[NEWS] The Green New Deal

"Even the solutions that we have considered big and bold are nowhere near the scale of the actual problem that climate change presents to us," - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Source: Pete Marovich for The New York Times

Looks like one of the most radical legislative proposal is on its way. Heard of the Green New Deal yet? There are many questions, doubts, and concerns around it. I do too, but here are some facts for now.

What is THE GREEN NEW DEAL? GND is a legislative text proposing to drive sustainable economy throughout the United States. It was introduced by representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey in February and the proposal to vote in Congress may be upcoming, according to the Republic majority leader, Senator Mitch McConnell. However, this is a nonbinding resolution, so it won't turn into a law even if Congress votes to approve.The deal stems from the Green Party of the United States, a grassroots national party. So, here is a brief explanation of the Green New Deal from the organization website.

The Green New Deal will convert the old, gray economy into a new, sustainable economy that is environmentally sound, economically viable and socially responsible. 

The term "Green New Deal" is not new. The efforts to slow the process of climate change were around for years and decades. The actual term also is not so new because in 2007, Thomas Friedman, a columnist at the New York Times, introduced the idea. He wrote,

if you have a windmill in your yard or some solar panels on your roof, bless your heart. But we will only green the world when we change the very nature of the electricity grid - moving it away from dirty coal or oil to clean coal and renewables. And that is a huge industrial project - much bigger than anyone has told you. Finally, like the New Deal, if we undertake the green version, it has the potential to create a whole new clean power industry to spur our economy into the 21st century.

He was proposing the very idea off of THE NEW DEAL, which was a series of financial reforms and regulations enacted by the former President Franklin D. Roosevelt in an effort to recover from the major financial recession in 1930s, known as the Great Depression. The Green New Deal Group has published a report on the deal in 2008, which was further developed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and then the Green Party, mentioned above, adopted it. Now, a few Democratic presidential candidates and supporting the deal and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is on the frontline of it all. 

So who is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? Also known as, AOC. She is a 29-year-old newly-elected democratic party representative for New York's 14th congressional district in Bronx, New York. Yes, she is 29 years old and is the youngest woman ever to serve in the United States Congress. Yes, she is a woman and no, she is not white. She was born and raised in Bronx under working class Puerto Rican parents. Although people seem to obsess over the fact that she had a job as a bartender and waitress (and a house cleaner, school-bus driver, etc.) she also worked as an organizer in Bernie Sander's 2016 presidential campaign. She is becoming a symbolic liberal democratic socialist in Washington D.C. and her push for the Green New Deal seems fitting. 

Back to the GND, is it strictly an environmental policy? Yes and no. Yes, because the prioritized goal of the resolution is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to prevent the worst scenarios of climate change. No, because the deal calls for more than environmental impacts. The deal proposes to fix economic inequality and racial injustice, create more jobs across the country, etc. It is a lot.   

What are the specific goals laid out in the GND?  Well, "specific" is a tricky word here. The resolution written by AOC office lays out the goals with numbers that are either ZERO or 100%. Take a look:

- meeting 100 percent of the power demand in the United States through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources.

- upgrading all existing buildings in the United States and building new buildings to achieve maximum energy efficiency.

- Working collaboratively with farmers and ranchers in the United States to remove pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector.

- Overhauling transportation systems in the United States to remove pollution and greenhouse gas emissions... through investment in zero-emission vehicle infrastructure.  

Isn't it too ambitious..? It does seem ambitious and even unrealistic to be honest. I mean, the entire world needs to get to net-zero emissions by 2050 and as a leading nation of the movement, the United States need to reduce carbon emissions largely by 2030. Not only is the deal calling for several infrastructural changes, but also is it asking to develop these "through transparent and inclusive consultation, collaboration, and partnership with frontline and vulnerable communities, labor unions, worker cooperatives, civil society groups, academia, and businesses." This sounds unlikely even if we weren't living in the world with the White House occupied by Donald Trump. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House speaker also called the proposal a "green dream."

What is Donald Trump's reaction to this?  President Trump described the deal as a "high school term paper that got a low mark." Such remark was also analyzed as a criticism against AOC, a newly elected freshman representative who is way too ambitious and perhaps, doesn't know how Washington operates. Then it seems like GND is receiving no attention because February was full of agenda including Trump's trip to Vietnam to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Michael Cohen's testimony. 

So, is GND never going to happen?  Never say never! At the end of the day, the proposal comes from a set of legitimate concerns and realistic challenges of climate change. It recognizes that a changing climate has caused sea level rise, an increase in wildfires, as we have seen in California last fall, and other extreme weather events (for example, it snowed in Las Vegas two weeks ago).

These far-fetched goals and the push for those goals are exciting. If there is a group of extremes who definitely won't fight for climate change, stick to coal-industries, ignore climate reports laying out threatening challenges in entirety, there must also exist a group that pushes for the extremes on the other side. The United States government, and no government on earth, can achieve all the GND goals, as written. But do not be discouraged and let the proposal sit amongst all other potential legislative acts. Some Democratic presidential candidates, including Kamala Harris, are supporters of the GND. That in and of itself add values to the preventative measures and infrastructural improvements the United States and the world need.