Environmental Argumentative Essay
“Why We Need to Take Action Against Climate Change: The Green New Deal”
The Green New Deal is a 14-page proposal, and the only one being heard right now, that intends to confront climate change; a proposal that is needed if we want to protect the world from catastrophe. One must first understand the danger of climate change to understand the Green New Deal. Since the nineteenth century, there has been an enormous change in the earth’s climate patterns. The industrialization has increased pollution in the atmosphere. This and other human activities have generated greenhouse gases, which have contributed to the greenhouse effect that has ultimately caused global warming. The consequences are negative based on the severe weather patterns, rising sea levels, and melting glacial matter in the Polar Regions (Hansen). The Green New Deal recognizes the danger of climate change. It recommends solutions to reduce pollution by increasing the production of green energy and providing help to undeveloped countries to improve equality (Bordoff). The Green New Deal also addresses the bigger picture of creating economic security and stability, improving the living standards of the earth’s population, and creating a zero-greenhouse gas emission environment with the sole purpose of fighting climate change. The United States should adopt the Green New Deal because it is economically sustainable, reduces pollution, and it curbs inequality.
First of all, the Green New Deal is financially sustainable. Ben Saunders’ version of the Green New Deal is budgeted to require an approximate amount of $16.3 trillion (Pettifor). Skeptical individuals argue that the project would only add the tax burden on the common citizen and not offer significant benefits to the population. But the critical advantage of the deal is that it is projected to finance itself over 15 years (Friedman). The project can source funding from taxing big corporations or cutting down the military budget (Pettifor). However, these undertakings would only be done for the launch of the deal, which would finance itself in the long run. Therefore, the project is economically sustainable since it will merely act as a source of revenue and solution to climate change as it finances itself.
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Another reason that stands out and why we should support the Green New Deal is that pollution from greenhouse gas emissions and unsustainable energy sources will be reduced. Hansen demonstrates that CO2 emissions from fossil fuels trigger climate change and global warming. These greenhouse gasses form a blanket in the atmosphere that contains infrared radiation within the earth, increasing global temperature. Therefore, banning the use of carbon fuels and opting for greener energy sources is guaranteed to reduce climate change. Fortunately, the Green New Deal is channeled to introduce expansive wind, solar, and geothermal energy sources within the USA and on a global scale (Bordoff). Again, the deal focuses on supporting a carbon-pricing regime that proposes to create a carbon-free or negative environment. The deal will utilize technological and natural resources to minimize emissions and reduce the global surface temperature by 20 C by 2050 which will curb global warming (Bordoff).
A more important reason is that economic inequality will be reduced globally. The Green New Deal focuses on improving the lives of individuals that are living in poverty. On the other hand, passing the deal will lead to unemployment of those that are working in the fossil fuel industry. However, as Pettifor mentions, the anti-emission projects will create over 20 million new jobs worldwide. The Deal will reimburse for the lost jobs and offer employment to even more people. As Bordoff says, approximately 60,000 individuals are currently working in the coal sector in the USA. The 20 million employment opportunities will definitely beat the number of persons that will lose their jobs if the Deal succeeds and the unemployed will be compensated.
Additionally, the Deal has assigned a large number of funds to help the undeveloped countries that suffer the consequences of climate change. Especially, the Green New Deal has devoted a sum of approximately $200 billion to be spent on the poor in the battle against climate change (Pettifor). This financial support and job creation will help in connecting the economic gap in the world.
Climate change is not a hoax, so the Green New Deal should not be ignored. The Green New Deal provides a full solution to help the future challenges of climate change. With greener energy, there will be fewer emissions in the earth's atmosphere which will help control global warming that is related to climate change. Guiding the financial resources away from fossil fuels and other non-renewable energy projects will cause unemployment; however, implementing the deal will create even more jobs for the greater good. Finally, the initiatives organized by the Deal are likely to be economically productive since they will generate enough revenue to reduce the project independently. The Green New Deal should be adopted because it will help the employment of a good amount of the population. The project will have a direct impact on reducing the greenhouse effect and should therefore be supported. The Green New Deal will not require extra funding throughout its course because the energy projects will source enough finances to run the operations. Consequently, rather than drain the population, the projects will benefit society through the distribution of income, employment, development, and extinction of climate change. Although the Green New Deal is what the Earth needs right now, let us not wait till our government officials decide to take action and implement it. Let’s start first in our personal lives by making changes in our lifestyles. Recycling and reusing should naturally be applied to our daily routines. Furthermore, taking a bigger stand and eating less meat will help since large corporations have contributed to deforestation to make way for livestock ranching; these contribute to climate change by creating greenhouse gas emissions from cows and fertilizer use. My solution to this is to find delicious meat-alternative recipes. Hence, we should all take a stand for what we believe in and investigate further calls to action.
Works Cited
- Bordoff, Jason. 'Getting Real About the Green New Deal.' Democracy Journal, 2019, https://democracyjournal.org/arguments/getting-real-about-the-green-new-deal/.
- Friedman, Lisa. 'Bernie Sanders’s ‘Green New Deal’: A $16 Trillion Climate Plan'. Nytimes.Com, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/22/climate/bernie-sanders-climate-change.html.
- Hansen, James. Why I Must Speak Out About Climate Change. 2012, https://www.ted.com/talks/james_hansen_why_i_must_speak_out_about_climate_change/discussion?012/03/07/james-hansen-ted-talk-climate-change_n_1326886.html. Accessed 21 Nov 2019.
- Pettifor, Anne. 'The Beauty Of A Green New Deal Is That It Would Pay For Itself | Climate Change | The Guardian.' amp.theguardian.com, 2019, https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/17/green-new-deal-climate-disaster.
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