The Green New Deal: Movements (Finally) Get Visionary Again

Even progressive social movements had become vision-averse. It’s not that activists were no longer innovative or weren’t developing exciting alternatives on a grassroots level. It’s just that, when it came to the big picture, the power of imagination went missing.

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez kicks off the
Women’s March in New York City on January 19, 2019.

.By 2016 I’d begun to wonder whether my country was magnetically attracted to doomsday. Popular culture favored dystopias. A leading TV series about politics was beyond cynical. The presidential race had come down to the candidate of change, distasteful and negative, and the candidate of timid incrementalism, who wanted us to join her in believing that the U.S. was doing fine as is. Where was the bold vision of a better world?

Then in August 2016, the Movement for Black Lives broke through with its agenda and specific policy demands for Black power, freedom, and justice. Dozens of organizations began to sign on, even though the platform’s breadth and boldness meant that the signers wouldn’t necessarily agree with every sentence.

A vision, after all, is not a blueprint. The blueprints come later, after wide discussion.

Read the opinion piece from Yes! Magazine by George Lakey - “The Green New Deal: Movements (Finally) Get Visionary Again.”

How geospatial technology can help cities plan for a sustainable future

Many urban residents these days will find it hard to imagine a life without that help us locate a restaurant, hail a cab, or find a subway station—usually in a matter of seconds.

If geospatial technology and data already make our everyday lives this easier, imagine what they can do for our cities: for example, geospatial data on land-use change and built-up land expansion can provide for more responsive urban planning, while information on traffic conditions, road networks, and solid waste sites can help optimize management and enhance the quality of urban living.

However, information and data that provide the latest big picture on urban land and services often fail to keep up with rapid population growth and land expansion. This is especially the case for cities in developing countries—home to the fastest growing urban and vulnerable populations.

Read the World Bank story - “How geospatial technology can help cities plan for a sustainable future.”

Making sense of the 'big picture' helps the small parts

It is only when we can make sense of the “big picture” view of life that the smaller parts of what is a truly complex jigsaw begin to fall into place.

Richard Heinberg

Richard Heinberg, writing in his 2012 edition of Muse Letter, takes us through some big picture images with his piece “The Fight of the Century”.

Heinberg is well-known for his thoughtful pieces on the unfolding difficulties the world faces through energy depletion and an imploding economy.

His February musings are long, especially in a world in which shorter concentration spans are encouraged, and thoughtful, something that again is not encouraged by the ‘responsible men’ of the modern world, but is well worth the 30 minutes, or so, it will take to read it.

However, its value is not to be found in its simple reading rather, it is something that needs serious consideration and, hopefully, some resultant action.