The Green New Deal and consumerism

[JOHN DE GRAAF,* JOHN DE GRAAF]

Honored to have this piece https://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2019/03/the-promise-of-the-green-new-deal/

published in the (traditionally) conservative Front Porch Forum as I try to move ideas beyond the choir. I think it gives us another opportunity to talk about issues like sustainability with students and our communities. In this piece I argue that the GND should also consider shorter work-time as a sustainability and happiness strategy and address consumerism, which is the largest cause of GHGs.  I include data from Bill Rees--thanks Bill!  I also suggest that as the New Deal created the GDP to measure its success, the Green New Deal needs a new measure.  And I suggest that, contrary to popular understanding, the original New Deal was first and foremost a Green (environmental) New Deal, well before it addressed issues like social security, labor rights, etc.  Look forward to your response to this and hope it is useful--at least in the US.

best,

John

John de Graaf

www.johndegraaf.com

[Magnus Bengtsson]

Thanks for sharing, John,

Nice piece (also for us outside of the US).

I pushed it to Rhiana Gunn-Wright (often mentioned as one of the architects of the GND) on Twitter and got an instant and positive response. 

All cheers,

/Magnus

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Magnus Bengtsson, PhD

Sustainability Advisor | Researcher | Educator

Skype: tokyomange

Mobile: +81-80-3174-5916 

Twitter: @BMBengtsson

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/magnus-bengtsson-37383520

Google Scholar: https://tinyurl.com/yd7oxmpg 
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[JOHN DE GRAAF,* JOHN DE GRAAF]

Thanks, Magnus, do you know her?  I hope to connect with her.  I'm glad you liked the piece.  Are you in Japan?  

best,

John

John de Graaf

www.johndegraaf.com

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/scorai/CAAnH433GTBJDnk46QyGMQocrEQ0fNdLduayTm_3Mp6hVSrNTAQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Tom Abeles]

A well turned article reflecting on the similarities promulgated during the time of FDR. What makes this of further interest is that it is almost a manifesto but looking for solutions from the near past. Many of these ideas were seen in the writings of  the 18th/19th century philosopher Sismondi  embodied in Marxist thought. The keys he suggests are:

a) such a "revolution" needs to be in a time of "Abundance" which is the current moment

b) Much of Sismondi's thinking and that embodied in the GND are manifest in the writings on the UBI, Universal Basic Income

c) Sismondi suggests that there might be created a world with "super" animals" to take on tasks of humans, which, today is manifest in the rise of steel collared and white collared robots and the advances in AI

What is unresolved is how one decouples a person's cultural "self" from the measures of worth via both "work" and material signals, still evident in the article. Hmm, 1.5 million USD for a racing pigeon?

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