What is the Green New Deal?
June 16, 2019
Or, similar question, “Why is the Green New deal?”
Answer is that, there is no legislation yet. Turns out this kind of massive program is really, really, really hard to put together.
To do it, we’re going to have to do a whole lot more than tweet-shame Nancy Pelosi – we, all of us, are going to have to get involved with the process and push from the grass-roots – because the alternative is simply too grim to consider.
The insights I got from Rob Meyer in December are still cogent.
Climate Denial Crock of the Week 
June 16, 2019 at 11:00 am
Meanwhile on planet earth here, UNLESS YOU ARE DOING YOUR PART RIGHT NOW DON’T EXPECT ANYTHING TO CHANGE! Yes that means YOU. Waiting around for business to do anything, not gonna happen. Waiting for the government to do anything, wont happen till we get rid of stinking republicans. We are close to a terminal crisis that no deal and no technology will fix. DO YOUR PART YESTERDAY AND TODAY!
June 16, 2019 at 1:28 pm
‘… there is no legislation yet.’
That’s actually incorrect. There’s the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividends Act H.R. 763, introduced in the House by Ted Deutch, Francis Rooney and others in January.
While this bill does not answer all the objectives in the GND resolution, it does represent major legislation addressing climate change. It would reduce CO2 emissions by 40% over the first 12 years, a major step towards achieving the climate objectives of the Green New Deal. Currently there are 47 co-sponsors. Many of them are also co-sponsors of the Green New Deal.
http://www.energyinnovationact.org
June 16, 2019 at 4:26 pm
From “The Atlantic”
So for now, New Consensus is confident in its deliberate pace. “We’ve spent our time organizing and planning our approach,” Drummer told me. “The Green New Deal is an enormous proposal of epic scale. We are new to the space, and we’re well aware of that, and we’re building an army of expertise,” he said. “We could rush this and do it poorly, or we can be intentional.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/06/whats-green-new-deal-nobody-knows/591391/
June 16, 2019 at 6:13 pm
Whatever finally is output from this massive program – will the people be able to objectively comprehend the thrust and urgency. ? I hope do.
“Successful democracies rely on a majority of voters being able to identify and understand risks, and make the appropriate voting choices.”
http://theconversation.com/we-asked-people-to-do-climate-change-maths-their-answers-depended-on-their-politics-117503
June 17, 2019 at 11:08 am
On the Robinson Meyer video, here are a number of thoughts:
Somehow the New Deal passed during a depression, not just a recession, and it included things like a wealth tax. Also, the Green New Deal actually says nothing about a carbon tax.
The failure of the Obama and Clinton administrations on climate change was that nothing followed the legislative failures in the trifecta window. Cap and trade failed – but there were a lot of other things that might have passed that weren’t tried in that time frame. Obama basically waited until his second term to enact executive branch only policies and decrees that have been easily overturned by Trump.
The thing about the GND, or some legislation like it, is that it will require massive public support, and we don’t have that yet. There’s a big difference between believing in climate change and being willing to make massive changes to the economy to help fight it. There’s the real possibility that a major economic downturn, especially one that can be pinned to the door of the Republicans, will actually be a requirement to passing significant reforms. I’m skeptical that it’s just coincidence that the strongest hands for Democrats have been at the exact moments when Republican policies have failed miserably (Coolidge and Hoover, Nixon and Ford, Reagan and Bush I, and Bush II).
Warren’s messaging on climate change is very much help people first, then that helps climate change. The Warren video linked to here previously pretty clearly shows that:
I like the messaging there, but she will need a trifecta to pass it.
On the GND itself, I’m not sure how that could have been written to be any more concerned for the American people as much as climate change. That seems an unfair characterization of it by Meyer.
June 17, 2019 at 2:14 pm
“There’s the real possibility that a major economic downturn, especially one that can be pinned to the door of the Republicans, will actually be a requirement to passing significant reforms”.
Yep, except that I would say it’s a requirement—-NOTHING much is going to happen until the SHTF with both the economy AND the state of the planet—too many of us are simply too comfortable and not paying attention. Here’s another “tell it like it is” piece—well written.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/6/15/1865010/-Climate-crisis-could-bring-the-end-of-human-civilization-by-2050-and-that-s-just-the-start?detail=emaildkre
June 17, 2019 at 2:18 pm
A little AWK there—meant to say that it’s not a “possibility” that a downturn will be required to get things moving, but likely to be a real precondition—-no gain until there’s real pain.