“Ethical Markets welcomes Bernie Sanders new richly-documented, scientifically-focused plan for ten-year phased public investments in  laying in place the foundations of green infrastructure and shifting of current subsidies and tax policies from the 19^th and 20^th century incumbent fossilized sectors to  the backbone structures further enabling orderly shifts to 21^st century “Solar Age” economies.  These are now emerging worldwide, creating millions of new jobs in new sectors, as costs and efficiency of these renewable energies now compete with the past of coal, oil, gas, nuclear and wasteful industrial processes in the transition to circular economies. I advocated a similar plan in 2016 “Greening Trump’s Infrastructure Plan“ and we have tracked private investments in green technologies since 2009 in our annual Green Transition Scoreboard® reports, the latest total at $10.387 trillion in 2019.

We were early supporters of the Green New Deal Resolution, spearheaded by Senators Ed Markey and Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the 116^th US Congress in early 2019, which has garnered widespread support in both Houses and among all presidential candidates.  Senator Sanders has provided much useful, granular detail on all the major planks  in the original Resolution, helping to flesh out just how many sectors of our society can participate in this ten-year green transition, and why it requires the “moonshot” approach, since this vision is nothing less than a glimpse of the cleaner, more just and equitable future based on knowledge-richer green  technologies  and how to deploy these to distribute their jobs and benefits widely to  those left behind during the fossilized industrial past .

I found nothing to object to, but I hope for broader details on several policies, especially beyond all the good plans for reforming agriculture and paying farmers for regenerating local, organic agriculture and capturing ambient CO2 in soils.   We also need to expand our perilous global food supply, based on the planet’s dwindling supply of freshwater, controlled by monopolistic conglomerates and a handful of vulnerable monocultured corn, wheat, soy, rice, alfalfa, and excessive livestock factory-produced meats …… all adding to human illnesses, heart disease, diabetes, obesity and burdened with toxic pesticides and laced with antibiotics causing deaths from new antibiotic-resistant organisms.  We hope this visionary plan can include our research on all the plant-based foods and beverages that can replace all factory-raised meat diets, as well as expanding to  all the overlooked foods from plants and trees (e.g. quinoa, jackfruits, China’s salt-tolerant rice, kelp, etc.) and all the other salt-loving plants, seaweeds that thrive on the planet’s 97% saltwater.

We hope that all the presidential candidates, as well as Governor Jay Inslee, now running for a third term as Governor of Washington, who has led the field in climate change shifts to greener economies.  In my webinar Sept 5^th “Transitioning to Science-Based Investing”, co-sponsored by the Arizona State University Lightworks Security and Sustainability Forum and the American Sustainable Business Council, I will detail how this Green New Deal can be profitable and how investments in green infrastructure using no-interest Green Infrastructure Bonds and other public procurement strategies can provide millions of new jobs and widely-distributed equitable prosperity to those left behind and transitioning from fossilized sectors.

Please read this whole plan!

~Hazel Henderson, Editor.“

Bernie Sanders New Green Deal

Climate change is a global emergency. The Amazon rainforest is burning, Greenland’s ice shelf is melting, and the Arctic is on fire. People across the country and the world are already experiencing the deadly consequences of our climate crisis, as extreme weather events like heat waves, wildfires, droughts, floods, and hurricanes upend entire communities, ecosystems, economies, and ways of life, as well as endanger millions of lives. Communities of color,  working class people, and the global poor have borne and will bear this burden disproportionately.

The scientific community is telling us in no uncertain terms that we have less than 11 years left to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energy, if we are going to leave this planet healthy and habitable for ourselves, our children, grandchildren, and future generations. As rising temperatures and extreme weather create health emergencies, drive land loss and displacement, destroy jobs, and threaten livelihoods, we must guarantee health care, housing, and a good-paying job to every American, especially to those who have been historically excluded from economic prosperity.

The scope of the challenge ahead of us shares similarities with the crisis faced by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1940s. Battling a world war on two fronts—both in the East and the West—the United States came together, and within three short years restructured the entire economy in order to win the war and defeat fascism. As president, Bernie Sanders will boldly embrace the moral imperative of addressing the climate crisis and act immediately to mobilize millions of people across the country in support of the Green New Deal. From the Oval Office to the streets, Bernie will generate the political will necessary for a wholesale transformation of our society, with support for frontline and vulnerable communities and massive investments in sustainable energy, energy efficiency, and a transformation of our transportation system.

We need a president who has the courage, the vision, and the record to face down the greed of fossil fuel executives and the billionaire class who stand in the way of climate action. We need a president who welcomes their hatred. Bernie will lead our country to enact the Green New Deal and bring the world together to defeat the existential threat of climate change.

[Bernie Sanders The Green New Deal] READ MORE

Released August 2019