February 8, 2019

Here Is the Green New Deal in Handy List Form

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I gather that Matt Whitaker is being quite the asshole in his testimony before Congress today:

Sadly, I didn’t watch the hearing. However, Hannah Levintova has more here.

In the meantime, I thought I would compile a list of everything included in the Green New Deal that was released yesterday. This is just for future reference:

  1. Commit to net zero greenhouse gas emissions within ten years
  2. Provide “millions” of good, high-wage jobs
  3. Repair and upgrade US infrastructure
  4. Provide everyone with access to clean air and clean water
  5. Repair historic oppression of indigenous peoples, communities of color, migrant communities, deindustrialized communities, depopulated rural communities, the poor, low-income workers, women, the elderly, the unhoused, people with disabilities, and youth
  6. Protect against extreme weather events
  7. Eliminate pollution and greenhouse gases “as much as technologically feasible”
  8. Meet 100 percent of power demand via renewable and zero-emission sources
  9. Upgrade to smart grids
  10. Upgrade all existing buildings for maximum energy efficiency
  11. Invest in public transit and high-speed rail
  12. Mitigate the long-term health effects of pollution and climate change
  13. Restore fragile ecosystems
  14. Clean up hazardous waste sites
  15. Provide higher education to all
  16. Invest in R&D of new energy technologies
  17. Build wealth, community ownership, and good jobs in marginalized communities
  18. Create union jobs that pay prevailing wages
  19. Guarantee living wage to everyone
  20. Guarantee family and medical leave, paid vacations, and retirement security to everyone
  21. Improve union bargaining strength
  22. Strengthen labor and workplace safety standards
  23. Enact trade rules that increase jobs but don’t transfer pollution overseas
  24. Reform the use of eminent domain
  25. Ensure that all business are free from unfair competition
  26. Provide all people of the United States with high-quality health care
  27. Provide all people of the United States with good housing
  28. Provide all people of the United States with economic security
  29. Provide all people of the United States with healthy and affordable food
  30. Provide all people of the United States with access to nature

This is really more of a social democratic manifesto than a climate change plan. Perhaps instead of Green New Deal, it should just be called “Finish Up the New Deal”?

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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