Climate change is the great equalizer; it is the one issue that will truly impact every human on earth in the coming decades. The textile workers in Indonesia are already living an oppressed existence — what happens when their home sinks into the ocean? What about when the wealthy Wall Street investor is unable to have their weekly lobster dinner? How about the billions of humans living near the equator who will have to move toward the poles just to be able to live?
The scary thing about climate change is that all of these problems are much closer than we think. You may be tired of hearing about it, but it is an existential crisis. This year the Indonesian government announced that they will be moving their capitol, Jakarta, inland because it is sinking away into the Pacific. This is happening now and, if you care for animal rights, you should know that the forest this new city will be replacing is one of the final habitats for the already endangered orangutan.
The Wall Street investor may not be losing their lavish lobster dish yet, but they will be soon. Ocean acidification is a direct consequence of higher CO2 levels in the atmosphere, a change that is causing crustacean populations to fall due to weaker shells and a poor living environment.
The equator may be habitable well beyond our own lifetimes, but the chance to save it will be gone before we see our forties. House Democrats, led by freshman Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have proposed a comprehensive plan to solve this, the worst existential threat faced by modern humans. Many conservatives claim the Green New Deal, as it is called, will be too radical or expensive to be realistic, but that is a naïve assertion. Others claim that the left wants to force vegetarianism on all Americans — again, totally false.
Although it would cause an incredible decrease in carbon emissions to switch to a vegetarian diet, that is not what the Green New Deal is about. The environmental remake of President Roosevelt’s New Deal, designed to lift America out of the Great Depression, calls for systemic change in the nation’s energy infrastructure, while creating a culture based around a net zero existence, in order to lift the globe out of potential ruin.
The right will argue that government should stay out of the private sector, but the only way to stop these polluting corporations is to prosecute them legally and make sustainability profitable. Regulations will create a private sector that wants to save the planet, if not for human decency, then for money. The plan also includes guaranteed green jobs, adding money to our economy and boosting employment, while paying for itself. The Green New Deal is realistic, affordable, and most importantly, necessary for the future of our planet.
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