December 16, 2018, Bear Creek Friends (Quaker) Meeting discussed the Green New Deal, as part of the Peace and Social Concerns Report (below) that was also approved.
Minute Approved: Bear Creek Friends Meeting supports the idea of a Green New Deal, including the establishment of a House Select Committee for a Green New Deal.
Peace and Social Concerns Committee Report, Bear Creek Friends Meeting, Approved December 16, 2018.
Like the New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Green New Deal is a visionary plan to transition to 100% renewable energy. We will need to build the infrastructure, including renewable energy systems, a smart power grid, renewable energy driven mass transit systems, and upgrade existing buildings to be well insulated and energy efficient. To do this will require thousands of new jobs and re-prioritizing of our governmental budgets.
Stopping climate change means completely updating our energy, transit and food systems. This will require aggressive action at every level of government, sustainedfor many years in a row. History shows that two ingredients are needed to make this type of sweeping change:
- People Power: a large, vocal, and active base of public support
- Political Power: a critical mass of supportive elective officials
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is proposing the establishment of a House Select Committee for a Green New Deal that would be charged with “developing a detailed national, industrial, economic mobilization plan for the transition of the United States economy to become carbon neutral and to significantly draw down and capture greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and oceans and to promote economic and environmental justice and equality.” Currently 36 members of Congress and Senators Cory Booker, Jeff Merkley and Bernie Sanders support this idea.
“The proposal states that a Green New Deal is a “historic opportunity to virtually eliminate poverty in the United States and to make prosperity, wealth and economic security available to everyone participating in the transformation.” The proposal lays out a number of policies to “mitigate deeply entrenched racial, regional and gender-based inequalities in income and wealth,” including a federal jobs guarantee, universal healthcare, and a universal basic income.”More than 300 local officials from 40 states are calling for a Green New Deal.
On December 10th over 1,000 young people of the Sunrise Movement which supports the Green New Deal appeared on the U.S. Capitol grounds and in Congressional offices. 150 were arrested for nonviolent civil disobedience actions to bring attention to the Green New Deal. On that day Ed Fallon and I talked about the Green New Deal on his radio program, The Fallon Forum.
Indigenous people, because of their intimate knowledge of sustainable living and care for Mother Earth would be ideally suited to lead the implementation of the Green New Deal. The coalition of Native and non-native people that developed during the First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March is looking into how to support the Green New Deal (GND). I will be meeting with others from Bold Iowa and Indigenous Iowa about this on December18th. I’ve also been discussing this with Christine Asley who says FCNL is working out how to support the Green New Deal and should have a statement soon.
Jeff Kisling, Peace and Social Concerns Committee, Bear Creek Friends Meeting
The next step for Bear Creek Friends will be to decide whether the Meeting wants to become a Sunrise Movement Hub, which is described below from the Sunrise Plan. We have not decided to do this, yet.
We’ll start Sunrise “hubs” in schools, houses of worship, small towns, and big cities across the country. The basic work of a Sunrise hub is simple: talk to people about climate change, and tell them about our plan to stop it. We’ll go to youth groups, high school classes, university clubs, and anywhere else where we’ll find young people who are looking for a way to make a difference.
Every couple months, our hubs across the country will work together to organize a wave of creative moral protest. Through protest, we can get our message into the media, increase public urgency around climate change, and invite even more people into our movement.
The Sunrise Movement Plan is available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lcpb6Tuyh4-mEjGV7aO8b8Hq9zkQ782w/view
More information about the Sunrise Movement can be found here: https://www.sunrisemovement.org/
Blog posts about the Green New Deal
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Quakers, social justice and revolution 