A Green New Deal for the North Bay

The Green New Deal for the North Bay: It’s all about energy, change and activism

by Sandy LeonVest
Editor-Publisher, SolarTimes
http://www.solartimes.org

The Green New Deal for the North Bay is an activist-inspired, ground-up initiative in Marin and Sonoma counties based on
community outreach and local activism. The incubation of this initiative has led to the organizing of a grassroots commission, public hearings and numerous public events.

The free online dictionary defines activist as “a person who works energetically to achieve political or social goals.” My hope is that the Green New Deal for the North Bay will personify that definition with its local activism and grassroots inspiration. By providing a participatory forum that includes community input and public briefings on timely issues such as food, housing, water, health care, transportation, social equity and, of course, energy, they are off to a good start.

One of the more important aspects of the GND is that, as attorney and labor activist Lisa Maldonado notes in her article published in the most recent edition of SolarTimes, “We are at hugely teachable moment in history.” The Green New Deal (described in this edition of the Citizen by activist/journalist/author Norman Solomon) carves out time and space for members of the community to take part in this teachable moment, to learn from one another and work together to come up with real solutions to the specific problems that challenge our communities. The GND comes at the right moment, presents the right opportunity for activists of all stripes - from environmentalists to peace activists to social/economic justice advocates - to come together as a unified force to learn from and teach each other.

But learning and teaching will not be enough.

My hope is that the GND will take the time to reconsider - and redefine if necessary - the meaning of words like ‘sustainability,’ which along with so many other once-meaningful terms, has been all but co-opted by politicians and marketing firms - in this case to promote ‘green’ policies or ‘eco-friendly’ products. These marketeers seem to have forgotten that the word ‘sustainable’ literally means “that which is capable of being sustained.”

As the GND begins its work, an ever-growing number of families in the US are no longer able to sustain themselves.These families are facing a ruthless recession that has forced many into joblessness, hunger, homelessness and despair. Across the globe, others face ever-worsening conditions caused by war, drought, desertification, poverty and displacement.

Here in Marin, we are relatively insulated from many of these stark realities. Yet, on January 29, 2009, Marin County, along with community partners participating in Project Homeless Connect, conducted the federally mandated One Day Homeless Count which takes place every other year. The results of the 2009 count were staggering. The number of unsheltered homeless living on the streets, in parks, or in vehicles increased 257% from the 2007 count. Even more shocking, the number of people in Marin who are precariously housed - crashing with friends or relatives or living in an overcrowded dwelling - increased 1,207% (up to 3,058 in 2009 from 234 in 2007).

The latest estimates of Marin's homeless range from 1,770 to 6,000. Those numbers no doubt have only increased as the unemployment rate has soared. The county's jobless rate was 7.4 percent in March - more than double what it was two years ago.

We can do better …

Energy, environment and economic/social justice are not luxuries, they are necessities. People die from the lack of them, even while those more fortunate continue life as usual. So, as we envision solar arrays on every rooftop, let us first make sure that every family has a roof over its head. A truly sustainable community means families that have decent food to eat and a warm place to sleep. A sustainable family unit is one that can spend time together, sit down together around the dinner table - laugh, eat, talk and comfort one another without the constant stress of worrying where the next meal will come from or if they will be on the streets or lose their healthcare.

'Ecology’ is another word that, in many cases, has been too narrowly defined. Ecology is about balance. Huge gaps between rich and poor are about imbalance. They are not ‘eco-friendly.’ When economic injustice is tolerated by those who (think they) aren’t directly impacted, the system goes out of balance, and we all suffer. People do what they need to do to survive -- strip forests for firewood, work in jobs that damage their health, buy the cheapest foods (or more often ‘non-foods’) filled with unhealthy fats, sugars, additives and chemicals that contribute to their misery and the rising cost of health care.

The GND offers a window of opportunity to reaffirm our connectedness to our neighbors, to go beyond dualisms and embrace a process that affirms the unity of balance - in nature and in human society. But it will not be easy. Deadly imbalances are often profitable for companies and individuals. Polluting industries, inadequate wages and terrible working conditions are still considered “the cost of doing business” by those who stand to gain from them.

The GND could provide just the right venue to begin the process of transforming ourselves and our local communities into truly sustainable models of who we want to be. We can do this by affirming environmental and social justice - not the right of the powerful to destroy and plunder. Further, it offers an opportunity for people to stand up and say out loud that families shouldn’t be homeless and kids shouldn't go to bed hungry and neighborhoods shouldn't suffer under the weight of poverty and foreclosure shouldn't decimate communities, and that we should do better.

My hope is that this is what the Green New Deal for the North Bay will be about.

At least eight Green New Deal forums have been scheduled for late spring in Marin and Sonoma counties. You’re invited to attend, to speak, to listen, and to join with others to create a better future. For details, visit http://www.solartimes.org or for updates, visit http://www.GreenNewDeal.info.)