The Green New Deal: Simplified (Part 1/2)

The Green New Deal: Simplified (Part 1/2)

What is the Green New Deal?

Recently, we’ve seen a fast-growing concern over climate change and the environment, as well as concern that the human race isn’t doing enough to halt the progression of the carbon emissions that lead to climate change. In response, since the early 2000s, some politicians have been pushing a package of legislation to address climate change and its associated effects called the Green New Deal. 

Who Supports The Green New Deal?

Recent supporters of the Green New Deal include vice presidents Joe Biden and Al Gore, and a growing number of U.S. senators and representatives, most notably Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

Why is the Green New Deal important?

In the face of climate change and an increasingly warming climate that brings more storms, wildfires, mass extinction, and many other social and environmental problems, the Green New Deal resolution strives to provide a framework for the U.S. government to follow to implement changes to our laws and protect our future from a potentially catastrophic future.

Why is it necessary to summarize the Green New Deal?

The Green New Deal has become a very controversial topic among many politicians and has spurred many heated debates. But for as often as the Green New Deal comes up in political discourse, and as often as it becomes a central point of discussion between politicians, I felt that more people might be more interested to know what is actually contained within the text of the Green New Deal itself, written in plain, easy-to-understand English rather than the wordy legalese the original document contains.

My father and I worked together to put together this blog post, in which we have only formatted and made small changes to the wording of the original Green New Deal document to make it more readable. We have also included some images for visual appeal. Most of the text of the resolution has been kept as-is. While we are supportive of most aspects of the Green New Deal, I have decided that we will try to keep this post true to the nature of the original Green New Deal resolution and not include our own opinions or narrative. This post is simply an easy-to-read version of the Green New Deal as it exists as of February 7, 2019.

What is included in the Green New Deal?

Broadly, the Green New Deal can be separated into 7 sections, which we have decided to cover over two posts:

Part 1, The Problem: Climate change and the social problems it causes

• What is the problem and why should we be concerned?
• What are the current social conditions that are being made worse by the changing climate problem?
• How does climate change affect US security interests?
• How can the Federal Government mitigate the negative impacts of the changing climate?

Part 2, The Solutions: The goals and action items of the Green New Deal

• What are the goals of the Green New Deal?
• What specifically can be done to realize those five broad goals?
• How can the Federal Government ensure that everyone can participate in how the goals of the Green New Deal are accomplished?

If you are just interested in reading the full plain-English summary without supporting text or images, I’ve put them in a blog post found here.

So let’s dive into it, with Part 1: The Problem!

Climate Change and the Social Problems It Causes

What is the problem and why should we be concerned?

The October 2018 report entitled ‘‘Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5° C’’ by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the November 2018 Fourth National Climate Assessment report found that—

1. human activity is the dominant cause of observed climate change over the past century;
2. a changing climate is causing sea levels to rise and an increase in wildfires, severe storms, droughts, and other extreme weather events that threaten human life, healthy communities, and critical infrastructure;
3. global warming at or above 2 degrees Celsius beyond preindustrialized levels will cause—
   1. mass migration from the regions most affected by climate change;
   2. more than $500,000,000,000 in lost annual economic output in the United States by the year 2100;
   3. wildfires that, by 2050, will annually burn at least twice as much forest area in the western United States than was typically burned by wildfires in the years preceding 2019;
   4. a loss of more than 99 percent of all coral reefs on Earth;
   5. more than 350,000,000 more people to be exposed globally to deadly heat stress by 2050; and
   6. a risk of damage to $1,000,000,000,000 of public infrastructure and coastal real estate in the United States; and
4. global temperatures must be kept below 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrialized levels to avoid the most severe impacts of a changing climate, which will require—
   1. global reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from human sources of 40 to 60 percent from 2010 levels by 2030; and
   2. net-zero global emissions by 2050.

The United States has historically been responsible for a disproportionate amount of greenhouse gas emissions, having emitted 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions through 2014, and has a high technological capacity, therefore, the United States must take a leading role in reducing emissions through economic transformation.

What are the current social conditions that are being made worse by the changing climate problem?

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The United States is currently experiencing several related crises, with—

1. life expectancy declining while basic needs, such as clean air, clean water, healthy food, and adequate health care, housing, transportation, and education, are inaccessible to a significant portion of the United States population;
2. a 4-decade trend of wage stagnation, deindustrialization, and anti-labor policies that has led to—
   1. hourly wages overall stagnating since the 1970s despite increased worker productivity; 
   2. the third-worst level of socioeconomic mobility in the developed world before the Great Recession;
   3. the erosion of the earning and bargaining power of workers in the United States; and
   4. inadequate resources for public sector workers to confront the challenges of climate change at local, State, and Federal levels; and
3. the greatest income inequality since the 1920s, with—
   1. the top 1 percent of earners accruing 91 percent of gains in the first few years of economic recovery after the Great Recession;
   2. a large racial wealth divide amounting to a difference of 20 times more wealth between the average white family and the average black family; and
   3. a gender earnings gap that results in women earning approximately 80 percent as much as men, at the median.

Climate change, pollution, and environmental destruction have exacerbated systemic racial, regional, social, environmental, and economic injustices by disproportionately affecting indigenous peoples, communities of color, migrant communities, deindustrialized communities, depopulated rural communities, the poor, low-income workers, women, the elderly, the unhoused, people with disabilities, and youth (referred to in this preamble as ‘‘frontline and vulnerable communities’’).

How does climate change affect US security interests?

Climate change constitutes a direct threat to the national security of the United States—

1. by impacting the economic, environmental, and social stability of countries and communities around the world; and
2. by acting as a threat multiplier.

How can the Federal Government mitigate the negative impacts of the changing climate?

The Federal Government-led mobilizations during World War II and the New Deal created the greatest middle class that the United States has ever seen, but many members of frontline and vulnerable communities were excluded from many of the economic and societal benefits of those mobilizations.

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The House of Representatives recognizes that a new national, social, industrial, and economic mobilization on a scale not seen since World War II and the New Deal era is a historic opportunity—

1. to create millions of good, high-wage jobs in the United States;
2. to provide unprecedented levels of prosperity and economic security for all people of the United States; and
3. to counteract systemic injustices.

Part 1, The Problem in Summary

The Green New Deal has outlined the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which determined that a disproportionate amount of greenhouse gases that have been emitted are due to the United States, and that greenhouse gas emissions are, and have been, the major cause of climate change. Also, climate change, pollution, and environmental destruction is responsible for worsening racial, regional, social, environmental, and economic problems. But the Green New Deal also recognizes that, with immediate action, national, social, industrial, and economic mobilization on a massive scale is an opportunity to create millions of jobs, provide economic security, and counteract systemic injustice. The problems are solvable if we act quickly. By acting now on climate change, we can enter into a new age of prosperity and a cleaner, more stable future.

Be sure to check out the solutions the Green New Deal is proposing in…

The Green New Deal: Simplified (Part 2/2)