Tags
consumption, Green New Deal, Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions, income inequality, oil & gas, The Paris Agreement
NY Dispatch Day 101: One of the victims of COVID-19 has been our fossil-fuel driven, exponential-growth-at-any-cost economy. Last March most businesses around the world were shuttered in an attempt to slow the transmission rate of this virulent virus. The impact was immediate. Consumption, travel, and tourism fell off a cliff. Oil prices were already weakened by reduced demand and over production and swiftly nosedived. Things are starting to rebound, but as we begin to step out of this financial crisis we should pause for a moment and rethink our way forward.
Decades of a “me first” version of capitalism have left our planet polluted, resources depleted, oceans acidified, and air toxic. The income gap between the top of the pyramid and the billions of poor has never been wider. This is not sustainable because eventually the haves will have it all. The pandemic has underscored this division as the virus burns through communities that were already suffering from lack of health services and employment opportunities. Our years of disinvestment for the things that matter has left us at a crossroads.
We have an opportunity to jump start our economy while working toward a more equitable society. A proposal was introduced in the US on February 7, 2019, by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (aka AOC) of New York and Senator Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts. The goal of The Green New Deal is to solve two problems with one solution. By investing in renewable energy, small businesses, and communities of color we can simultaneously broaden our portfolio of renewable energy options, create jobs with a massive investment in infrastructure including the overhaul of the patchwork of energy grids that lose 50% of the energy produced in transmission, and bring the US economy into the future with green jobs across every industry. This moment provides an opportunity to grow out of the era of oil and gas extraction, collectively the biggest environmental polluters and contributors of greenhouse gases, who also receive government subsidies.
The cost of these projects may look intimidating, but reducing our GHG emissions now and will mitigate the cost of future environmental disasters we will face as our planet warms. Additionally the additional tax revenue generated and savings in energy efficiency will help defray the costs. Additionally, this program may help us realize our GHG emission reduction targets that we once promised in The Paris Agreement; we are the only country that withdrew from this completely voluntary request to help preserve the planet we all live on. We have the time and resources to do it now.
Today I am grateful for Sanah Ahsan. She is a queer, Pakistani, Muslim womxn who has used used her poetry to embark on a transformative process of “re-authoring her truth.” She gave an inspiring TEDx talk, “Rewriting my Story with Poetry and Love as a Queer Muslim,” which outlines how we internalize the harmful language of societal hierarchies, but can overcome it with unconditional self-acceptance and the power of poetry. Her poem, “My Dua is Love”, won the Outspoken Prize in 2019 and her work has been collected in the Anti-Hate Anthology.
The Green Economist 