Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has become the lightning rod of conservative talk shows after introducing a Green New Deal resolution to Congress. The concept is not new. Thomas Freidman coined the idea of a Green New Deal in his book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded in 2007 and British economist Richard Murphy founded the Green New Deal Group the same year. Yet, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s resolution has been met with overwhelming skepticism and mockery from the right.
The Green New Deal that Ocasio-Cortez has submitted to Congress can be download on this link and recommends action in three basic areas:
- The plan must decarbonize the economy. The young people who will have to live with the effects of climate change want a plan that begins with what is necessary rather than what is deemed politically possible.
- The plan must include a jobs guarantee by the federal government and large-scale public investments. Again, the GND is not just climate policy. It’s about transforming the economy, lifting the up the poor and middle class, and creating a more muscular, active public sector.
- The plan must make sure it includes protections for those hardest hit by historical discrimination and those set to suffer most from the effects of climate change — in Ocasio-Cortez’s document, “low-income communities, communities of color, indigenous communities, [and] the front-line communities most affected by climate change, pollution, and other environmental harm.”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez admits the plan is ambitious as it includes a 10-year commitment to convert “100 percent of the power demand in the United States” to “clean, renewable and zero-emission energy sources,” to upgrade “all existing buildings” to meet energy efficiency requirements, and to expand high-speed rail so broadly that most air travel would be rendered obsolete. “We do not have a choice,” says Ocasio-Cortez. “We have to get to one hundred percent renewable energy in ten years. There is no other option.“
The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication sent out a survey to 966 registered voters between Nov. 28 and Dec. 11, 2018, and 81% of voters support a Green New Deal. “Given that most Americans have strong support for the components and ideas of the Green New Deal, it becomes a communication strategy problem,” says Abel Gustafson, who co-authored the survey findings. “From here, it’s about how you can pitch it so you can maintain that bipartisan support throughout the rest of the process.“
81% OF VOTERS SUPPORT A GREEN NEW DEAL
Addressing the issue of climate change is being championed by a fifteen year old Swedish climate activist, Greta Thunberg who addressed delegates at the UN sponsored COP24.
click on the video below to view Greta Thunberg’s speech