Hole in the Wall
Economics and the GND
RECEIVED Fri., March 29, 2019
Dear Editor,
I read the “Point Austin” article by Michael King about signing on to a Green New Deal [News, March 1] and wanted to add my own thoughts on the subject. This is because I think that King understated the most important part of the GND, which is the economic impact. The original New Deal was created in response to an economic emergency in the Great Depression. Our society has reached a point where environmental policy is becoming a large part of economic policy. An increasing number of Americans want to see more action from their governments in this area. Benefits for our outdated infrastructure and drastic reductions to carbon emissions are items that anyone can rally in support of investment. To me, however, the most important parts are the 20 million new jobs estimated to be created due to developments in clean transportation and infrastructure and the long-term economic benefits from investing in renewable energy.
Conservative media has loudly proclaimed the estimated costs, rightly, to be in the trillions of dollars. However, this does not take into account the exponential increases in cost for every year that we wait to take action on our climate. The GND is only half of a responsive action. It is a response to the calls for policy changes as well the mounting scientific data foretelling the dramatic impacts of human-caused climate change. The other half is a proactive measure to protect ourselves and the future generations.
I read the “Point Austin” article by Michael King about signing on to a Green New Deal [News, March 1] and wanted to add my own thoughts on the subject. This is because I think that King understated the most important part of the GND, which is the economic impact. The original New Deal was created in response to an economic emergency in the Great Depression. Our society has reached a point where environmental policy is becoming a large part of economic policy. An increasing number of Americans want to see more action from their governments in this area. Benefits for our outdated infrastructure and drastic reductions to carbon emissions are items that anyone can rally in support of investment. To me, however, the most important parts are the 20 million new jobs estimated to be created due to developments in clean transportation and infrastructure and the long-term economic benefits from investing in renewable energy.
Conservative media has loudly proclaimed the estimated costs, rightly, to be in the trillions of dollars. However, this does not take into account the exponential increases in cost for every year that we wait to take action on our climate. The GND is only half of a responsive action. It is a response to the calls for policy changes as well the mounting scientific data foretelling the dramatic impacts of human-caused climate change. The other half is a proactive measure to protect ourselves and the future generations.
Jeffrey Baker