Five years on from the introduction of the Green New Deal, progressive lawmakers say that it’s needed now more than ever, with new, dangerous climate records being set each year and the grip of the fossil fuel industry showing little sign of waning.
Lawmakers who crafted and championed the original Green New Deal resolution have spoken up about its significance during its fifth anniversary this week, with original sponsors Sen. Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) putting out a report on the progress the U.S. has made toward the resolution’s original goals and, along with cosponsors like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), emphasizing the need to continue fighting for the proposal for years to come.
Meanwhile, new polling released by Data for Progress finds that the Green New Deal and related proposals remain widely popular, with 65 percent of voters saying they support a Green New Deal, including 85 percent of Democrats.
“Five years ago, we introduced a 10 year vision for social and ecological transformation big enough to save our planet: the Green New Deal,” said Ocasio-Cortez in a press conference celebrating the legislation on Tuesday. “It was laid out on three core principles to transform how the United States approached climate policy. The first was to dramatically accelerate the timeline for decarbonizing the US economy. The second was to say that we are going to create millions of jobs in this country to get it done. And the third principle was that we were going to leave no community behind in that transformation.”
“Transforming our economy away from fossil fuels isn’t radical. What’s radical is waiting another second to do it,” Sanders said on social media this week. “We introduced the Green New Deal 5 years ago today. Since then, we’ve seen the warmest day, month, and year on record. We can’t wait. We need a #GND now.”
Since the introduction of the Green New Deal, the concept has spread across the country, with multiple states and cities introducing their own Green New Deal resolutions. In addition to some climate legislation passing on the federal level, there has been a slate of related legislation, like Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal for Public Housing, that would advance the economic and climate goals of the original package.
The years since the introduction of the Green New Deal have been transformational for the climate due to countries’ continued reliance on fossil fuels.
Every year since 2019 has been one of the top 10 hottest years on record, with 2023 shattering the global average temperature by a staggering 0.27 degrees Fahrenheit. Natural disasters are getting far worse, with recent research proposing that scientists create a new category to document hurricane strength, Category 6, in order to represent how hurricanes are intensifying. Millions have already died due to the climate crisis, while even the world’s annual climate talks have been captured by fossil fuel interests.
Voters are increasingly concerned about the climate crisis. According to Data for Progress polling, nearly 50 percent of voters say they view the climate crisis more seriously now than they have in the past five years, with 69 percent of Democrats, 44 percent of independents and 30 percent of Republicans saying as such. At the same time, 57 percent of voters — including 79 percent of Democrats and 53 percent of independents — say they would be more likely to vote for an incumbent member of Congress who cosponsored the Green New Deal if it were reintroduced this session.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy