The Daily Climate: Obama Moves Towards a 'Green New Deal'

Published November 24, 2008 @ 08:38AM PT

Leaf President-elect Obama is so far standing strong on his campaign pledge to take decisive action on global warming -- and doing it in two smart ways.

First is the message: Mr. Obama is emphasizing the interconnections and the upbeat possibilities. He's clear on the fact that the jobs created by jumpstarting our transition to a low-carbon economy will help revivify the economy. So his economic stimulus plan incorporates funding for energy efficiency, clean power, and restoring disintegrating infrastructure (roads, bridges, water and sewer systems, etc.).

Second is the medium: By posting it to YouTube, Mr. Obama takes this message directly to the American people, especially those who were already engaged with his election campaign via the internet. This effectively leaves the pundits, business leaders and politicians (here and abroad) who've been arguing for business as usual to react with dispiriting cautions, rather than set the tone of the debate. In normal free market fashion, their argument that it's too risky to the fragile economy to tackle global warming conveniently externalizes the very real economic costs of depleting the environment, degrading public health, and de-stabilizing the climate.

Here's President-elect Obama's latest weekly message:

Economy Of The People, By The People

Obama Introduces Plan To Create 2.5 Million Jobs By 2011 (National Journal)

Obama Urged to Create 'Green New Deal' (Boston Globe)

Obama's green start: US president-elect prepares two bills to cut pollution and kick-start a clean energy revolution (The Independent)

Obama Eyes $500 Billion in Stimulus (The Wall Street Journal)

Obama Testing Ways to Use Internet to Govern (San Francisco Chronicle)

Image: "A leaf with laminar structure and pinnate venation." Via Wikimedia Commons.

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Comments (7)

Let's ensure we are smart about implementing a new, green economy! The nuclear and coal industry will do their very best to create false impressions and promises, promoting their causes and trying to take advantage.

Once a power plant is built - it will be there for the next 40-60 years to come. We've seen it before, when operators of nuclear power plants lobbied against changes for greener alternatives, calling it "unfair" - because it would hurt their large investment!

I'm all for doing some research of "clean coal" - but let's face it, we don't know whether it will ever be feasible (beyond small scale demonstrations). If (and that's a big if) it turns out to be indeed save and practical, we shall implement it in the future. But in the meantime let's scale up and widely roll out things we know to work:
- conservation (residential/commercial buildings, cars)
- sustainable generation: wind, concentrated solar, photovoltaic, ...

Posted by Robert Suiter on 11/30/2008 @ 10:00AM PT
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the first step is to end waste
adopt a simple lifestyle
stop the rampant consumersim
and, materialism of our age
then, work for sustainable development

Posted by Sohail Mahmood on 12/01/2008 @ 07:51AM PT
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We can stop the carlessness! We can end the factories polluting our air! We can make our air clean again...YES WE CAN!!

Posted by Marcy Becker on 12/01/2008 @ 08:55PM PT
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To lower greenhouse gasses and to encourage international cooperation, President Obama should seriously consider the Trans-Global Highway which was proposed by Frank X. Didik a number of years ago. Their site is at www.TransGlobalHighway.com

Posted by Dave Paris on 12/02/2008 @ 09:18AM PT
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Conservation/energy efficiency is certainly an essential step -- and making the true gains in lowering energy use, instead of just hooking up additional energy-lean devices.

Posted by Emily Gertz on 12/02/2008 @ 02:56PM PT
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I think that one idea that may control the effects of Global Warming is the Trans Global Highway which was proposed by Frank Didik a few years ago. This highway would have the effect of being able to pump water world wide, while at the same time, lower the cost of transport of goods. Their website is at www.TransGlobalHighway.org .

Posted by Dave Paris on 12/19/2008 @ 10:50AM PT
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A great way to implement this would be to set up a subsidy fund to incent companies to build renewable energy infrastructure in the United States. A good way to fund that program would be to cut the tax breaks for Big Oil and use those taxes for the program.

Posted by Michael Spead on 12/31/2008 @ 09:26AM PT
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