all lose.

If you’re like most Americans you haven’t read the Green New Deal. You’ve heard the debate around it, the posturing and the grandstanding. If you’ve a strong political leaning, then you’re favoring whatever the politicians you align with are saying. At the very least, you’ve taken in sound bites about it from news programs. In short, we’re treating it like we do all things politics — with as much attention as we absolutely must give it, and not one brain cell more.

I have read it, but I don’t blame you if you haven’t. Politics is not my thing. I am progressive, but independent. The topic, however, that draws most of my passion is the environment. Which means that, by default, I align with the left because they’re the only side that acknowledges the crisis.

And that’s the core of our problem. Could the Wright brothers ever have unlocked the mystery of flight if Orville didn’t believe in gravity? We’d still be on the ground.

All of this is to say that when we hear those on the right talk about the Green New Deal they’re using it only as a boogeyman to scare people. That’s all they can do with it because they refuse to see the reality that necessitates it. And this isn’t just conjecture, in polls taken of Republican voters in December of 2018 (before the text entered the national spotlight), 64% supported the jobs and policy initiatives outlined in the Green New Deal. Between then and April the plan became a central figure in news media, blasted on right-wing platforms that usually didn’t even address the text of the deal. Often villainizing it, without substantiation, as a Trojan horse to usher in socialism, calling it a mess and liberalism run amok. Another poll for the same study found that support among conservatives had dropped from 64% in December to 22% in April.

I’ve talked before about how things didn’t use to be this way. How a Republican president, Nixon, remains to this day arguably the most progressive champion for climate change we’ve had in the oval office. How Newt Gingrich once called for bipartisanship on the issue. And how McCain’s 2008 platform had a plan to tackle the crisis. But that all feels like a lifetime ago.

As for what the Green New Deal promises? Well, nothing actually. It lays out a vision. It starts with statistics, the facts of the climate crisis: the death of coral reefs, which support the majority of marine life; the mass migration of people that will happen (and is already happening) as a result of the change in climate; the amount of damage done by increasing wildfires, etc. Next it lists the trends in our country over the last few decades: declining life expectancy, wage stagnation, loss of jobs, and widening income inequality. It then lays out a vision for battling a crisis that represents a direct threat to national security while reversing these very trends that are at the heart of the deterioration so many in this country are seeing, feeling and experiencing. It’s more about job creation, health and safety, and American leadership than anything.

Those who have read the Green New Deal know that not a single policy proposal is outlined in the document. You can read it for yourself, it’s not very long. And it is written, precisely, as a vision statement — an organizing document intended to align values and priorities. Which also means it’s a lot easier to read than most things Congress writes. The point is that what it attempts to do is orient us toward success. Because whatever we identify as true north on our national compass — be it success, equality, growth or just survival — the one thing that’s clear is that, in so many ways, we’re currently headed south.

Our Road Map to the Future

If we re-orient, if we can agree on what our true north is then we can see the Green New Deal for what it is: a map. It is not the destination, it’s not even dictating how we make that journey. It’s laying out the map and saying this is the area we need to traverse to arrive at the better tomorrow we seek.

The Green New Deal still leaves it up to us to figure out how we make our journey. It lays out the important mile markers and way stations, but the methods we use to arrive at those stations are for us to decide. We know we need to decarbonize, we know we need to make massive changes to our culture of waste and disposability (both top-down and bottom-up changes). We know we need to encourage and support innovation in everything from reusability to infrastructure and energy storage to waste output. All this little document does is list these needs out.

The smart politician sees that and jumps on board, figuring out how their communities can be a part of, and benefit from, the solution. Ditto the smart companies. Bottom-line thinking, the kind that opposed it in a knee-jerk reaction, is short-sightedness in action. But using this as a guide would allow a company to figure out how to transition quickly with minimal impact to that bottom line and maximum impact on long-term success and relevance. We’re seeing more and more companies (and conservative politicians, for that matter) come around every day. However, we still see far too many fighting it, attempting to put out disinformation and scare people about what it isn’t.

Change is as much a part of the evolutionary life cycle of societies as it is to our individual lives. I understand that no one is immune to fearing change, or at least being wary of it. But the more we understand about the problems we’ve created, the more we understand change is both inevitable and necessary. The inevitability of it is that, whether we like it or not, change is coming (and is, in fact, already here). We can’t control that. What kind of change we experience, however, is something we still have a say in. That change can either positively or negatively impact our lives and communities. The choice is ours.

But right now many of us are refusing to acknowledge the change that’s coming. Afraid, perhaps, of the challenges it will bring. But challenge is a good thing. It’s what makes us stronger. Athletes only get better when they push themselves. Students only excel and grow when they encounter new material that forces them to think in different ways. Yet now, here we are, faced with the greatest challenge of our lives and what do we do? We protest needing to change rather than figuring out how to make the change positive and how to make our world better. Part of that, we can say, is the fault of those saying the challenge doesn’t actually exist. And part of that, is the fault of those acknowledging but improperly framing the challenge. After all, it’s hard to devote attention to saving polar bears when you’re trying to save your own job. Ironically, that’s precisely where the Green New Deal comes in.

Moving Forward Together

One thing we are all united on is protecting and improving our way of life. So what would happen if we decided to embrace this Green New Deal road map and together started plotting our journey toward the destination of better opportunities and improved quality of life for all? What would that look like?

It would look like more jobs in emerging industries, and training for those jobs. It would look like improving an energy infrastructure that hasn’t substantively changed in a century. Which would mean much lower energy bills, and operating our grid in a way that was smarter and made sure we’re not using less energy but are able to share more with those who need it when they need it. It would mean improved management of our wild areas to make sure our ecosystems (and all life within them) are thriving and lowering our risk for wildfires and the effects of invasive species. It would mean cleaner air, especially in urban areas where respiratory issues like asthma are more prevalent. It would mean building smarter structures that better integrate in, and give back to, the natural world around them. Building industries around sustainability that create lasting jobs, and establish our country as a leader in these industries. The list goes on but you get the idea.

Now, I don’t want to make this seem like a silver bullet, it’s not. But one thing I try to stress again and again in my writing is the interconnectedness of all things. A band-aid only helps a cut if your blood will clot on its own, and it doesn’t mean it’ll keep you healthy if you already have an infection. In other words, we can’t treat one problem while ignoring all the other problems it creates. But if we create a cohesive, holistic plan to tackle the issue then not only are we truly tackling the climate crisis, but we’re making life better for every American.

We have a new administration coming in, and whoever you voted for, they acknowledge this problem and have a proposal for tackling it. One that uses, as its road map, the Green New Deal. The best thing we can all do now is learn what is in that proposal, figure out where it aligns with the problems and opportunities of our communities and then work to bring those things to life. And if there are things missing? Things that would help? Then it’s our duty to raise awareness and bring attention to those needs. The climate crisis is real and it’s accelerating, but we have a chance to make substantive, positive change that helps the planet, improves our society and returns the possibility of economic mobility and physical health to many who have long struggled. And it can also be a model for other nations to follow. All we need to do is rise up and accept the challenge.