Climate

What is the green new deal. From the NY Times, The goal of the Green New Deal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to avoid the worst consequences of climate change while also trying to fix societal problems like economic inequality and racial injustice. This is evidence that the deal is about politics and only incidentally about climate. It is about climate cash, that is, sending money from developed nations to developing nations. It is about equity or equal results in the US. That is why there is no emphasis on replacing coal with natural gas, using natural gas for transportation, building thorium nuke plants, selling natural gas to Asia to replace their coal plants, exploring methane hydrate and no discussion of the problems with mining rare earth metals. The only idea is to replace fossil fuels with wind and solar with no detailed plan as to how this will be accomplished. The followers of this new deal are so enthralled with the idea that they do not look into the details. It is mindful of Washington Irving's character Wouter Van Twiller who conceived of every idea on such a grand scale he had not room in his head to turn it over and examine both sides of the issue.