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COMPACT FOR RACIAL JUSTICE
by V j
Gre e ne C on omi C s
Te accelerating environmental crisis has pushed the human amily to a moment o decision. Te time or debateis running out. Humanity must gure out, once and or all, i it can nd a way to live with the planet.I it cannot, you can bet that the ensuing climatic catastrophes will hit poor people and people o color rst and worst. It only makes (tragic) sense that historically neglected populations will get the least support in preventingand mitigating natural disasters. Hurricane Katrina, and the government’s criminal indierence to the peoplecaught in its ury, illustrated this in chilling ashion.
But what if humanity DOES nd a way to live with the planet—but doesn’t nd a way to live with itself? It’s not
a stretch, based on what we’ve seen so ar.In America, the benets o the emergent green economy have owed almost exclusively to afuent white con-sumers and entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, people o color and people o modest means continue to bear a dispro-portionate share o the burdens associated with the ailing, pollution-based economy. I green economic develop-ment continues on this course, we could end up with eco-apartheid.Neither eco-apocalypse nor eco-apartheid is acceptable. Both are avoidable. But only i we know what it is we areghting or.
the vIsIon: eco-eqUIty
Let’s start with the urgent and immediate: we want a world that is not imperiled by global warming, where we donot have to worry that we are in the nal countdown to the last generation o humanity.But the world we dream o has more than just a stable, healthy climate. We dream o a society that also takescare o its people, where no one is let behind and everyone has a chance to succeed. Tat society upholds threebasic principles: equal protection or all, equal opportunity or all, and reverence or all creation. We call it “eco-equity.”
eua Pi
As we conront both ecological devastation and economic downturn, it is obvious that the most vulnerable o us will bear the brunt o these twin crises. Tey will eel the pains rst. Tey will be hurt the worst. And they willhave the hardest time putting their lives back together once the storm passes. It is a moral and political imperativethat we protect EVERYONE rom the disasters that are coming. We saw in New Orleans what happens when weignore this imperative: many lose their lives, and many more lose their livelihoods.
eua oppui
As the new “clean and green” economy emerges, there will be countless opportunities or people to improve their work, wealth and health. Tose opportunities must be available to everyone—especially those people who haveound opportunities so hard to come by in the pollution-based economy. People o color need to get in on theground oor i we’re to have any shot at getting a air shake in this new economy. I not, it will be tainted by thesame racial and class stratication that has or so long prevented America rom ullling its promise o reedom.
The Green Collar eConomY
In Search of Eco-Equity
Green eConomies
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COMPACT FOR RACIAL JUSTICE
r
Here in the United States, we have been acting as i we have a disposable planet—and disposable people. A couple o statistics bring this into sharp and disturbing relie. We have just 4% o the world’s population. But weemit a quarter o the world’s greenhouse gases. And we jail a quarter o the world’s prisoners. We seem to have noqualms about throwing anything away, rom resources, to species, to neighborhoods, to children. We need to cor-rect that. Te green economy must be built on a undamental respect and reverence or all creation, all lie, bothhuman and non-human. A uture based on these three principles is one worth ghting or, working or, living or.But knowing what we want the uture to look like does not tell us how to get there.
the vehIcle: A green new deAl
Make no mistake about it. Reversing global warming and achieving eco-equity will not be easy. We cannot getthere by doing more o what we’ve been doing. We cannot drill and burn our way out o this crisis. But, workingtogether, we can invent and invest our way out.o do so, we have to radically change our economy, our politics and our culture. Such a shit will require collec-tive will and eort on a scale not seen in this country or generations.
