Michelle Obama helps start backyard gardens, one school at a time.
We’ve heard the word “Green” thrown around for years. Sometimes it means recycling our newspapers and sometimes it means massive federal legislation to change our car exhaust. Or maybe it means, as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (known in the media as AOC), the U.S. Representative for New York’s 14th congressional district believes, that this can only be accomplished through massive lifestyle changes for every American? Or are real changes accomplished in your own backyard?
And most importantly, is AOC’s Green deal truly about being green?
- 100% percent of the power demands of the United States through clean, renewable, and zero emission energy. Green, but anytime “100%” is used, it is unrealistic.
- Upgrading all existing US buildings to be energy efficient. Green, but again “all” means unrealistic.
- Working with farmers to eliminate all pollution and greenhouse gas emissions – no animal waste, no machinery in farming. Are farmers really the largest polluters in the US?
- Overhaul the whole US transportation system including expanding electric car manufacturing, installing building “charging stations everywhere” and expanding the high speed rail system to a scale where air travel stops to become unnecessary. Not realistic.
- A guaranteed job with a family sustaining wage, adequate family and medical leave, paid vacations and retirement security for every American. Nothing to do with being “Green”.
- High quality health care for all Americans. Again, nothing “Green” here.
Of the top 100 polluters, they fall into the following major categories: power plants, oil refineries, natural gas systems, chemical companies, metal and mineral processing plants, paper processing plants, waste management systems, and that is it. Old McDonald’s farm is not on the list.
Where did AOC’s New Green Deal come from?
AOC’s New Green Deal, which originated from a 2009 UN Report. The three objectives of the UN’s Global Green New Deal (2009) are the following:
- Revive the world economy, create employment opportunities and protect vulnerable groups.
- Reduce carbon dependency, ecosystem degradation, and water scarcity.
- Further the millennium development goal of ending extreme world poverty by 2015.
Source: A GGND (Global Green New Deal) Report Ed Barbier April 2009 (UNEP-global-green-new-deal.pdf)
Two out of the three goals of the UN’s Global Green New Deal (2009) have nothing to with “being Green”. They have to do with economics. More specifically, worldwide economics and worldwide redistribution of wealth.
So why is it under the umbrella of “Green”? The answer is to make people feel guilty for not accepting worldwide wealth redistribution with unelected people living halfway across the world making the rules.
AOC’s chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, has admitted the plan’s true objective is to radically transform America’s free enterprise economy into a socialist system. Chakrabarti said this in a meeting with Sam Ricketts, climate director for Democratic presidential candidate wannabe, Gov. Jay Inslee.
“Do you guys think of it as a climate thing?” Chakrabarti continued. “Because we really think of it a how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy thing.”
AOC’s New Green Deal and the UN’s Global Green New Deal are doing the same thing. they are hijacking the real green movement to hide their true intention of worldwide economic change.
If you truly want to “be green”, the solution is not in AOC’s New Green Deal or the UN’s Global Green New Deal. The solution is actually in your own backyard, micro gardening.
What is micro gardening?
Do you really want to see real change to our environment, to the economy, to help the poor, to eliminate poverty? The solutions start in your own family, in your own neighborhood, your own backyard, even your own windowsill.
Some people mistakenly believe that doing change means that it has to be grand, huge, and on a worldwide scale. The truth is that the most powerful changes happen on the micro level.
Have you ever heard of micro container gardening? Indoor or urban micro container gardening is the practice of cultivating vegetables, herbs, roots, and tubers in small spaces. These gardening spaces might be balconies, small yards, patios, or rooftops, which make use of containers. Containers can be traditional plant pots, inspirational, repurposed old tires, plastic buckets, trash cans, or wooden pallets.
These gardens can either be traditional soil-based gardens, hydroponic gardens, or a combination of the two, soil on the top with a way to store water below the soil while still providing a way for the roots to get water.
Water for these gardens can be obtained from tap water, filtered handwashing or bath water, or collected rainwater.
The point is that a bunch of micros become a macro garden.
What this means is that even a person living in an apartment living in a city can still have a positive impact on the environment through their own direct actions.
What to have even more impact?
Try this. When you are going to or from school or your job, take a small grocery bag with you. Make the commitment to pick up 10 pieces of trash on your journey. How much of an impact will that have over a week, a month, a year, or even 5 to 10 years? But what about the ripple effect. Many people are hesitant to be the first to do something, but when somebody else does something, other people follow their lead. How much impact will that have in your local environment to not only yourself but other people and animals in your community?
Being in a healthy and clean environment not only affects the physical environment around us, but it also affects the emotional environment around us as well. We look around us and we smile. When we smile, others smile.
Smile and be friendly, and the other person will respond with smiling and being friendly as well.
