How about a Green New Deal for Christmas?

Note the title doesn't mention which year's Christmas. Next year, to go along with a Blue Wave in elections, a Green New Deal would make for a wonderful present to the earth and everyone on it, human and nonhuman persons alike.

wind turbine at University of Minnesota, Morris MN

Photo by J. Harrington

What's your email inbox look like these days? Mines full of money asks to help solve crisis after crisis, most related to the climate we've broken and/or the political system that maintains the break in the climate. An organization known as the Bioneers has put together a "Media Collection" ... "to remind us that we have the expertise on hand to do what must be done."

In 1988, legendary scientist James Hansen testified to Congress about the dire threat the human caused climate change posed to the planet. Three decades later, we’re still dragging our feed. The longer we wait to take meaningful action, the more comprehensive and rapid the transition will need to be in order to respond to the urgent situation; hence the scope and scale of a Green New Deal.

southwestern Minnesota wind farms in corn fields

Photo by J. Harrington

Minnesota has its own version of a Green New Deal initiative, but it could use lots more public support. We haven't yet tried to do a comparison of the Green New Deal elements with the solutions proposed by Project Drawdown. As this is written, the location from which it is being written was, about 10,000 years ago, under a glacier. Although unlikely to occur during my lifetime, I don't find it difficult to accept that, unless greenhouse gases are indeed drawndown, earth could become much like Mars.

Christmas is a time of darkness and renewal, of endings and rebirth. As December ends, the days will again be lengthening. For Christmas this year I'd like many hearts to be warmed to the desirability and need to support a New Green Deal. As a carryover for Christmas next year, I'd like to see Green New Deal legislation passed and packaged under everyone's trees. May all our Christmases and Winter solstices be celebrated with greenery and renewable energy and a circular economy with balanced stocks and flows and jobs with living wages for all. Remember, Santa's sleigh doesn't burn fossil fuels.

SANTA AND THE REINDEER

by Shel Silverstein 

"This is the hour," said Santa Claus,

"The bell rings merrily."

Then on his back he slung his pack,

And into his sleigh climbed he.

"On, Dancer! On, Prancer! On, Donner and Blitzen!

On, Comet and Cupid!" cried he.

And all the reindeers leaped but one,

And that one stood silently.

He pulled the sleigh for a thousand years,

And never a word spoke he.

Now he stood in the snow, and he whispered low—

"Oh what do you have for me?"

"I have games and toys for girls and boys,"

Said Santa cheerily.

The reindeer stood as if made of wood—

"But what do you have for me?"

"The socks are hung, the bells are rung!"

Cried Santa desperately.

The reindeer winked at a falling star—

"But what do you have for me?"

Then Santa reached into his beard,

And he found a tiny flea,

And he put it into the reindeer's ear,

And the reindeer said, "For me? Oh gee!"

And into the blue away they flew,

Away they flew with the flea.

And the moral of this yuletide tale

You know as well as me.

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