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Democracy Chronicles

A Serious Green New Deal

by Mats Sederholm - June 7, 2019

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A Serious Green New Deal

The idea of a Green New Deal (GND) is rapidly sweeping across the western world right now. GND is the concept that aims for a radical effort against the impact of climate change. But it might well end with further political rhetoric, using the climate issue as a hook.

Many have wanted to fill this GND goodie bag with their own political ideals, painting it green hoping that this will bring good luck to their own ideology and its popularity. Barack Obama, Gordon Brown, the US Democrats, and most recently the victorious Spanish Social Democrats (PSOE) are among those who have tried to add this concept to their campaigns.

A Serious Green New Deal
San Francisco protest 2019 – Image source

GND was originally (2007) a purely “green-investment-and-job” concept inspired by Roosevelt’s New Deal but has since been expanded to include social reforms and subsequently been approved by greens, social democrats and the European left.

The only question is whether or not GND is a new American feel-good story in which economic growth looks green instead of blue, sprinkled with some minor social conscience concessions for those worst off. Or does it actually imply the total conversion of society that is necessary?

According to the autumn message from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we face the challenge of ending 200 years of fossil fuel use within 30 years. We must halve the emissions by 2030 and reduce them to zero by the middle of the century.

Presuming economic growth continues, our energy consumption will triple during that period. Limited fossil fuel emissions, green investments and jobs, clean technology, environmental know-how or the homely intention of Roosevelt will not stop the climate threat. There also needs to be less consumption and depletion of the Earth’s resources. And with such a solution, the number of GND politicians would probably shrink considerably, as the popularity factor would drastically drop!

The word growth, implicitly economic, is what the whole western world is based on. We are told that unless we have growth, we will go under. And since most, perhaps all, of Europe’s politicians (for whom climate conscious Europeans are due to vote in the European elections on May 26) choose the road to destruction, it is important to voice the unvarnished truth. The radical change in society needed to decelerate climate change requires a radical policy. The politicians standing alongside the polling stations with seductive claims about welfare and job opportunities, as well as saving the planet, constitute a jokers’ market.

What is needed:

A New Social Structure – A New Economy – Massive Green Investment – A Renovation of Democracy.

In France, the Yellow Vest protests have left Macron politically isolated. Freedom, Equality and Brotherhood – that is the social knot that must FIRST be untangled before green taxes would be accepted. Inequality is about to erode the whole of Europe with immigration problems, poverty and distrust in its trail. Planting green politics in such poisoned soil is the hopeless proposal politicians offer us today.

A serious climate reversal cannot build on financial markets and banks that continue to make money out of nothing by lending and thereby gaining control over entire economies without conscience or democracy. A new economy must be able to withstand less consumption and smaller loans. Stop making things that break in the interest of profit. Stop bombarding people with advertising, creating dependence on lifestyle and status. The whole treadmill must slow down. The economy must adapt to people, not the other way around. A climate reversal requires composure, not rush.

We are faced with an existential crossroads. Not: “And we also need to think about the environment”.

Today, everyone loves the climate activists, but it is only a matter of time before the support will subside. Already today, there are mutterings from the right about the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. As time goes on, protests will also come from liberal politicians, the media and the business community, and perhaps also from the conservative left, when the inevitable debate about a serious New Green Deal will gain momentum and the issue is becoming an architectural and cultural one for society and not a political makeover.

The election for the future is not a party issue. It is about choosing between fear and conservatism or courage and progress. Maybe even a choice between activism or politicians who do not want to change until they suffer from the panic Greta Thunberg wishes for.

“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.”

– A Davis

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Filed Under: DC Authors Tagged With: Worldwide

About Mats Sederholm

Democracy Chronicles author Mats Sederholm was born in 1957 and today lives close to the capital of Sweden, Stockholm. Colliding Worlds (co-written with Linda Bjuvgård) is his first book to be released in both Swedish and English. His aim is to continue to help perpetuate an increasing awareness of system faults and standards which prevent human development.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Daniel Jones says

    June 11, 2019 at 11:39 pm

    Mats Sederholm makes some astute observations and suggestions in this article.

    He wrote the question: “Or does it actually imply the total conversion of society that is necessary?”

    I answer to this question: I think maybe, We should focus on the parts of Our Societies that drives the entire structure. This would be the “Capitalism”; its expressions as “Inferior Capitalism”, instead of the “Superior Capitalism” it could and should be.
    “Inferior Capitalism’s” advocates and spokespersons say that it is a self regulating system based on market fluctuations. This is True to some extent, but the regulation always tends to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. The connective middle ground in this phenomena seems to be getting weaker, as a few reach the upper ten percentile of wealth success and others lose jobs and businesses into the lower 50% of the economy. (Focused on the North American Economy” here) much of which is below poverty level standards. The “Middle Ground”, which many Thinkers think is the backbone of an economy is becoming porous and weak. Welfare systems are overloaded, while so called cash flow stagnates in the coffers (or other places of accumulation) of the excessively rich.

    Basically two things are needed to correct this;

    (1) An energetic study of the United State’s Moral Structures needs to be undertaken, for the purpose of…

    (2)…designing, entering into Law (Common Law) and enforcing, a dedicated new system of specific “Standards Of Moral Decency” as applied to the daily Life of Our Nation’s Functions.

    Within this general push for Better, We should first address the “Federal Reserve System” and “Price Controls”. Stability being the goal here.

    Just thought I would share these ideas…as a sort of tribute to the work done by Mats Sederholm in this article.

    Reply
    • mats sederholm says

      June 12, 2019 at 7:02 am

      Thank you Daniel for your appreciation

      “designing, entering into Law (Common Law) and enforcing, a dedicated new system of specific “Standards Of Moral Decency” as applied to the daily Life of Our Nation’s Functions.”

      oh YES!!

      Mats

      Reply
      • Daniel Jones says

        June 12, 2019 at 12:37 pm

        You are very welcome, Mats. Looking forward to more of your articles. We The People, as We gradually become more aware through education, need the ideas for a Better Nation that you and others present.

        Like you said: “New Green Deal will gain momentum and the issue is becoming an architectural and cultural one for society and not a political makeover.”

        Reply

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