Dear Citizens and Elected Officials:
I don't like to send out requests for action, especially near major holidays, but I'm going to make an exception now because I feel I have no choice. The climate equivalent of "the dogs of war" have been released this year, this fall, along the Florida Gulf Coast and in the toll from the fire in Paradise, CA, Paradise Lost, with a final accounting yet to be made. And much more, and much worse, will surely follow, as Elizabeth Kolbert has warned.
When I read through the action plan below, to create a House Select Committee to address not only Global Warming but the economic ramifications for our citizens, and I looked at my own business card which has read "For A Green New Deal" for going on four years now, how could I not send this out?
It is the beginning, the necessary first step of serious, comprehensive planning at the national level, within the public's eye, not just in the national research labs where what had to pass for planning, planning done in ideological denial, has occurred for so long, to some, but not great enough effect. This is the necessary preliminary work for a national mobilization that our environmental and scientific visionaries have been calling for over the past decade. Especially Bill McKibben.
Almost needless to say, Congresswoman elect Alexandria Octavio-Cortez has lowered her shoulder into the cause, put the pressure right where it belongs, in the hallways outside soon to be House Speaker again Nancy Pelosi's Washington Office, and wasn't I surprised to learn that one of the five requested targets for lobbying was Maryland's own Representative Jamie Raskin?
The toolkit is below, and the outlines of the legislation. I could parse it on a couple of items, and that is what a Select Committee's public forums should be about: public participation, honest vetting, alternatives, critiques, but on the whole, it is an outline for a decent, logical game plan for where we have to go, for our own economically stressed citizens, and our own climate security: for people and nature.
Have a good and safe Thanksgiving.
Best,
billofrights
Frostburg, MD
---------- Original Message ----------
From: Margaret & Ezra <TCM@theclimatemobilization.org>
To: William Neil <wrn1935@comcast.net>
Date: November 17, 2018 at 12:00 PM
Subject: Let’s Pass Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal Committee
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Hello Mobilizers,
Major congratulations to Sunrise Movement, Justice Democrats, and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for their well-designed and remarkably high-impact action at Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s office elevating the demand for a Green New Deal — a 10-year economic mobilization to carbon-neutrality and drawdown — onto the national climate agenda.
It is very inspiring to see this level of leadership coming from new champions in Congress and the climate movement.
Particularly exciting is the draft resolution Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez has rolled out for a Green New Deal select committee with the authority to develop a “detailed, national, industrial, economic mobilization plan for the transition of the United States economy to become carbon neutral and to significantly draw down and capture greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and oceans and to promote economic and environmental justice and equality.”
Establishing this Green New Deal Select Committee in the House would provide a powerful platform to advance a national Climate Mobilization in response to the climate emergency at this critical moment in history. But news reports indicate that Democrats in Congress are pushing back on the proposed select committee, calling for the revival of an older committee that does not have the authority to draft a plan or legislation.
We must demand that our leaders and institutions embrace and act upon climate truth. The Sunrise Movement is requesting assistance to keep up the momentum and pressure on House Democrats before Thanksgiving. They need immediate help now calling and tweeting at key House Democrats. They are also also holding a national Green New Deal Day of Action on Tuesday and are asking that we organize call-in parties and office visits to our Congressional representatives.
Here is what you can do right now to help:
According to the draft resolution, the national mobilization plan shall “be executed in no longer than 10 years from the start of execution of such Plan” and shall also virtually eliminate poverty through measures such as a job guarantee. The Plan is to be completed on Jan. 1, 2020 and the accompanying legislation completed two months later. The scope of the plan would include:
(1) 100% of national power generation from renewable sources;
(2) Building a national, energy-efficient, “smart” grid;
(3) Upgrading every residential and industrial building for state-of-the-art energy efficiency, comfort and safety;
(4) Decarbonizing the manufacturing, agricultural and other industries;
(5) Decarbonizing, repairing and improving transportation and other infrastructure;
(6) Funding massive investment in the drawdown and capture of greenhouse gases;
(7) Making “green” technology, industry, expertise, products and services a major export of the United States, with the aim of becoming the undisputed international leader in helping other countries transition to completely carbon neutral economies and bringing about a global Green New Deal.
This is a strong foundation for a national mobilization effort and a critically important turn toward the truth of what must be done to address the climate emergency at the commensurate speed and scale. For more on the alignment between this platform and TCM’s, watch this video discussion with Margaret and Justice Democrats co-founder Corbin Trent, who is now working as Ocasio-Cortez’s spokesperson.
In the spirit of collaboration and continually pushing for the most effective approach to the climate emergency and ecological crisis, we offer the following suggestions. Given that we are already seeing massive losses of wildlife today (animal populations have declined 60% since 1970) and the Earth is now too hot for safety, justice, and long-term political stability, the resolution could benefit from the following additions to the Green New Deal select committee’s mandate:
- A commitment to rapidly reverse the 6th mass extinction of species and to end the economy’s overshoot of ecological limits and violation of multiple planetary boundaries
- An assessment of which global temperature targets would provide the highest level of protection for all people and species, and especially the climate vulnerable
- An analysis of the level and scope of mobilization that would be required to restore safe, pre-industrial climate conditions as fast as possible
- A clear commitment to a zero (or near-zero) greenhouse gas emissions economy across all sectors within ten years
- Incorporation of strong worker protections protecting and expanding the right to organize in the plan
Onward!
Margaret, Ezra, and the whole Climate Mobilization team
The Climate Mobilization
275 9th Street, Suite 150387
Brooklyn, NY 11215
United States
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