WEBVTT 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:13.000 [Hope Endrenyi] Hey there! I'm Hope. [Ricco Fajardo] Hello! 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:14.500 [Ricco] and I'm Ricco, 00:00:14.500 --> 00:00:16.000 and we're here to lay out a case for the Green New Deal. 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:18.000 [Hope] Let's get to it. 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:22.000 [Ricco] First, what exactly is the Green New Deal and why do we need it? 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:24.000 By now, I'm sure you've all heard about Climate Change. 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:28.000 In 2018, a group of scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:30.000 or the IPCC, 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:31.500 said that we had just 12 years 00:00:31.500 --> 00:00:34.000 to drastically reduce our global greenhouse gas emissions 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:39.000 in order to keep warming below 1.5 to 2 degrees past industrial levels, 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:41.000 and that if we fail to stay below these levels, 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:44.000 it would cause a spike in erratic weather patterns, 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:45.500 mass migration, deadly heat stress, 00:00:45.500 --> 00:00:49.000 and cost us trillions of dollars and millions of lives. 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:53.000 Despite this being the single greatest existential threat of our lifetimes, 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:55.000 we currently don't have a plan set in place for this. 00:00:55.000 --> 00:00:58.000 So, that's where the Green New Deal comes in. 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:03.000 [Hope] To clarify, the Green New Deal is not a bill or piece of legislation. 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:06.000 Rather, it is a framework that answers two questions: 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:08.000 What do we have to do to solve this issue? 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:10.000 And how can we protect people while we solve it? 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:14.000 The first part of the Green New Deal says what climate scientists say: 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:19.000 We need to completely stop burning fossil fuels as much as it's technologically feasible 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:21.000 within the very short time frame of a decade, 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:26.000 and although this will create entire new industries and millions of new jobs, 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:27.500 It will also shut down some other industries 00:01:27.500 --> 00:01:30.000 that people currently rely on. 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:33.000 So the second part of the Green New Deal is a set of promises 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:37.000 meant to protect and support people during the transition away from fossil fuels 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:42.000 with things like a jobs guarantee, universal healthcare, public employment, 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:45.000 and education and training for new industries. 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:50.000 [Ricco] So why should we pursue social justice while solving climate change? 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:52.500 There are some who suggest we should focus solely 00:01:52.500 --> 00:01:55.000 on reducing emissions through technology and the free market. 00:01:55.000 --> 00:01:58.000 And sure, there are lots of promising technological solutions 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:01.000 that would get us to net-zero emissions: 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:05.000 wind, solar, geothermal, and carbon sequestration. 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:08.000 These are all great technologies that should be pursued. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:12.000 But while these solutions solve our immediate need of eliminating greenhouse gas emissions, 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:15.000 they alone do not address the core of the issue: 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:17.000 What caused climate change in the 1st place? 00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:21.000 To answer this, we have to go back to the economy. 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:24.000 We currently follow a linear economic model 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:30.000 where we take a resource, make it into a product, use it for a short period of time, then throw it away. 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:33.000 Take. Make. Use, Waste. 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:36.000 This type of economic model is really efficient 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:40.000 in making large amounts of cheap consumer goods in a very short period of time. 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:45.000 But we also run into some pretty significant problems along this line. 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:48.000 [Hope] At the front end, we have resource depletion. 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:50.000 Think of the earth as a savings account. 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:53.000 If you keep taking money out without putting money back in, 00:02:53.000 --> 00:02:56.000 eventually you'll withdraw the account. 00:02:56.000 --> 00:03:00.000 Similarly, if you keep extracting resources faster than you regenerate them, 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:02.000 eventually you'll run out. 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:05.000 Some examples of resource depletion we're currently experiencing: 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:09.000 around 85% of global fish stocks are over-exploited, 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:13.000 depleted, fully exploited, or in recovery from exploitation. 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:16.000 80% of the world's original forests are gone; 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:20.000 in the Amazon alone, we're losing 2000 trees per minute. 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:25.000 Global demand for water has increased by 600% in the last century, 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:27.000 more than twice the rate of population growth. 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:33.000 At this rate, it's estimated that global water demand will surpass supply by as soon as 2030. 