Hey, this could be a chance for us to fix the economy and address the climate crisis at the same time!
We choose to pass sweeping “Green New Deal”-style plans that create a lot of jobs building renewable energy plants and efficient public infrastructure like trains, and making existing buildings more energy efficient.
A lot of these projects are community-run and community-owned, like local solar panel installation networks.
This makes communities more resilient to extreme weather, raises the standard of living for the less well-off, and accelerates the transition away from dirty energy like coal, oil and gas.
A consortium of oil companies wants to buy a lot of advertising space, arguing that we’re moving too fast on reducing emissions and this is going to damage the economy.
Will you let them?
The Green New Deal is a plan put forward by New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for tackling climate change. It calls on the US government to wean itself off fossil fuels and to invest in high-paying jobs in clean-energy industries that can simultaneously address other types of social problems like economic inequality, racial injustice and gender discrimination. An example would be a country investing in new high-speed train networks that would both reduce the number of cars on the road and create new jobs. Other countries have proposed similar plans. Here’s a great short film explainer.
