Green New Deal

[ggies07]

http://web.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/143WWSCountries.pdf

This paper evaluates Green New Deal solutions to global warming, air pollution, and energy insecurity for 143 countries. The solutions involve transitioning all energy to 100% clean, renewable windwater-solar (WWS) energy, efficiency, and storage. WWS reduces global energy needs by 57.1%, energy costs by 61%, and social (private plus health plus climate) costs by 91% while avoiding blackouts, creating millions more jobs than lost and requiring little land. Thus, 100% WWS needs less energy, costs less, and creates more jobs than current energy.

He just released a book on this, which I'm asking as a Christmas present, but I've been wondering if it's basically the same thing, just in a more readable format for the masses....

https://www.amazon.com/Clean-Renewable-Energy-Storage-Everything/dp/1108790836/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=100%+Clean,+Renewable+Energy+and+Storage&qid=1605642202&sr=8-2

 

[SageBrush]

He just released a book on this, which I'm asking as a Christmas present, but I've been wondering if it's basically the same thing, just in a more readable format for the masses....

https://www.amazon.com/Clean-Renewable-Energy-Storage-Everything/dp/1108790836/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=100%+Clean,+Renewable+Energy+and+Storage&qid=1605642202&sr=8-2

Jacobsen is awesome, but I have to say that he is selling the advantages of WWS short. Just think how much better the US budget will be when 1/2 is not spent on fossil wars and fossil resource 'protection.'

 

[mspohr]

Biden’s First Climate Appointment Is A Fossil Fuel Industry Ally

The White House’s liaison to the climate movement will reportedly be Rep. Cedric Richmond — who has raked in big money from the fossil fuel industry while voting to help oil and gas companies.

 

[jerry33]

Biden’s First Climate Appointment Is A Fossil Fuel Industry Ally

The White House’s liaison to the climate movement will reportedly be Rep. Cedric Richmond — who has raked in big money from the fossil fuel industry while voting to help oil and gas companies.

Just another bought politician. As expected.

 

[David_Cary]

And the alternative was....

Listen, Biden is/was very few environmentalist's first choice.

We are not even close to having a majority who support the GND. The only option is activism/civil disobedience. Not sure how it is going to play out but expecting our form of government to help is really really wishful thinking.

Compromise is the only thing we are going to get. Push hard and Trump is back in 2024.

 

[mspohr]

The 'market' won't save us from climate disaster. We must rethink our system | Robert S Devine

World Bank, calls climate change the “greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen”. Sadly, climate change is only one – albeit a whopper – of the countless market failures that degrade our lives.

Many of us probably already have a gut feeling that our current market system often fails. In order to build a more sustainable, just and prosperous economy, however, it’s vital that we better comprehend the shortcomings deep in the market’s DNA. Greater awareness would reduce blind faith in the market and enable people to see the market for what it is: a tool. It can be an excellent tool when used for the right job, but relying on the market to deal with something like climate change is like trying to pound nails with a saw.

Incomplete communication misleads us consumers into buying products laden with hidden costs. Countless goods and services bear the stains of harms such as pollution, habitat destruction, floods, child labor, extinctions and disease. When we fill up at the gas station the price we are charged doesn’t tell us that our purchase increases the odds that a wildfire will burn down our community. Making such partially informed choices is like buying a house having seen only the kitchen.

Instead of surrendering our autonomy to the soulless mechanics of the market, we can freely choose to grow beyond being mere consumers and become forceful citizens.

 

[mspohr]

Just another bought politician. As expected.

Here's another.

Dear Joe Biden: are you kidding me? | Erin Brockovich

It should go without saying that someone who advised DuPont on how to avoid regulations is not someone we want advising this new administration.

 

[SageBrush]

Just another bought politician. As expected.

Maybe. I'll hold judgement until I see what actions result.

I'll remind you that Trump was a registered 'Democrat' most of his life, an acknowledgement of the realities of living in NYC.
Richmond is a LA politician. Environmental politicians are a non-sequitur in LA. We'll see how he acts in his new [sic] environment.