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:35.500 And finally, a recent UN study stated 00:03:35.500 --> 00:03:39.000 that if we keep degrading land at our current pace, 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:43.000 that we only have about 60 years left of fertile soil to grow our food in. 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:47.000 On the tail end, we run into the challenge of waste. 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:51.000 The average American currently makes 4 1/2 pounds of trash per day. 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:55.000 It's estimated that there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050. 00:03:55.000 --> 00:04:00.000 And globally, we throw out about 1.3 billion tons of food a year, 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:02.000 or a third of all the food that we grow, 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:08.000 which then turns into methane, a greenhouse gas 30 times more potent than carbon. 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:12.000 Finally, in the middle, we run into labor issues and exposure to pollutants. 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:17.000 In this Linear Economy, natural resources are not the only entities exploited. 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:21.000 In order to produce as much cheap product as quickly as possible, 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:25.000 most multinational companies intentionally look for areas in the world 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:27.000 where labor standards are low. 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:29.000 For instance, in the fashion industry, 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:32.000 a mere 2% of clothing is made here in the US. 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:35.000 The rest is exported to other countries like Bangladesh, 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:39.000 where the average garment worker is paid $2 per day, 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:41.000 often working in unsafe conditions, 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:44.500 as demonstrated by the Rana Plaza incident in 2013, 00:04:44.500 --> 00:04:50.000 where over 1100 people died when a garment factory collapsed with workers inside. 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:55.000 Workers and citizens alike are also exposed to pollutants on a daily basis. 00:04:55.000 --> 00:05:00.000 There are over 100,000 synthetic chemicals in use in commerce today, 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:03.000 and very few have been tested for health impacts, 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:06.000 and it's estimated that air pollution is responsible 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:10.000 for 4.2 million deaths per year globally. 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:13.000 So at every point of this Linear Economy, 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:17.000 whether it's in the extraction, production, consumption, or disposal phase, 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:21.000 there is harm being done to both humans and the environment. 00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:24.000 But this Linear Economy didn't happen by accident. 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:29.000 [Ricco] American economist Victor Lebow is quoted from 1955 saying, 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:31.000 "Our enormously productive economy 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:34.000 demands that we make consumption our way of life, 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:38.000 that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:43.000 that we seek our spiritual satisfaction and ego satisfaction in consumption. 00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:47.000 We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:51.000 replaced and discarded at an ever-increasing rate". 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:53.000 As demonstrated by that quote, 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:56.000 the current Linear Economy that we have was intentionally designed 00:05:56.000 --> 00:05:58.000 in order to achieve the short term goal 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:02.000 of increased GDP through maximized consumerism. 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:05.000 But what economists back in 1955 didn't take into account 00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:08.000 were all the problems that would arise 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:10.000 from trying to grow an economy infinitely 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:13.000 in a world with finite resources. 00:06:13.000 --> 00:06:16.000 This is why addressing the climate crisis 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:19.000 through the lens of social and economic justice is so vital. 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:22.000 Climate change alone is not the problem. 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:24.000 It is a symptom of a deeper issue: 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:28.000 an economic system that is fundamentally unsustainable. 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:30.000 The Green New Deal gives us the opportunity 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:34.000 to not only avert the existential crisis that is climate change, 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:38.000 but to redesign how the economy might better serve and include 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:43.000 all the people, communities, workers, animals, and ecosystems 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:46.000 that are impacted all along this line. 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:49.000 In summary, we need to transition from a Linear Economy 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:54.000 based on exploitation, competition, and degeneration 00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:56.000 to a Circular Economy 00:06:56.000 --> 00:07:01.000 based on regeneration, cooperation, and democratic distribution. 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:03.000 Now, I know that was a mouthful just then, 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:05.000 so let's walk through some examples 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:08.000 of what an economy like that might actually look like. 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:10.000 [Hope] LOCALIZE 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:13.000 Supporting and developing local and shared economies 00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:16.000 is one of the best ways to reduce our society's carbon footprints. 