Sixteen Youths Tell Us What They Think Of The Green New Deal

I wonder how all the young people would feel if anyone explained to them that if the GND was implemented they’d have to take a train if they wanted to take a selfie in a special place, but, unfortunately, an unintended consequence would be wiping out the manufacture of smartphones, which use massive amounts of electricity and require lots of rare earth minerals and such, shipped all around the world with a massive carbon footprint

What 16 Young People Think About the Green New Deal

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The policy proposals that will undergird the Green New Deal are still to come; for now, the GND represents a moral and political imagining that politicians have consistently failed to offer. It’s a vision to champion; a charge to lead; and a new, youth-led expectation for the people elected into power.

The Green New Deal can only exist with the force and imaginations of the young people whose world it will shape. So Student Nation asked young people across the country: As the generation poised to inherit a world directly threatened by the impacts of climate change, how could the Green New Deal affect your future, or the future of disaffected communities coast to coast?

Yes, let’s ask the world-wise kids. What follows are the quick stories from the 16, let’s take a look at them, shall we (each excerpt is a different student)?

As a millennial college student entering the workforce in a time of economic uncertainty and environmental crisis, I am constantly inundated with the word “burnout.” With a growing mental-health crisis across college campuses, the looming burden of astronomical student debt, and the daunting prospect of inheriting a planet on the brink of catastrophe, it is no surprise that we are frequently called the “burnout generation.” Among a seemingly endless succession of burgeoning crises, the Green New Deal offers a glimmer of hope. Emma Fiona Jones is a senior at Vassar College studying art history and women’s studies.

So, pretty much someone wasting all those loans on a worthless degree. Let’s listen to her about “brink of catastrophe.”

With healthier foods, organic options and other “green” efforts to cleanse the earth on our side, we’ll restore the landscapes and places as we once knew them. Trees will grow to help purify our air. Animals will return to their natural habitats. Green jobs will help sprout economic prosperity. We can strip away America as we’ve known it—the America that, for many Americans, spoon-feeds them their own suffering.

Um, trees love carbon dioxide. More under the fold

Let’s see what Mollie Davis, a freshman at Hollins University studying communications, has to say

Obviously, I am not the only person impacted by the possibility of climate change destroying the world as we know it. But, selfishly, I tend to view it through thoughts like: “I will never be able to write a Broadway show, or run for Congress, if the planet becomes unlivable.”

See? Without the GND she might never be able to write that Broadway show! This is your fault for having that steak the other night.

I’m a man of few wants. After graduating college, I want a job with good pay in a nice city, preferably somewhere near the coast, like many young people. I want to ditch my car, because driving is way worse than taking the bus. And I want to enjoy my good-paying job, my nice city, and its reliable public transportation for the rest of my natural life.

Oh, Jake Gold, you can ditch your car right now. Kinda hard to have a good job when the GND destroys the economy.

To me, the Green New Deal is our last hope. Implementing it would show that climate change is a serious issue that needs to be resolved immediately. As Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said, the Green New Deal would finally treat climate change “like the serious, existential threat it is.” —Emily Sabens is a senior at Ball State University studying journalism and graphic design.

Will Emily demand that the House vote on the GND? AOC is certainly not agitating for a vote on it. She became livid that they voted on it in the Senate.

So, it isn’t surprising that the students I’ve spoken to overwhelmingly support the Green New Deal, which addresses climate change as a scientific, social-justice, and economic issue. The primary critique of the GND students have expressed is the logistics of funding GND initiatives. Some of my peers have stated they support the GND in principle but need to know exactly how policy-makers will obtain GND funding (and how it will impact low- and middle-income individuals), before they back it as policy. Others have minimized funding, stressing that money cannot buy a new planet.

It’ll destroy the low and middle income individuals, while the rich people who push this tripe will be just fine.

This legislation is not only about saving the planet. It is about reimagining the way that we live. Considering the magnitude of the crisis awaiting us, and considering the populations that crisis will devastate first and foremost, it is the necessary approach. —Abe Asher is a junior at Macalester College studying political science and religious studies.

The way we live, huh? Funny that the supporters do not change their own lives voluntarily.

As a young, black woman who lives on the intersection of multiple identities, it is important for policies to be intersectional and take into account that many people also live on the intersection of multiple identities and are impacted by issues like climate change in distinct ways.

Huh what?

While the thought of extensive green measures like those mentioned in the Green New Deal sound great, I believe that we need to take small steps before we do it all at once. That being said, the implementation of the Green New Deal would be beneficial to everyone. Something needs to be done about the impending dangers of climate change, and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Edward Markey clearly helped put together a well thought-out plan.

Markey voted “present” during the Senate vote.

The Green New Deal is extreme and expensive. If implemented, it will likely affect nearly every industry in the nation and will certainly have an immediate impact on the US economy. But extreme circumstances necessitate extreme responses—and the state of our planet far exceeds this qualification.

So, screw the economy.

The truth of the matter is, if we don’t get serious about change, my generation won’t see our children walk across the stage at high-school graduation. Serious change won’t be easy, and the upfront monetary cost is massive. But nothing worthwhile ever is easy, and the cost of not changing our ways is the very future of mankind.

So to this I say, take your pick: money or lives.

Yes, young people, pick. Give up your fossil fueled trips to spring break and taking selfies in special places. Give up your smartphones. Make your own clothes rather than ordering them on-line and having them shipped from far away. Grow your own food. Show us your commitment.