Green New Deal: Profoundly conservative

Like Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, the Green New Deal — which seeks jobs for all Americans in the course of attacking climate change— isn’t radical or socialist. It’s actually conservative.

Roosevelt mobilized our government to combat a depression at home and fascism around the world. Today’s Democrats would mobilize it to address a silent depression and save the planet from ecological catastrophe.

The Green New Deal aims toward family-supporting jobs, with health care and retirement security. That would be a huge step toward ending our silent depression. And the jobs goal fits perfectly with achieving a sustainable economic future.

Creating a green economy is a huge task: There will be much work to do. All this requires costly investments. But inaction is much more costly. Continued inaction ensures that more people will lose faith in capitalism — and risks Earth’s ability to sustain human life. Charles J. Whalen

Buffalo, N.Y.