• Celebrate Earth Day 2019 By Supporting the Green Party's Green New Deal

San Francisco, CA – The Green Party of California released the following statement today on Earth Day 2019.

In 1969, a three million gallon oil spill despoiled the coast of Santa Barbara and was the impetus for the creation of Earth Day. On April 22, 1970, twenty million people in the United States took part in Earth Day events and vowed to protect our only home. This year, it is expected that almost one billion people will recognize Earth Day, but it isn't enough. Only a few countries are to blame and ours is one of them.

Green Party of California
www.cagreens.org

For Immediate Release:
April 22, 2019

Contact:
Laura Wells, [email protected], 510-504-4254

In 1970, pollution was visible – belching smoke stacks, burning rivers, acid rain and dense smog. The fix seemed relatively easy and in a surprisingly short time, many of the problems had been greatly reduced. But it wasn't long before the public's attention was diverted by an “oil shortage.” In the relief of “discovering” more crude in the U.S.A. and abroad, Americans went on an oil burning spree. The lessons of Earth Day were subsumed by the fossil fuel industry's dire warnings of future shortages and the ensuing “sacrifices”.

The use of fossil fuels increases the CO2 in the atmosphere and, though generally invisible when we look skyward, the effects of those emissions are being felt daily in the form of climate disruption. Many remain unconvinced that there is a problem because the oil companies and their lackeys in government have had a few decades to spread disinformation.

Recognizing the threat to life on the planet, as well as the need for economic security for the people living on it, in 2006 the Global Greens in Germany created a plan that dealt with both of these challenges. In 2010, Howie Hawkins, running as a Green Party candidate for governor of New York, first promoted a Green New Deal which draws on the ideas promoted in Europe and calls up the memory of shared purpose envisioned (though never fully realized) by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. During that election cycle, the Green New Deal was embraced by 62 Green Party candidates nationwide, including 11 in California.

The Green Party US understands that it is not possible to bring emissions under control and convert to 100% renewable energy sources under the current global system of capitalism and that it is not possible to change that system without changing the political system.

The U.S. military deserves a much greater focus in current Green New Deal discussions since it is the largest consumer of fossil fuels on the planet, is exempt from the Paris Climate Accords and it diverts the lion's share of the federal budget – money which could be used to create a green economy.

Thus the Green Party's ecosocialist Green New Deal is a WWII-scale national mobilization with a goal of 100% renewable energy by 2030, which also ensures economic security, human rights and political power for all of us. The Green New Deal is not a sacrifice, but a guarantee of a secure future. And the Green New Deal practically pays for itself with the end of wars for oil and in health care savings.

Not only must we vote for candidates on the national level who are committed to the Green Party's Green New Deal, we can demand the same locally. One step would be to work to get Green Party members on local planning commissions, while continuing our work to elect party members to local representative government entities, such as city councils and state legislatures.

Though Earth Day is now the largest secular observance in the world, we are losing the struggle to protect life on this planet, as the corporate political parties either roll back past advances, fail to enforce existing law or promote half measures.

Next year, on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, will we be able to say that we heeded the warnings? Will we be able to look our children in the eyes?

It's time to demand the real Green New Deal.

Details of the real Green New Deal can be found at
https://www.gp.org/green_new_deal