{"id":395,"date":"2019-02-21T21:17:53","date_gmt":"2019-02-22T02:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.350.org\/rhodeisland\/?p=395"},"modified":"2019-02-22T09:03:44","modified_gmt":"2019-02-22T14:03:44","slug":"cari-green-new-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.350.org\/rhodeisland\/cari-green-new-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Sign on to CARI&#8217;s Endorsement of the Green New Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>YOU CAN SIGN THIS LETTER HERE:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/actionnetwork.org\/petitions\/cari-green-new-deal\">actionnetwork.org\/petitions\/cari-green-new-deal<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TO:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chuck Schumer, U.S. Senate Minority Leader<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Senator Sheldon Whitehouse<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Senator Jack Reed<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Representative David Cicilline <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(already a co-sponsor of HR109)<br \/>\n<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Representative James Langevin<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">February 22, 2019<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>ENDORSEMENT OF H.RES.109 \/ S.RES.59, THE \u201cGREEN NEW DEAL\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\nHonorable Senators and Representatives:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In recognition of the hard scientific truth that the time for incremental steps to address the climate crisis has passed, we, the membership of Climate Action Rhode Island, urge you to immediately co-sponsor and proudly champion the Green New Deal resolution.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The latest climate science \u2014 as summarized by the IPCC\u2019s October 2018 \u201cSpecial Report on Global Warming of 1.5\u00baC\u201d and the U.S. government\u2019s November 2018 Fourth National Climate Assessment \u2014 paints a stark picture:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Humanity must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40\u201360% in the next 11 years, and eliminate emissions altogether within three decades. This includes emissions from electric power, transportation, manufacturing, agriculture, water heating, and the heating and cooling of buildings.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Failure to meet these goals would pose a direct threat to our communities, our food supply, our national security, our families\u2019 lives, and the entire web of life on earth.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the stakes this high, half-measures that coddle the fossil-fuel status quo are no longer acceptable. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We must forcefully usher the fossil-fuel economy out of existence.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> This conclusion isn\u2019t radical or utopian, but simply the consequence of the laws of physics upon life on Earth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Green New Deal resolution is the first approach to the climate crisis that honestly accounts for the massive scale of transformation required. Rapidly upgrading our buildings, transportation, and power networks won\u2019t happen on its own. It will take a national mobilization of the type America specialized in last century, such as the original New Deal. Like past mobilizations, the Green New Deal will rally Americans behind a patriotic vision requiring innovation and rapid change. Beyond \u201cmerely\u201d giving us a shot at saving the Earth\u2019s ecosystems and millions of lives (perhaps including our own), the GND\u2019s investments will produce tangible benefits:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">millions of good new jobs;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">cleaner air and water, hence better health;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">quieter, cleaner, faster, cheaper transportation;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">more comfortable homes;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">innovative new energy technologies that we can proudly export; and<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a restoration of America\u2019s role as a world leader.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We have heard three main objections to the Green New Deal resolution.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Objection #1 (Republicans): The Green New Deal is \u201csocialism\u201d, \u201cdespotism\u201d, \u201cVenezuela\u201d, etc. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These fevered objections by the President and other defenders of the fossil-fuel status quo are laughable. American history is replete with examples of large-scale government investment applied at times of urgent need. These investments didn\u2019t lead us to despotism, of course; on the contrary, they strengthened our democracy and expanded economic opportunities. The Green New Deal is also in the great American tradition of our landmark worker\u2019s rights and civil rights legislation: it affirms the right of all Americans to clean air and water, healthy food, and a sustainable environment for generations to come.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Objection #2 (timid Democrats): The Green New Deal is a \u201cwelcome notion\u201d but unrealistic and politically over-ambitious.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We have three responses to this. First, we believe the political appeal of the Green New Deal is dramatically greater than that of competing approaches to the climate crisis, such as a bill focused primarily on carbon taxes. Carbon taxes work by creating hardship (steep, ever-increasing fees on products Americans currently depend on), in order to motivate them to reduce their carbon footprint. That hardship is a hard sell, and would have to be defended legislatively year after year as the fees rise. By contrast, the Green New Deal resolution frames the crisis of climate change as an opportunity for better jobs, upgraded buildings and infrastructure, and American innovation. It\u2019s a much more inspiring proposal to rally behind.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Second, the GND principles that some have called \u201cextraneous\u201d\u2014such as respecting labor practices, trade rules, and indigenous sovereign rights; providing education and training; and guaranteeing universal health care\u2014are actually not extraneous at all. Upgrading our entire economy to renewable energy will mean a huge disruption for several million workers currently employed by polluting industries. Those workers and their families absolutely must be supported during the transition period, as the Green New Deal provides.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Third, if the cost of transitioning away from fossil fuels seems high to bear, how does that compare to the cost of failing to transition \u2014 the cost of losing Rhode Island\u2019s coastal towns and beaches forever? The cost of losing Boston and New York City and Miami? The cost of losing tens of thousands of lives to heat waves and crop failures and storms and fires, of driving millions of species extinct, of forcing millions of climate refugees to flee their homes? Clearly, doing nothing is the most unaffordable option of all.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Objection #3 (some environmental activists): The Green New Deal resolution does not go far enough. It aims for only a net-zero emission target, rather than explicitly calling for an end to fossil fuel use. It doesn\u2019t rule out dirty nuclear and biomass power. It fails to account for the carbon emissions inherent in the manufactured products that we import. It does not sufficiently empower frontline communities to create strategies for transitioning their communities justly.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We are aligned with these critiques, and we do not believe the Ocasio-Cortez\/Markey resolution is 100% perfect. But yet, we know that time is of the essence. We are setting our quibbles with the resolution aside in order to demonstrate our fervent support for a bold, American mobilization to comprehensively address the climate crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We respectfully urge you to do the same.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sincerely,<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kendra Anderson, President (Warwick)<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nicole DiPaolo, Vice-President (East Providence)<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Angel Lopez, Treasurer (Providence)<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Terry Bontrager, Secretary (Providence)<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alex Kithes, Political Chair (Woonsocket)<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brian Wilder (Cranston)<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Justin Boyan (Providence)<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tim DeChristopher (Pawtucket)<br \/>\nAaron Hale-Dorrell<br \/>\nMaggie Kain<br \/>\nZakary Pereira<br \/>\nChristine Rockwell<br \/>\nJennifer Sparks<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>ADD YOUR NAME HERE:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/actionnetwork.org\/petitions\/cari-green-new-deal\">actionnetwork.org\/petitions\/cari-green-new-deal<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CARI endorses the Green New Deal and urges Sen. Whitehouse, Sen. Reed, and Rep. Langevin to join Rep. Cicilline in co-sponsoring the resolution in Congress. Please share this letter and sign on!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":704,"featured_media":403,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.350.org\/rhodeisland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.350.org\/rhodeisland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.350.org\/rhodeisland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.350.org\/rhodeisland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/704"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.350.org\/rhodeisland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/world.350.org\/rhodeisland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.350.org\/rhodeisland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.350.org\/rhodeisland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.350.org\/rhodeisland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.350.org\/rhodeisland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}