Time for the Green New Deal
I often have conversations with twenty-somethings, trying to convince them they should be involved in politics. They have an interesting perspective: rather than a broad and perhaps shallow world understanding from the newspaper and nightly news my “boomer” generation grew up with; they have a “well field” view. They get most of their information from streaming and the internet, so they have in-depth understandings of very specific subjects, without necessarily having a broad overview. It’s not wrong, it’s just a different way of seeing the world.
Besides the generalization on my generation, “…things will be better when the old white dudes finally die off…” there is also the specific accusation: “what have you done to our world?” They aren’t wrong there either. Any “shallow” research into what is happening to our environment shows that we are at the end: the end of the opportunity to “fix” the damage we have caused. The twenty-somethings can quote specifics: rising temperatures, changing zones, and catastrophic events.
Fixing the environment has always been something in the future for my “boomers,” some other generation would have to “pay the piper” for the damage done. Meanwhile, we accepted the benefits of that damage, the wealth created at the cost of dumping our unadulterated wastes into the atmosphere, the ocean, and the soil. It’s what our fathers did, and what we continued to do. We have benefited, and so have the twenty-somethings that I talk to.
“Planet has only until 2030 to stem catastrophic climate change, experts warn.”
This is not the scare preview on some black and white 1950’s science fiction movie. This is a CNNheadline from last October. The future is here.
To the twenty-somethings, denying climate change is simply saying: “we will continue to take advantage of you, getting whatever we want, and screwing your future in the process.” To them, climate denial isn’t seen as a legitimate position, but rather a form of armed robbery, using the power of government instead of a gun, and stealing the future.
So when the new young Democrats in the House of Representatives introduced House Resolution 109, “The Green New Deal,” it didn’t surprise the twenty-somethings that it was ridiculed from the start. Wyoming’s Senator John Barrassotold them from the floor of the Senate, “…There’s another victim of the Green New Deal, it’s ice cream! … American favorites like cheeseburgers and milkshake[s] would become a thing of the past.”
His compatriot in the House, Congresswoman Liz Cheneyhad this to say:
“I would just say that it’s going to be crucially important for us to recognize and understand when we outlaw plane travel, we outlaw gasoline, we outlaw cars…”
So, according to the representatives from Wyoming (oil and cattle) the Green New Deal will outlaw cattle farming and therefore dairy and meat, and using fossil fuels and therefore planes and automobiles. Of course, that’s not what the Green New Deal does say, and twenty-somethings see the older generation with the same gun in their hand.
The Green New Deal is a resolution, not a law. It is a “sense of the Congress” that there is a need to recognize that global warming is occurring, that it is caused by human activity; that we broke it, we bought it, and we need to fix it. It puts Congress, the nation, and the world on notice that we cannot do this incrementally; that we must make major and dramatic changes to avoid catastrophe.
But the Green New Deal also shows a way to make those changes while increasing employment, and improving healthcare. It recognizes trade-offs, accepting cattle methane production (that’s really cattle farts) by reducing coal fired power plants. It calls on the United States to maintain its standard of living, but make the changes necessary to maintain our world as well.
As always, the “devil is in the details.” The Green New Deal is an aspirational plan, not a specific legislation. But it puts on record the needs of the twenty-somethings, the future generation. It has to happen, and if it happens now we can avoid the great damage that awaits our world. The clock is running: ten years to create the fix.
But if it doesn’t happen now, it will someday. It is inevitatble: the current old white dudes will die off, and the twenty-somethings will take over.
