The Green New Deal

The Green New Deal – The books notes that the world is within a degree or two of temperature rise before it witnesses the cataclysm of runaway feedback loops and a cascade of climate-change events that would decimate the Earth’s ecosystems. The author points out that the concerned observers are increasingly alarmed by severe weather events and other clear signs of a changing climate regime manifest in expensive destruction of life and property. Against this, trends among younger citizens to participate in a so-called sharing economy, with shared housing, office space, vehicles, tools, and the like are allowing the human race to use far less of the resources of the Earth while passing on what they no longer use to others and, by doing so, dramatically reducing carbon emissions. It will take more than that, of course: Infrastructure must be overhauled and old ways of doing things must be cast aside. The author warns that there is not much time to do so and projects that without change, fossil-fuel civilisation have less than 10 years of life. He adds that this change “is inevitable, despite any efforts by the fossil fuel industries to forestall it.” The author then enumerates a programme and expresses hope that a “biosphere consciousness” is emerging. The book emphasises the point to make more efforts to remake a doomed fossil-fuel economy before it’s too late. The Weekender