As for his fossil money, a little context is needed. How much did his peers receive ? Industry very rarely splits money 100:0. They hedge

 

[iPlug]

Biden’s First Climate Appointment Is A Fossil Fuel Industry Ally

The White House’s liaison to the climate movement will reportedly be Rep. Cedric Richmond — who has raked in big money from the fossil fuel industry while voting to help oil and gas companies.

Most of the administration picks thus far have a pro-environment history.

One could make the argument that this pick was intentionally strategic. The Biden administration will need someone previously welcome by the fossil fuel industry to convey the bad news to them. Better a familiar face.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Most of the administration picks thus far have a pro-environment history.

One could make the argument that this pick was intentionally strategic. The Biden administration will need someone previously welcome by the fossil fuel industry to convey the bad news to them. Better a familiar face.

I guess the Trump administration had some _really_ bad news they wanted to give the coal industry.

 

[mspohr]

Maybe. I'll hold judgement until I see what actions result.

I'll remind you that Trump was a registered 'Democrat' most of his life, an acknowledgement of the realities of living in NYC.
Richmond is a LA politician. Environmental politicians are a non-sequitur in LA. We'll see how he acts in his new [sic] environment.

As for his fossil money, a little context is needed. How much did his peers receive ? Industry very rarely splits money 100:0. They hedge

During his 10 years in Congress, Richmond has received roughly $341,000 from donors in the oil and gas industry — the 5th highest total among House Democrats, according to previous reporting by Sludge. That includes corporate political action committee donations of $50,000 from Entergy, an electric and natural gas utility; $40,000 from ExxonMobil; and $10,000 apiece from oil companies Chevron, Phillips 66 and Valero Energy.

Richmond has raked in that money while representing a congressional district that is home to 7 of the 10 most air-polluted census tracts in the country.

Richmond has repeatedly broken with his party on major climate and environmental votes. During the climate crisis that has battered his home state of Louisiana, Richmond has joined with Republicans to vote to increase fossil fuel exports and promote pipeline development. He also voted against Democratic legislation to place pollution limits on fracking — and he voted for GOP legislation to limit the Obama administration’s authority to more stringently regulate the practice.

Overall, Richmond has received a lifetime rating of 76 percent from the League of Conservation Voters, and he scored 46 percent in 2018 — one of the lowest ratings of any Democrat in Congress.

Richmond, who served as a co-chair of the Biden campaign, has not committed to supporting a Green New Deal. In a post-election interview with CBS Face the Nation, Richmond said: “When we govern, we will govern with our values but when we can't pass legislation, we shouldn't be out there talking about it.”

 

[mspohr]

Report: Billionaire Wealth vs. Community Health - Resilience

Recommendations
Corporations and their billionaire owners and investors have the responsibility — and more than enough resources — to protect their employees during this extraordinary time. They must commit the resources necessary to put essential workers’ and their communities’ health and safety first.

Corporations employing essential workers must:

• Immediately implement hazard pay of at least an extra $5 per hour.
• Provide substantial paid sick leave benefits for workers to stay home when ill, quarantine when exposed, and care for sick loved ones, as well as paid bereavement leave for those who have had family members die from COVID-19.
• Provide, regularly replace, and upgrade high quality personal protective equipment (PPE) at no cost to all their essential workers.
• Establish workplace health councils to enable workers to participate actively in monitoring workplace conditions.

To protect essential workers, policy makers must:

• Establish a Presidential Commission on Essential Workers with on-the-ground, diverse worker representation.
• Pass an Essential Workers Bill of Rights developed in collaboration with workers’ organizations at the local, state, and federal levels.
• Legislate the creation of workplace health councils so workers can monitor and participate in the enforcement of compliance with health and safety regulations and guidance.

 

[JRP3]

Compromise is the only thing we are going to get. Push hard and Trump is back in 2024

Compromise instead of pushing hard for real change got us Trump in 2016.

 

[iPlug]

Analysts are saying 2020 election results show Trump's base remained uneducated (no college) white men.

