Sunday Night News Round-Up...
Discover more from Generation Green New Deal Newsletter
Hi There Green New DealMakers,
We’re back with another Sunday night news round-up for you, but first have you heard our season 1 podcast finale with Naomi Klein, Bill McKibben and Sunrise Movement’s Varshini Prakash?!
If you haven’t yet had a chance to listen (or, even if you have..) please check out our new video with some highlights from the show…
And, if you’ve enjoyed the show—and are looking for some more great bonus content (and an easy way to support our work) you can become a Patron on our new Patreon to get special access to bonus content, like the full extended interviews with Naomi, Bill and Varshini!
BECOME A PATRON OF GENERATION GREEN NEW DEAL, NOW!
Ok, on to our Green New(s) Roundup / Reading List…
First up, check out Noah Smith’s fantastic interview with friend-of-the-pod, former Chief of Staff to AOC, and current podcaster @ Building the Dream, Saikat Chakrabarti…Smith’s in-depth interview with Saikat, about the early days of the Green New Deal, is extremely informative, and reading it evoked memories of Saikat’s stories on episode 3 of the GenGND pod’s first season, ‘The AOC Effect’…
Ironically enough Dave Roberts, author of the must-read VOLTS newsletter, who tweeted about the article as we were scrolling through Twitter this morning, is ALSO on that episode of GenGND! We jumped into the conversation with a thread of posts detailing some of Saikat’s incredible stories from our pod, and he was kind enough to give us a shoutout…
Thank you, Saikat! We hope you’ll join us for a return on Season 2, to talk about where we go from here in the ‘Decade of the Green New Deal’!
Next, there was some Y’UGE news on the anti-fracking front…The movement that started over a decade ago, to Ban fracking across the Delaware River Basin, which was documented in, and put on the map by, the Academy-Award-nominated GASLAND (And follow-up GASLAND 2) by filmmaker Josh Fox, has emerged victorious!
There was also some big news about President Biden’s Cabinet appointments this week…First, Jennifer Granholm was sworn in as the next Secretary of Energy, and then she released this great video outlining DOE’s new focus on clean-energy and stopping the climate crisis by creating millions of jobs, which is just oh so refreshing, and pretty revolutionary, to hear from a Secretary of Energy…
Our pal Jamie Henn, a co-founder of 350.org and Director of Fossil Free Media, had this to say about the video from Secretary Granholm…
We couldn’t agree more, Jamie—‘all aboard!’
There was also some exciting developments with President Biden’s nomination for the Secretary of the Interior, Rep. Deb Haaland as Congress held confirmation hearings for her last week. Friend-of-the-pod, creator of the #DebForInterior hashtag, and recent Time100 Next honoree, Julian Brave Noisecat covered the most important part of the story in the hearings for his recent op-ed in The Washington Post, “Why Senate Republicans Fear Deb Haaland”
Yet, in spite of Republican’s best efforts, we’re very happy to see that it appears Haaland’s nomination will proceed after Senator Joe Manchin declared his support for her appointment last week…
If you’re curious what the next big campaign from Sunrise Movement will be focused on—look no further than Rep. Ayanna Pressley’s new resolution in support of a Federal Jobs Guarantee, and learn more by watching her new video below…
Sunrise will be pushing for this Jobs Guarantee as a part of it’s next campaign, GOOD JOBS FOR ALL…
The campaign kicks off later this week, with an event on March 4th, and you can sign-up to host a watch-party with Sunrise, here.
If you’re looking for another pod to listen to while we’re on hiatus, you should check out last week’s great episode from our pals over at BLOC PARTY, the Justice Democrats’ new show. Host Guido Girgenti interviews Sunrise Co-Founder, and his Co-Author of WINNING THE GREEN NEW DEAL, Varshini Prakash about her experiences serving on the Biden-Sanders unity task force for climate…
Our friend, and climate-icon, Naomi Klein dove deep into the story unfolding in India, where youth-climate activist Disha Ravi was recently arrested by government authorities who claimed that a climate-activism toolkit from Greta Thunberg, harmless google docs, and online conversations between Ravi and her fellow climate activists were evidence of conspiracy, sedition, and incitement against the Government. These claims were thrown out in court by a Judge who called the evidence “Scanty and sketchy.”
But the real story is how Big Tech has assisted the Indian Government, and Prime Minister Modi’s Hindu Nationalist ruling party, in cracking down more broadly on activists. Read Naomi’s full investigation for The Intercept, here…
THE CASE FOR A PERMANENT STIMULUS, by Kate Aronoff for The New Republic
NEW UN CLIMATE REPORT PUTS THE WORLD ON ‘RED-ALERT’ FOR CLIMATE CATASTROPHE, by Dharna Noor for EARTHER
THE TEXAS CRISIS COULD BECOME EVERYONE’S CRISIS, by Ezra Klein for the New York Times
MORAL BANKRUPTCY, by Amy Westervelt & Mary Heglar for HOT TAKE (Subscription required & encouraged)
A BETTER WAY TO THINK ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE KIDS’ CONUNDRUM, by Colin Groundwater for GQ
GLOBAL ACTION IS ‘VERY FAR’ FROM WHAT’S NEEDED TO AVERT CLIMATE CHAOS, by Somini Sengupta for The New York Times
TEXAS IS A RICH STATE IN A RICH COUNTRY, AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENED, by Ezra Klein for The New York Times
TEENAGERS DESERVE A SEAT AT BIDEN’S CLIMATE TABLE, by Nick Martin for The New Republic
WHO WILL CLEAN UP THE ‘BILLION DOLLAR MESS’ OF ABANDONED U.S. OIL WELLS, by Heather Hansman for The Guardian
3 POPULAR POLICIES DEMOCRATS CAN USE TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE AND BOOST THE ECONOMY, by Lili Pike for VOX
ON CLIMATE, WALL STREET OUT-ORWELLS ORWELL, by Bill McKibben
TEXAS’ ENERGY CRISIS IS AMERICA’S FUTURE, by Kate Aronoff for The New Republic
THE GREAT CLIMATE BILL OF 2021 IS BEING SHAPED NOW, by Robinson Meyer for The Atlantic
THE U.S. NEEDS A SUPER GRID, by Dharna Noor for EARTHER