Stan cox: the green new deal and beyond: ending the climate emergency while we still can
- PDF / 440,020 Bytes
- 2 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 14 Downloads / 184 Views
Stan cox: the green new deal and beyond: ending the climate emergency while we still can Jacob A. Miller1 Accepted: 24 June 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Stan Cox’s The Green New Deal and Beyond argues that the realities of our climate crisis require the elimination of fossil fuels from the U.S. economy and a realignment of the unjust system that allows for their exploitation. Cox’s thesis is that the Green New Deal legislation (GND) is a good first step, but we in the U.S. must also acknowledge and adhere to the limits of economic growth and material consumption. His evidence-driven analysis builds from the IPCC report’s finding that we need to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 if we are to limit global warming to 1.5 °C. Cox supports his argument in three major ways. First, he walks through the history of growth and limits from 1933 to the present, with special emphasis on 2016–2020. Second, he explains why limits are inescapable and how to achieve them through a plan called “cap-and-adapt.” Finally, Cox argues that any realignment must correct the social inequalities endured by lower- and middle- classes and the Global South. Initially, to ground the history of limits, Cox discusses the 1933 New Deal, resulting labor movement, and WWII rationing—examples where the Federal Government stepped in to stimulate the economy and impose limits. Cox then reminds us of the 1972 book, The Limits to Growth, highlighting its relevance for today. For instance, the books says “when we introduce technological developments that successfully lift some restraint to growth or avoid some collapse, the system simply grows to another limit, temporarily surpasses it, and falls back” (p. 19) and “if you follow those ascending business-as-usual curves to which the world is still adhering out to the year 2030, they show industrial and food production peaking out and then collapsing” (p. 20). What was true fifty years ago is true today: Technology must * Jacob A. Miller [email protected] 1
Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work, Kansas State University, 204 Waters Hall, 1603 Old Claflin Place, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA
adhere to limits, entropy will always prevail, and industrial food production is unsustainable in the long run. Cox goes on to explain the political pinball that ensued in response to the energy crisis of the 1970s and 1980s, including President Carter’s attempt to decrease reliance on foreign oil and President Reagan’s National Energy Plan and initiation of federal subsidies for fossil fuel expansion. As Cox ventures into the 1990s and 2000s, he lays out major environmental and political milestones, and concludes each with the U.S. gross domestic product and C O2 ppm emissions at that point in time (e.g. 1992 Rio Earth Summit: $6.5 trillion (T), 356 ppm; 1997 Kyoto Protocol: $8.6 T, 2008 U.N. Green New Deal: $14.7 T, 385 ppm; 2015 Paris Agreement: $18.2 T, 400 ppm). Cox’s parallelism and juxtaposition make the point that no matter the political or social milestone, a rise in GDP, buttressed b
Data Loading...
