Climate change needs to be treated with a sense of urgency. The consequences of inaction will cost countless dollars and lives in the future.
Here in the U.S., our government is playing the same partisan politics with our climate that they do with healthcare and immigration. This tired approach is inefficient and dangerous.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Democratic Congresswoman from New York’s fourteenth district is taking steps to push the issue.
Her proposed Green New Deal would create jobs in clean energy industries such as wind and solar. The house resolution also sets the goal of achieving 100 percent renewable energy in the next ten years.
The resolution to a fault is a bit broad. Some sections of the house resolution go beyond climate change and focus on social reform.
For instance, Ocasio-Cortez calls for quality health care, affordable housing and economic security.
These issues are important, but if legislation is to be passed, a moderate approach needs to be taken. Proposed climate change legislation needs to be focused on climate change alone.
Republicans will not pass legislation that has a left leaning bias.
Also, switching to 100 percent renewable energies in the next ten years will decimate oil and coal communities.
This fact alone will bring strong opposition.
But these same communities will be decimated if nothing is done to combat climate change.
What the authors of the Green New Deal do understand is the urgency of the situation.
The text of the Green New Deal references a report by the UN and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published in October of 2018.
Currently, the global average temperature is 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.
The report states that world governments such as the U.S., China and the U.K. have until 2050 to bring carbon dioxide emissions to net-zero.
The IPCC believes a reduction in carbon dioxide levels will keep the global average temperature from rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).
The IPCC report says if the global average temperature did rise above 1.5 degrees Celsius, the impact on the climate will be devastating. Changes in climate will lead to extreme heat and drought which could lead to widespread famine.
Governments need to enact laws now in order to reach this goal. Sections of the Green New Deal echo the same urgency as IPCC’s call to action.
As for the local impact of climate change, a study published by researchers at UCLA on April 23, 2018, says that Southern California will experience periods of drought followed by bouts of heavy precipitation.
These weather patterns have been seen in the past ten years and have intensified wildfires in our area.
If these reports are to be believed, there is no time for political gridlock on this issue.
The Green New Deal is aggressive with its goals. Ocasio-Cortez is attempting to act now, rather than react to climate change later.
Rapid change in energy and agriculture is imperative.
Climate change is a real national emergency and it needs to be treated as such.
