The time for half-measures and middle of the road approaches is way behind us. The crises we face are interlocking, so our solutions must be, too. To prevent the worst impacts of the climate crisis, we need leaders who are willing to be bold and visionary. We need the Green New Deal.
What is the Green New Deal?
The Green New Deal is a framework for mobilizing the federal government to create millions of family-sustaining, union jobs and fight the climate crisis at the same time. It’s built on the vision that our struggles — from climate change to systemic racism to unemployment — are all connected. By harnessing the full power of the federal government to build an inclusive, renewable energy economy, we have the chance to navigate out of multiple crises at once.
The Green New Deal is both a policy and an idea. It’s a Congressional resolution introduced by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey — first in 2019 then again in 2021 — with the support of more than 100 cosponsors. This resolution lays out goals for upgrading our crumbling infrastructure, modernizing cities, and overhauling energy, transportation, industrial, and agriculture systems to get to 100 percent renewable energy as soon as possible. It includes proposals for how to clean up our air and water and free communities from toxic pollution. And it’s a roadmap for creating high-quality jobs with good wages and benefits, worker protections, and the right to form a union.
The Green New Deal is more than just a policy framework. It’s a vision for a future that puts people before polluters — a world in which workers’ rights, community health, and our shared climate come before oil company profits. And it’s up to our movement to make the Green New Deal vision a reality.
Why do we need the Green New Deal?
The question isn’t whether our government is going to invest trillions of dollars trying to jumpstart the economy and recover from COVID-19, it’s how they’re going to spend it. Faced with the choice between bailing out billionaire oil executives and or delivering on the promise of an economy that works for all of us, we know what needs to happen next.
To heal from COVID-19 and prevent the most extreme impacts of climate change, it will not be enough to go back to normal. Normal was billionaires growing richer while working families struggled. Normal was climate-fueled wildfires, hurricanes, heatwaves, and floods. Normal was police violence directed at Black and Brown communities.
Normal was a crisis. It’s time to build the future, not bail out the past. Our movement is going to end the fossil fuel era; stop oil, gas, and coal expansion; and pave the way for a just transition for workers and their families. We’re going to confront the climate-denying politicians standing in the way of the Green New Deal we deserve. Because we know that by investing trillions of dollars in the just, renewable economy of the future we’ll not only transform our energy system, we’ll transform our society for the better.
