In the major election year we just had, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s legislation for significant improvements in climate change created a lot of buzz. During the 2020 election cycle, conservatives liked to tell their constituents arbitrary numbers representing the amount the Green New Deal would cost, scaring them into voting for the Republican ticket.
The numbers that conservatives, including Former President Donald Trump, spouted during each of their campaigns made me curious. What does the Green New Deal actually say? From what I’ve heard, it will take away hamburgers, baseball, commercial airplanes, and everything American.
A couple of months ago, after the first presidential debate, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez tweeted a PDF of the Green New Deal, inviting people to read it for themselves. The document is only fifteen pages with large font and margins, so reading it really did not take too long.
At first, it details the facts about climate change and some of the effects that it may have on society. Some examples of these effects are a “mass migration from the regions heavily affected by climate change…”, “more than 350,000,000 more people to be exposed globally to deadly heat stress by 2050…”, and “a risk of damage $1,000,000,000,000 of public infrastructure…”.
Next, it takes responsibility as a country for climate change, stating, “Whereas, because the United States has historically been responsible for a disproportionate amount of greenhouse
gas emissions, having emitted 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions through 2014…”.
The rest of the bill outlines a goal of having net-zero emissions as a country by 2050. It details a plan for not only environmental measures but for people whose jobs will be affected by improving the industries they have worked in. The goals include bringing everybody high-quality healthcare, affordable housing, and affordable food access. It never outlines the cost of all the plans specified throughout the bill.
The Green New Deal works to invest in sustainable practices to help the environment and the people whose lives would be affected by climate change, especially minorities specified in the bill.
Works Cited
United States, Congress, House, Green New Deal, Government Printing Office, 2019, 116th Congress, 1st Session, House Resolution 109.