Regarding the March 3 letter to the editor, “Where’s the money to make Green New Deal happen?”: There’s been a lot of misinformation about the Green New Deal and what it will cost being spread by its opponents. If you want to get the facts about what’s in it, go to factcheck.org and search for “Green New Deal.” Right now the GND is simply a resolution to fight global warming by rapidly transitioning to clean energy.
The fact is, if we don’t have the Green New Deal, we will be facing catastrophic global warming that will cost hundreds of trillions of dollars, cause global economic collapse, resulting in societal collapse. The cost of just one-half degree increase in global temperatures will be $54 trillion (National Academy of Sciences, IPCC). We have only until 2030 to prevent that by achieving net-zero emissions.
The Green New Deal is the only plan out there that can do that. It will also create 15 million good-paying, local, permanent (40-year) green jobs (Stanford University’s solutionsproject.org). It can even reverse global warming by using best farming and grazing practices to enrich our soil and turn it into a massive carbon sink (yale.edu).
We can pay for the Green New Deal with carbon dividends (HR763), a bill currently in Congress that will tax fossil fuels out of existence and give all that tax money to the taxpayers, adding $75 billion to $80 billion to our GDP. Carbon dividends can also use market forces to make other nations cut their emissions as fast as we do. See how it works at citizensclimatelobby.org.
Pete Kuntz
Northglenn, Colorado
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
