Green New Deal has goals to fight climate change’s harsh impact on US economy

Editor:

According to the National Hurricane Center, a category 1 hurricane has sustained winds of 74-95 miles per hour. With wind gusts near 75 miles per hour for Western New York on Sunday, it wasn’t an actual hurricane, but was pretty darn bad.

With this in mind, I took the time to read the “Green New Deal” that is expected to be voted on in Congress soon. I’d heard that it will guarantee people who don’t work an income and turn America into a socialist society, so I wanted to find out for myself. Here is what I learned:

1) The Green New Deal is a resolution, not a law. That means even if it passes both houses of Congress and President Trump signs it, nothing will happen.

2) The Green New Deal proposes an ambitious set of goals to help our country survive on a planet where hurricane-force winds and other disasters will become common-place. Among these goals are to stop the transfer of jobs and pollution overseas, grow manufacturing in the US, and support family farms.

3) The resolution doesn’t state that people who don’t work will have a guaranteed income. The last of its aspirational goals states:

4) “(O) providing all people of the United States with: high-quality health care; affordable, safe, and adequate housing; economic security; and clean water, clean air, healthy and affordable food, and access to nature.”

Can any of us say we don’t want these things? America has always been a country that seeks to be greater. Many of my friends who voted for President Trump voted for him in part because they were concerned about their own economic security, or their children’s. The Green New Deal points out that the November 2018 National Climate Assessment (prepared by American scientists using the same scientific methods that gave us things like aspirin and CAT scans) estimates that a rise of 2 degrees Celsius or more in global temperatures will cause an annual loss of $500 billion in economic output in the U.S. by 2100.

A resolution like this is designed to get us talking to each other, to help us think about what kind of legacy we want to leave our grandchildren. If you are concerned about the economic losses expected from climate change, contact President Trump and your elected officials to let them know. It is only when we let them know we want economic security for our grandchildren that they will act to protect us.

Meaghan Green

Medina