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:19.000 Participating in things like repair cafes or trading networks 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:22.000 helps keep products in use for longer. 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:26.000 Sourcing resources locally eliminates the need to ship things over long distances, 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:30.000 and learning to grow your own food or produce your own energy 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:32.000 can empower and uplift many communities 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:34.000 through autonomy and self-sufficiency. 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:36.000 [Ricco] DEMOCRATIZE THE WORKPLACE 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:40.000 Cooperative models of business and community organizing 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:43.000 allow workers and members to own and manage, 00:07:43.000 --> 00:07:46.000 Meaning the people who are most directly affected by decisions 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:49.000 have a direct say in those decisions. 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:52.000 Models like these do away with hierarchical structures 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:55.000 and rather hold every member as equally valuable, 00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:58.000 putting the power back into the hands of the community. 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:00.000 [Hope] REGENERATE THE LAND 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:02.000 Increasing organic matter in the soil, 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:04.000 reviving wildlife corridors, 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:06.000 turning food waste into compost 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:10.000 --all of these practices benefit the environment and humans simultaneously, 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:13.000 by sequestering carbon, increasing nutrition of food, 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:18.000 decreasing pollution, and making our living spaces more enjoyable to be in. 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:22.000 When we localize economies, democratize work, and regenerate land-- 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:27.000 [Ricco] --we create resiliency community and sustainability. 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:30.000 [Hope] So, how close are we to these goals? 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:32.000 First of all, it's important not to lose hope 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:34.000 in the fight against climate change. 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:37.000 There's been a lot of progress over the last 30 years. 00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:39.000 It's just not enough yet. 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:44.000 The IPCC 1.5 report makes clear that staying below 1.5 to 2 degrees 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:49.000 depends on us reducing CO2 emissions by 45% by 2030 00:08:49.000 --> 00:08:52.000 and 100% by 2050. 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:55.000 Happily, the world is not standing still in this fight. 00:08:55.000 --> 00:09:00.000 Renewables made up 26% of global electricity generation in 2018 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:04.000 and this is expected to grow by 50% in the next five years, 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:07.000 reaching over 30% by 2025. 00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:11.000 [Ricco] At the same time, global coal consumption has gone flat. 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:15.000 Right now this is offset by increases in India and Southeast Asia, 00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:18.000 but these increases are expected to be short-lived. 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:21.000 India and China are pulling their weight with their rate of renewable installation. 00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:25.000 The US is taking some steps, but not quickly enough. 00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:28.000 Renewable energy is now competitive without subsidies, 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:33.000 but subsidies would help quicken the pace and reach the 1.5 C targets faster. 00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:36.000 For instance, thanks to already existing subsidies, 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:39.000 US renewable energy has doubled since 2008 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:42.000 and is now 17% of electricity generation. 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:45.000 So, although we have a long way to go, 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:49.000 reaching these targets is possible and we already are on our way. 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:51.000 Thanks so much for listening to us. 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:53.000 If this video resonated with you, 00:09:53.000 --> 00:09:56.000 we have two things that you can advocate for right now, 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:59.000 even while you're socially distancing at home. 00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:01.000 [Hope] We're asking folks to contact their congresspeople 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:03.000 and voice support for the People's Bailout 00:10:03.000 --> 00:10:06.000 and the Green Stimulus Plan in response to COVID-19. 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:11.000 Both of these proposals detail ways we can stimulate the economy and support working people 00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:14.000 by investing in green industries and infrastructure. 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:17.500 [Ricco] Calling your congressperson is really simple and only takes a few minutes, 00:10:17.500 --> 00:10:20.000 but it makes a huge impact. 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:22.000 To learn more about either of these proposals, 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:25.000 follow the links that will pop up right after us. 00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:28.000 Wishing everyone health and safety during this time. 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:30.000 [Hope] Happy Earth Day! [Ricco] Happy Earth Day! 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:34.000 [Hopeful Music]