Proposed 'Green New Deal' would tackle climate change, create jobs, a Mason professor says

Jim Kinter

It’s not science as much as a political exercise, but George Mason University’s Jim Kinter said the proposed Green New Deal addresses the danger of global climate change.

“If we’re going to avoid the dangerous global warming of 2 degrees centigrade global average temperature change, then the whole global economy is going to have to transform over the next half century,” said Kinter, the director of Mason’s Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies and a professor of climate dynamics. “The idea that we’re going to continue to be a fossil fuel-dominated global economy in the future is pretty scary.”

As an economic stimulus program similar to the New Deal that helped lift the United States from the Great Depression, the Green New Deal would transform the economy by ensuring that all of the nation’s electricity derives from “clean” sources without carbon dioxide or methane emissions. The proposed plan would also add jobs in infrastructure development.

Under the plan, the government would invest heavily in noncarbon energy, such as solar, while weaning U.S. energy consumption from fossil fuels entirely over the next 10 years.

“I think the Green New Deal provides that opportunity to take the global warming problem and transition it into a positive message,” Kinter said. “You can take action on the problem of global warming, improve the situation and provide the jobs.”

Jim Kinter can be reached at 703-993-5700 or ikinter@gmu.edu.

For more information, contact John Hollis at 703-993-8781 or jhollis2@gmu.edu.

About George Mason 

George Mason University is Virginia’s largest public research university. Located near Washington, D.C., Mason enrolls 37,000 students from 130 countries and all 50 states. Mason has grown rapidly over the past half-century and is recognized for its innovation and entrepreneurship, remarkable diversity and commitment to accessibility.