ENVIRONMENT
The Environment Chakra looks at the status of the world around us. Human activity is negatively impacting the climate, as supported by the 99.94 % of peer-reviewed climate science studies. These effects will be irreversible in 10 years, and the effects are already devastating, making this a moral imperative. It is also an economic imperative; our outdated, inefficient infrastructure and economy will cost us nearly $3 trillion over the next 10 years unless we do something.
Why is this chakra broken?
The UN’s international climate science panel found that the effects of climate change will be irreversible by 2030, unless we take drastic action. The resulting heat waves, droughts, and spread of diseases are projected to kill 100 million people.
100 companies are responsible for 71 % of global carbon emissions, and they spend billions of dollars on lobbyists to block any sort of regulation that would help protect the earth.
The major US infrastructure systems have not been updated in over 50 years, and are dangerously pushing their lifespan. As a result, the American Society of Civil Engineers give it a rating of D+ for being “mostly below standard”.
Our old, inefficient systems bring down our overall economy. Delays due to road traffic cost $120 billion / year. Delays or canceled trips in airports cost $35 billion / year. Increased power outages have also cost billions.
40 % of the food the US produces gets thrown away, while 1 in 8 Americans don’t have a steady supply of food. If global food waste were a country, it would be the 3rd largest emitter of greenhouse gases (behind the US and China).
93,000 jobs were outsourced in President Trump’s first year in office.
Short-term solution: Thorium nuclear energy
Andrew Yang proposes that we invest in modern thorium molten-salt based nuclear reactors as a stopgap while we continue to make advances in renewable energy. Here are the benefits:
Thorium is 3x more abundant and much safer to mine than uranium.
They are very good at harnessing the power of nuclear fission to produce immense carbon-free, pollution-free energy.
Unlike traditional reactions, we can extract valuable byproducts from thorium reactions. The waste also exposes people to 100x less radiation than dilute carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels.
Therefore, they can’t be used to make nuclear weapons
Long-term solution: The Green New Deal
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ initial Green New Deal proposal was supported by over 80 % of all people (including 64 % of Republicans). Bernie Sanders converted this proposal into a massive, detailed policy. Some of the highlights are:
Through investments in renewable technologies like solar, wind, and geothermal, the US will meet the US International Panel on Climate Change’s goals of reaching 100 % renewable energy for electricity and transportation by 2030, and complete decarbonization by 2050.
We’ll need to keep coming up with new ways to cut the cost of energy storage and electric vehicles and to make more sustainable plastics.
These will be in sectors like sustainable agriculture, engineering, and construction to solve the climate crisis and end unemployment. Priority will go toward transitioning fossil fuel workers into these jobs.
The plan calls for weathering homes, lowering energy bills, building affordable and high-quality public transportation, starting programs to trade in current vehicles for efficient electric vehicles, and rebuild our crumbling infrastructure to a modern one that provides universal, affordable high-speed internet to the 1 in 3 Americans who currently don’t have basic broadband.
We’ll make the fossil fuel industry pay for their pollution and by scaling back our military spending on maintaining global oil dependence. Plus, infrastructure deals have a multiplier effect: for every dollar we spend, we’ll make $3 back.
Investment $160 billion for states to reduce food waste and hunger. We can do something similar to France, which requires supermarkets to donate their excess edible food.
Look toward the middle of the country for...
As opposed to trade deals like NAFTA and TPP that ship US jobs overseas, Ro Khanna’s idea is to move jobs inward instead. His bill calls for a 5-year federal grant program to offer up to $100 million to higher learning institutions in rural and urban areas. This would incentivize tech companies to invest in the middle of the country where there is plenty of land, and plenty of people who would be ready to work.
Sea levels will rise by up to 30 inches by the end of the century which will affect up to 13 million Americans. Low-income and minority communities will be hit the hardest. Andrew Yang proposes to invest several billions of dollars to move people to higher ground.
