Thread by @DoctorVive

This is why we need a #GreenNewDeal:

Because climate change is not a marginal but systemic problem, solving it by definition requires transforming our extractive system in which people are allowed to die in service of a rising GDP.

But this is not just a moral position....

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The #GreenNewDeal is what is known as a "Christmas tree." There is something in it for everybody.

And this is politically PRAGMATIC. Some might even say politically "realistic."

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Why is the #GreenNewDeal politically "realistic"? Because it's a *fantasy* that privileged people will give up the joys of the fossil fuel economy in great enough numbers to produce the transition. That a carbon tax will shape "demand" in time to save us.

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The only way to build the political coalition big enough to overcome fossil fuel interests and general complacency is precisely to promise that fixing the climate will make the vast majority of people's lives better right now. And ESPECIALLY the lives of people of color.

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Nothing progressive happens in American politics without people of color. Nothing. They are the real power in left politics, despite what the Democrats and the media and even sometimes (sorry) the socialists seem to think.

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And as @MaryHeglar has brilliantly said, climate change is just not the first existential crisis that African Americans have ever faced.

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@MaryHeglar And now that white, environmental America is all "oh shit, now it's *our* kids who are going to die, oh fuck y'all need to stop flying, now you're rich, & pay a carbon tax and accept the loss of your manufacturing job without any compensation and and and."

I don't think so.

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@MaryHeglar The point of the #GreenNewDeal is to bring EVERYBODY on board with the promise that climate action will EASE, not increase the suffering of the people who are hurting now.

And that is a big fucking tent!

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@MaryHeglar If we can create a coalition of African Americans & white people from "depopulated rural communities," plus the suburban moms terrified by climate change (there are a lot of those), plus everyone who wants secure employment and health care, guess what happens?

We win.

@MaryHeglar Which is not to say such coalition building will be easy. The entire Republican political agenda relies on stoking racism to divide African Americans and white people. But that's why environmental racism -- or, hell, just racism -- is the core issue of climate politics.

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@MaryHeglar And it know it may seem fanciful to imagine that we can "solve racism" in the coming decades, when we either decarbonize the world or the world unravels.

But you know which institution is remarkably not so racist, at least in the context of its operations? The armed forces.

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@MaryHeglar And it is so, because the mission of the armed forces manages to contain the racist cultural violence that plagues American politics more broadly.

That is why, as we work to build a #GreenNewDeal coalition, we need to advance the message of @MobilizeClimate and @GretaThunberg.

@MaryHeglar @MobilizeClimate @GretaThunberg This is a #ClimateEmergency.

Our lives are in danger.

We can't fix it later.

We need to mobilize NOW to save ourselves

AND make ourselves more prosperous and happy in the process.

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@MaryHeglar @MobilizeClimate @GretaThunberg Thank you for coming to my #subtweet.

Oh, and #EndClimateSilence.

fin/