In response to “Green New Deal” published on Feb. 14.
Like most attacks on the Green New Deal, the Feb. 14 letter contains lots of misinformation and wild exaggerations about what’s in the GND, which has not even been drafted yet, but it fails to mention the reason the GND exists:
We have only until 2030 to achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions to prevent runaway global warming costing hundreds of trillions, leading to “global economic collapse,” followed by “societal collapse” [IPCC, National Academy of Sciences, US Climate Assessment reports, 2018]. The Green New Deal is the only plan out there that can meet the 2030 deadline.
It can actually reverse global warming by using best farming and grazing practices to make our soil a massive carbon sink while making family farms profitable again.
And there’s a way to pay for the Green New Deal: It’s called “Carbon Dividends” (HR 71730, a bill already on the floor in Congress), which would tax the fossil fuel corporations that knowingly caused the climate crisis (Scientific American, Union of Concerned Scientists) out of existence and give all of that money to the taxpayers in equal monthly checks. The carbon tax goes up every year and so do your checks. Switch to cheaper clean energy (per Forbes: Lazard, IEA, IRENA) and you don’t pay the carbon tax, you just get the “dividends.” Meanwhile, it will keep plummeting in price as it scales up (Scientific American).
“Carbon Dividends” is projected to increase our GDP $75-$80 billion annually. See how it works at citizensclimatelobby.org.
Pete Kuntz