Green New Deal

Over 70,000 March In Brussels To Demand Green New Deal

October 11, 2021 Common Dreams. Resist! Brussels, climate crisis, COP26, Green New Deal

With U.N. climate conference (COP26) set for next month in Glasgow, the estimated 70,000 or more people who took part in the march offered a dramatic show of force for the nation's climate movement. Zanna Vanrenterghem of Greenpeace Belgium told The Brussels Times on Sunday that her government's climate pledges so far "are not ambitious enough," but that words are no longer enough. "It is one thing to talk about climate," she said, "and another to take concrete action.” Ahead of the march, Vanrenterghem said the message from the Klimaatcoalitie (Climate Coalition), which she co-chairs and that organized the march, was a simple one: "We demand ambitious, solidarity-based and coherent measures. We need a Belgian Green New Deal and we propose more than 100 concrete solutions to make it happen.”

Decolonise The Green New Deal

September 6, 2021 Renata Ávila And Andrés Arauz, Progressive International. Educate! Capitalism, climate crisis, Environment, Green New Deal

The median person in the US consumes 44 million calories per day. The human body requires intake of 2 thousand calories per day. Exo-somatic consumption of energy – for non-metabolic purposes, such as transport or appliances – of the average citizen of the North is several hundred times larger than that of a poor citizen of the South. But even endosomatic consumption of energy – bodily calorie intake – is substantially less in the South. Hunger and undernourishment are still a reality for one-seventh of the planet’s human population. But working households in the North are not to blame for these differences; bio-ignorant capitalism is to blame. And these households are suffering its effects, too.

Global Alliance For A Green New Deal

July 23, 2021 Pascale Hunt, 350.org. Organize! Climate Change, Green New Deal

As the impacts of climate change and Covid-19 compound, politicians from around the world on Monday July 19th launched the new Global Alliance for a Green New Deal (GGND). Founded by Rep. Ilhan Omar of the United States, Dep. Joenia Wapichana of Brazil, and Manon Aubry of France among others, the Alliance aims to advance global momentum for collaborative and transformational social, economic and environmental policy.

Only Anti-Imperialism Can Save Us From Climate Catastrophe

July 1, 2021 Rania Khalek and Max Ajl, BreakThrough News. Resistance Report Anti-Imperialism, climate crisis, Environment, Green New Deal

The Green New Deal has become a popular slogan among progressive Democrats in recent years. But we need to be wary of the capitalist class co-opting the energy around climate change to maintain the imperialist global order they benefit from. To discuss this and more, Rania Khalek is joined by Max Ajl, a post doc at Wageningen University and a researcher with the Tunisian Observatory for Food Sovereignty and, relevant to this discussion, he is the author of the new book “A People’s Green New Deal” published by Pluto Press.

In The Southeast, Climate Change Finds A Landscape Ravaged By Inequality

June 16, 2021 Paul Gordon, In These Times. Organize! climate crisis, Climate Justice, Green New Deal, South

The southeastern United States sees more billion-dollar disasters than any other region in the country. The region also sees more different kinds of natural disasters than other parts of the country. In 2020, six billion-dollar hurricanes hit the Gulf Coast, tornado events caused 76 fatalities and torrential rainfall, up 30% since the 1950s, caused severe flooding. And climate change is making everything worse by turning up the dial of intensity on the region’s existing environmental and social vulnerabilities. If, for example, flooding was a problem historically, climate change will make it endemic. If environmental racism already puts stress on people of color, climate change will make the burden even heavier. According to a 2017 study published in the journal Science, some U.S. counties could lose as much as 20% of their annual GDP as a result of damage from unmitigated climate change.

Building An Anti-imperialist Climate Justice Movement

June 13, 2021 Max Ajl, Roar Magazine. Strategize! Class Struggle, climate crisis, Environment, Green New Deal

In his new book, A People’s Green New Deal, Max Ajl presents a sweeping, often damning, appraisal of the Global North’s limited attempts to mitigate and adapt to global heating. Eco-nationalism, eco-modernism, green social democracy and democratic socialist iterations of the Green New Deal all come under scrutiny and all are found wanting. Each in their own way, Max argues, are too attached to what Ulrich Brand and Markus Wissen call “the imperial mode of living.” A way of life predicated on the subordination of the Global South to the needs, wants and desires of the Global North. And each, in their own way, denies the sheer scale of the social and economic crisis that confronts us. In response, Max turns to the struggles of the Global South.

Canadian Union Pushes For A Greener, Better Postal Service

June 2, 2021 Derek Seidman, Labor Notes. Create! Canada, Green New Deal, Postal Banking, Postal Workers

With its contracts expiring in 2022, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers is stepping up the fight for its own vision of the post office of the future. It’s a model for exactly the kind of Green New Deal campaign that U.S. unions should be launching now for a post-Covid economic recovery. For several years, CUPW and its allies have proposed a visionary plan called Delivering Community Power. It advances a big but simple idea: take Canada Post, an institution that’s already publicly owned and embedded in communities, and reinvent it to drive a just transition into a post-carbon economy. The post office would help to jump-start green vehicle production and infrastructure; it would provide free Internet access for all; it would create a nationwide system of public banking.

Chile Shifts Left To Rewrite Pinochet-era Constitution

May 21, 2021 Ben Norton, The Grayzone. Resistance Report Chile, Elections, Goldman Sachs, Green New Deal

And today we are going to talk about Chile’s elections. This May there were municipal elections and constituent elections, to write a new constitution, because today Chile still has a Pinochet-era constitution, which was written in the time of the military dictatorship, of Augusto Pinochet.