When I think about what we need to do, I think about the New Deal. Te New Deal was a massive and delib
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erate reorganization of the country’s resources and priorities, all with an aim to end the Great Depression and
restructure American society to manage 20th century capitalism. We need a similar endeavor to reverse global warming and restructure our society or the 21st century.Tink about the work necessary to re-balance earth’s ecosystem. Installing millions o solar panels. Manuactur-ing millions o wind-turbine parts. Planting and caring or millions o trees. Building millions o plug-in hybridvehicles. Constructing thousands o solar arms, wind arms, and wave arms.Tat’s millions o jobs, provided by thousands o entrepreneurs, producing billions o dollars o wealth.Tat is also a million headaches, missteps and ailures i we aren’t moving orward together as a country, united. Ater eight years o the most divisive presidential administration in memory, it is time or the ederal governmentto once again inspire the country and bring it together. We need a comprehensive and coordinated suite o programs designed to put the country to work repairing theplanet. Piecemeal, patchwork policies will not be enough. Only a concerted eort will unite the country the way we need to get the job done. Te wonderul thing is that, along with giving us a chance to reverse global warm-ing, such an eort will give us a chance to put millions o people to work and create powerul new engines o wealth creation.Instead o taking the side o the polluters, the warmongers, the incarcerators, we need the government to becomea partner to the innovators, the scientists, the eco-entrepreneurs, the neighborhood heroes, the ones who are closeto both the problems and the solutions. We cannot drill and burn our way out o this crisis. But we can inventand invest our way out.
the AllIAnce: cross-clAss, cross-rAce, cross-everythIng
A Green New Deal would be a massive political undertaking. It cannot happen without a strong, durable, and
broad-based coalition with the political muscle to move such a comprehensive agenda. It will not be easy. Te
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current economy, based on pollution and exclusion, still has many powerul supporters entrenched in Washing-ton and on Wall Street.
No, it will not be easy. But it is necessary, and possible. Once again, the experience of the original New Deal is
instructive.
Te New Deal was not simply the brainchild of FDR and his allies in Congress. It had the support of a powerful
electoral coalition that included armers, workers, ethnic minorities, students, intellectuals, progressive bankers,and orward-thinking business leaders. We need a similar alliance now—a “Green Growth Alliance.” Te program we are suggesting can attract thatkind o support. It has something or almost everybody—workers, environmentalists, activists, students, peopleo aith, small armers, progressive business and nance leaders, entrepreneurs, intellectuals and scientists. And, yes, people o color.Tis is our best shot to advance a serious racial justice agenda on a national level. A brand new economy isemerging. I we are smart and willing to work, we can make sure our communities’ needs and perspectives arebuilt into this new economy rom the beginning.Most importantly, this could provide the material basis to pull our communities out o the spiral o violence andsuering that has enguled them since deindustrialization began. Te economic crisis, environmental devastationand a dearth o hope or common purpose may be new on the national scene, but they showed up in our neigh-borhoods rst. Tey are still sharpest in our communities. But now we have a chance to change that.Te generations beore us ought to racially integrate the poisonous, pollution-based economy. Te best way tohonor them now and continue their legacy is to make sure that the new, clean and green economy has a place oreveryone rom the beginning.
the ActIon: whAt to do rIght now
Whether you are part o a powerul organization or an interested individual, there are steps you can take to help
forge this Green New Deal.
supp ca e cp.
On September 27, Green For All launched a national campaign to establish a Clean Energy Corps (CEC). A successor to the Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Progress Administration o the 1930s, the CEC wouldbe a combined service, training, and employment eort. Concentrated in cities and neglected communities, it would aim to combat global warming, grow local and regional economies and demonstrate the equity and em-ployment promise o the clean energy economy.Over time, the CEC would seek to develop “green pathways out o poverty” or at least 1 million people.Tis means providing them with the training, work experience, job placement, and other services needed togain amily-supporting jobs within the green economy economy. Te CEC would directly engage millions o Americans in diverse service and volunteer work related to climate protection. And it would create nancingmechanisms that would allow the pooling o public and private capital to cover the up-ront costs that currently pose a signicant barrier to broad-scale retrotting and environmental restoration, and the associated creation o numerous community jobs.
Tis kind of national eort holds the seed of a Green New Deal. You can help plant that seed by signing the “I’m
Ready” petition online at http://www.greenjobsnow.com/hq/ready-petition. I you work with or know o local
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