If causality is in play, the progressives' best long term strategy may be to focus on fighting for free/heavily subsidized college education.

 

[SageBrush]

Compromise instead of pushing hard for real change got us Trump in 2016.

I think we got trump because Obama was too much for the White Trash of America

Regarding Biden, if the Repukes succeed in retaining any part of the Trump damage through the Biden years it will be a very sorry election victory. The country needs progress, not just a swing back to 2016.

 

[Merrill]

Analysts are saying 2020 election results show Trump's base remained uneducated (no college) white men.

If causality is in play, the progressives' best long term strategy may be to focus on fighting for free/heavily subsidized college education.

I’m not sure that would help, most who do not go to college have a family history and no motivation. My parents had no money so I had to work to put myself thru college, held several part time jobs and had an hour commute to school. I went to junior college and a state college so tuition was not that expensive, but I was very motivated realizing without a college degree I would be at a disadvantage in securing my future.

 

[iPlug]

I’m not sure that would help, most who do not go to college have a family history and no motivation. My parents had no money so I had to work to put myself thru college, held several part time jobs and had an hour commute to school. I went to junior college and a state college so tuition was not that expensive, but I was very motivated realizing without a college degree I would be at a disadvantage in securing my future.

Agree there can be some chicken/egg dilemmas there - virtuous/vicious cycles with family history.

There was a time when we didn't need so much skilled labor and mandatory K-12 looked like overkill to some, but nearly all accept this today. What about a future of K-undergrad mandatory and publicly funded? A better educated electorate? Keep America ahead technologically? There are your jobs. Look how low unemployment tracks with undergrad and beyond education compared with K-12.

Came from a lower middle class family here and was lucky to go to an affordable state school. Joined the Air Force almost 20 years ago (in service about 10 years) in part as wasn't excited about $200k of more debt to go to medical school.

Nice thing with education is, almost everything else can be taken away.

 

[SageBrush]

Education is tricky.
I spent a good fraction of childhood in a single parent household with a ~ minimum wage income but my rarely seen father is a PhD maths and our extended family values education very highly. So although my wider, racially diverse community had little interest in education I avoided that trap. Public schooling in California was interesting: for the most part it was terrible because the students got the teaching they wanted. The few students who showed a desire to learn were mentored and embraced by the teachers.

My experience was pretty stark: exemplary teachers and resources are wasted on apathetic (or worse) students, and parents that view schools as parking lots for kids. My experience taught me to demand educational opportunity for all, but I realize that many, perhaps the plurality, are not interested. The general finding that education correlates with anti-trumperism is to a large degree selection bias and will not be solved by money.

 

[iPlug]

Agree, correlation is not necessarily causation. Suspect a significant number or Trumpers could turn from the dark side if they could be college educated but probably has to do more with the those who would want to learn - not be forced to, and that slice of the pie might be rather small. The desire to learn as opposed to the desire to believe is often what separates the human from the Trumper.

Talking to Trumpers, the sense becomes that somehow because the founding fathers were white and male gives the Trumper some kind of birthright and makes him a true 'murican. Never mind that the founding fathers stood for western intellectualism and all those institutions therein.

Those cities where them educated elite folk got them damned universities, building planes, computers, robots, AI smartphones, rockets, and Teslas - they’s-a thinking they're smarter than us and those damned immigrants took our old jobs our white daddies had. Figure out how to fix that and you can turn more of ‘murica into America.

 

[David_Cary]

I don't think anyone here likely has a huge cohort of Trumpian friends that they completely understand. Myself absolutely included.

My thought is that it really was the blue collar mostly white men of Michigan, Penn etc. Unless those are your peeps, the rest is conjecture perhaps based on articles where they were interviewed.

Also my thought - a combo of misogyny, racism, anti-immigrant, and fear of socialism. Guns and religion too - but that hasn't changed much.

But either way, the constitution and the Senate won't allow true progressive legislation in our lifetime. Regardless of Biden's advisory pics. Those 72 million represent strong majorities in more than 25 states.