Catastrophic Climate Crisis
The following are excerpts from the Catastrophic Climate Crisis chapter of the Georgia Green Party Platform.
Implement a Green New Deal
We reject the co-opted, watered down version of the Green New Deal used by Democrats as a political football as far too little, far too late. We insist that the original Green New Deal, as articulated by Green Party candidates (most notably in Howie Hawkins Gubernatorial bid and later with Jill Stein’s Presidential run) address the issue unencumbered by the denial of climate science. Stabilizing the climate will require bold policy leadership which aims to reduce the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere below 350 parts per million (ppm) which existed pre-1980. Just as we were able to restructure the national economy in a matter of months to meet the challenge of World War II, so must we proceed under a state of emergency to address catastrophic climate change with a similar sense of urgency. Georgia Greens embrace the outlines of such a program articulated in our national party’s platform to “revive the economy and make wars for oil obsolete”: creating 20 million jobs transitioning to 100% renewables by 2030, the implementation of a Just Transition providing full income and benefits to displaced workers, providing “public, community and worker ownership” over our energy systems, building a “nationwide smart electricity grid that can pool and store power from a diversity of renewable sources”, ending the subsidies of harmful technologies, phasing out legacy systems with a sense of urgency and leaving the carbon in the ground.
Rebuild the national grid
An efficient power grid will require national coordination to knit together existing regional power grids. A diversity of large scale solar, solar thermal, wind and hydro, along with community and household based power generation systems can provide a stable power supply when tied together by a grid to distribute the power being generated to the power consumers in need.
Leave fossil fuels in the ground
Fossil fuels which are never mined never get burned and contribute nothing to the carbon footprint of human activities. We advocate an end to fuel extraction from tar sands, offshore drilling, uranium mining, coal mining/mountaintop removal, hydraulic fracturing (fracking), etc. We support an immediate ban on all new permits for fracking in all forms and the rapid phase-out of hydraulic fracturing operations previously permitted. We will hold the oil and gas industry financially responsible for all health, property, and environmental damages from fracking, including the resultant water contamination and earthquake damage. We will require the fracking industry to disclose all chemicals used in fracking fluids for the health impacts upon people in areas where fracking is used as well as the environmental impacts, particularly the industry’s impact on drinking water sources.
Shut down the nuclear power industry
Greens on the Public Service Commission and the state Assembly will collaborate to shut down the construction of all new nuclear power facilities in Georgia, working to ensure that the new reactors at Vogtle are never fueled and irradiated. Greens will quickly phase out reliance on and proceed urgently to decommission the two nuclear reactors at Plant Hatch and the four at Plant Vogtle. We will hold the Southern Company responsible for the safe storage of spent nuclear material from these facilities, giving particular attention to the threat of flooding in the Altamaha and Savannah River basins, and the threat such flooding would pose to the secure storage of these irradiated materials.
Address the carbon footprint of our transportation system
Georgia Greens will shift transportation investments from those subsidizing the privately owned and operated automobile to those encouraging the expansion of the public transportation infrastructure sufficient to provide convenient and reliable access to everyone, and which effectively compete on the basis of economic cost and convenience. With changes to city planning standards, we can retool cities as walkable, bikeable, livable communities serving human needs through proximity rather than mobility.
Revise building codes, invest in energy efficiency, optimize solar gain
By revising building codes, we can encourage cost effective investments for new construction in energy efficiency improvements and with roofs which are pitched and oriented to optimize solar gain, and pre-wired for future roof top wind and solar installations, vastly improving the efficiency of such installations and providing significant savings when household based generating capacity is later installed.
Retrofit existing building stock for energy efficiency
We will also use policy and financial incentives to encourage energy efficiency investments in our legacy homes, offices and industrial operations.
Sequester carbon
Georgia Green elected officials will create a Carbon Sequestration Division for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, charged with oversight of programs for reforesting the state and to incentivize private landowners to restore ecosystems on privately owned lands. The Georgia Department of Agriculture and the Cooperative Extension Service will be funded to encourage the widespread use of regenerative agricultural practices.
Restructure agriculture to fulfill local nutritional needs, in sustainable ways
Georgia Green elected officials will create an office in the Department of Community Affairs to assist municipal and county governments with the creation of an inventory of public and private lands suitable for the development of community gardens and the development of Community Supported Agriculture enterprises.
Enhance emergency preparedness
Elected Greens will mobilize public and private resources to effectively respond to growing frequency and intensity of natural disasters we experience with growing climate instability.