1. The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
2. Das Kapital by Karl Marx
3. Crazy He Calls Me by Billie Holiday
4. The Woman Behind the New Deal by Kirstin Downey
5. The Big Short directed by Adam McKay
6. A Message From the Future With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez written by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Avi Lewis
The Green New Deal was a period of transformative social movements and legislative efforts in response to the Existential Climate Crisis. With a primary goal of zero global carbon emissions, the Green New Deal was an opportunity to rethink the priorities and structure of an adolescent global society. There were local, national, and international initiatives aligned to the principle that all people have a right to enjoy a healthy, vibrant, and wonderful planet.
The Green New Deal pruned and then expanded the set of metrics used to judge the progress of society. Following The Week the Earth Stood Still, the obsession with economic production at the expense of human wellbeing and the natural world was abandoned. GDP and employment statistics became less relevant, emissions and social metrics became more relevant. The period set the stage for truly universal access to advanced education, healthcare, food, and housing. It is ironic that shifting priority to global human wellbeing is what made the explosive prosperity of the 21st century possible.
There was no point holding on to a system that was on track to completely ruin the planet. Protests and strikes pressured institutions to divest from fossil fuels and implement immediate plans to cut emissions, even before most legislation went into effect. The speed of change fueled by online organizing was unprecedented. The conventional understanding of how political movements worked at the time was shattered as global inclusive human solidarity emerged.
All humans were considered equally important in the Green New Deal economy. Child labor at any point in a supply chain was unacceptable. Indigenous people who had been hammered by colonialism or racism were given resources and they assumed leadership roles in repairing the environment. Education and care work were recognized as the most important contributions to the new economy. National barriers started to seem less relevant.
There is no corner of society that the Green New Deal failed to touch.