How Rural Electric Cooperatives Can Support A Green New Deal

May 13, 2021 Wan R. Smith and Philip Fracica, Nonprofit Quarterly. Create! Cooperatives, Electricity, Green New Deal, New Economy

Today, as President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure bill is debated in Congress, it’s worth recalling that this isn’t the first time the US has faced an infrastructure deficit. “By the 1930s nearly 90 percent of US urban dwellers had electricity, but 90 percent of rural homes were without power. Investor-owned utilities often denied service to rural areas, citing high development costs and low profit margins,” recalls one account. The policy response: rural electric cooperatives (RECs). In 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order No. 7037, establishing the Rural Electrification Administration—today’s Rural Utility Service (RUS)—which provided low-cost loans to co-ops to wire rural America; by 1953, 90 percent of rural Americans had power.

What Would A Deep Green New Deal Look Like?

May 2, 2021 Don Fitz, Popular Resistance. Create! Energy, Extraction, Fossil Fuels, Green New Deal

The Green New Deal has attracted perhaps the greatest attention of any proposal for decades. It would guarantee Medicare-for-All, Housing-for-All, student loan forgiveness and propose the largest economic growth in human history to address unemployment and climate change. But the last of these hits a stumbling block. Creation of all forms of energy contributes to the destruction of nature and human life. It is possible to increase the global quality of life at the same time as we reduce the use of fossil fuels and other sources of energy. Therefore, a “deep” GND would focus on energy reduction, otherwise known as energy conservation. Decreasing total energy use is a prerequisite for securing human existence.

Kim Stanley Robinson’s ‘The Ministry For The Future’

April 3, 2021 David Schwartzman, Washington Socialist. Create! Book Review, Capitalism, Ecosocialism, Green New Deal

The Ministry for the Future (Orbit, 2020) is a magnificent novel but also an especially welcome resource for thinking about ecosocialist initiatives for a near-future global Green New Deal. Could not be more timely! This was my initial impression upon reading it last week. After some reflection, I am somewhat more critical but still highly recommend this novel for its inspiration and provocation — particularly because of how Kim Stanley Robinson (KSR) concretely addresses the radical transformation of real existing capitalism dominated by its militarized fossil legacy. Ministry should certainly be subject to critique, but KSR has his heart in the left place! After reading KSR’s novel 2140 in 2019, I sent him an email suggesting that his scenario for this post–climate catastrophe New York City would be more relevant to the near-future pre–climate catastrophe early 21st century.

‘True Climate Leadership’ By US Would Be 60% Emissions Reduction By 2030

March 17, 2021 Kenny Stancil, Commondreams. Create! climate crisis, Green New Deal, Joe Biden, Paris Agreement

For the Biden administration to meet its long-term target of net-zero emissions by 2050, the United States must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by roughly 60% below 2005 levels by 2030, according to a new report released Thursday. In its analysis (pdf), Climate Action Tracker (CAT) found that in order for the U.S. to do its fair share to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5°C by the end of the century—the goal of the Paris Agreement—the country must slash at least 57% to 63% of its emissions by the end of the decade and provide financial support to developing nations striving to transition away from climate-destroying fossil fuels. Having officially rejoined the Paris Agreement earlier this year, the Biden administration is currently preparing to unveil a new domestic emissions reduction target, known as a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).

Building Or Unbuilding America?

March 15, 2021 Nomi Prins, Tom Dispatch. Create! Green New Deal, Infrastructure, Jobs, wealth inequality

During the Trump years, the phrase “Infrastructure Week” rang out as a sort of Groundhog Day-style punchline. What began in June 2017 as a failed effort by The Donald’s White House and a Republican Senate to focus on the desperately needed rebuilding of American infrastructure morphed into a meme and a running joke in Washington. Despite the focus in recent years on President Trump’s failure to do anything for the country’s crumbling infrastructure, here’s a sad reality: considered over a longer period of time, Washington’s political failure to fund the repairing, modernizing, or in some cases simply the building of that national infrastructure has proven a remarkably bipartisan “effort.”

The Obama-fication of ‘The Squad’ Strengthens The Right At The Expense Of The Left

January 16, 2021 Danny Haiphong, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Democrats, Green New Deal, Medicare for all, The Squad

Black Agenda Report has long understood the Democratic Party to be a graveyard for social movements in the United States. An online push led by Jimmy Dore and the Movement for a People’s Party to #Forcethevote only further confirmed the true function of the Democratic Party. The call was simple. So-called “progressive” Activists pushing #Forcethevote asked “progressive” members of the Democratic Party to withhold their vote for Nancy Pelosi for Speaker of the House in exchange for a floor vote on Medicare for All. Democrats have grown in number while the Democratic Party’s control of the House has shrunk, thereby making Nancy Pelosi’s path to Speaker of the House more precarious.

Will Biden Become The Climate President?

January 15, 2021 Mark Dunlea, GELFNY.org. Create! climate crisis, Ecosocialism, Green New Deal, Joe Biden

A number of large coalitions (e.g., ClimatePresident.org) have outlined a comprehensive list of Executive Actions the President can take without the need for Congressional approval. It includes setting a goal of moving to 100% clean electricity by 2030 (though that sector accounts for only a quarter of carbon emissions). It embraces a commitment to environmental justice for frontline communities and a Just Transition to ensure that all individuals benefit from the changes. Most importantly, it calls to keep fossil fuels in the ground, including a halt to new fossil fuel infrastructure. Such a halt is something that even the progressive wing of the Democrats has shied away from.

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