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Through a critical discourse analysis, this study finds that both The New York Times and Wall Street Journal portray the Green New Deal as a dangerous policy proposed by a cohort of extremist Millennial "Others." Agonistic media pluralism is stunted. Instead, a uniform and moderate perspective guides reporting, analyses, and commentary. In place of a detailed and robust discussion of the Green New Deal through a multitude of different perspectives, the discursive strategies of "positioning," "de/legitimization," and "naturalization" cast supporters of the policy as a dangerous threat within an already rattled, post-2016 United States political landscape. Through this image of threat, the market-based carbon tax is elevated as the best and only way forward. Ultimately, this study finds that the construction of a threatening Millennial "Other" is leveraged to discredit the viability of the Green New Deal and to suppress a diversity of political perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The consequences of climate change seriously and immediately threaten the American way of life, but proposed federal legislation like the Green New Deal is overly broad, unrealistic, and inefficient. The most effective way for the United States to combat climate change is not with a one-size-fits-all plan like the Green New Deal, but with federal legislation that incentivizes states and cities to enact and enforce individualized, local climate legislation. Different states and cities have different climates, available energy sources, and transportation needs, so the federal government should use financial incentives to encourage states and cities to pass tailor-made bills and ordinances that work for each _locality. The idea for this incentive statute comes from the 1984 National Minimum Drinking Age Amendment, a federal statute in which Congress withheld 5% of federal highway funding from states that did not set their minimum drinking ages to 21. The statute was very effective, leading to all 50 states increasing their drinking ages to 21 within four years. A bipartisan Supreme Court upheld the statute as a constitutional use of Congress's spending power. This Article proposes more complex and nuanced legislation, but the general idea is the same: Congress may use its spending power to incentivize states to enact statutes in line with federal policy goals. An incentive statute like the one proposed in this Article would succeed because it would afford states the flexibility to decide which types of climate legislation would work best in their states while also holding those states accountable to environmental benchmarks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and the rise of a grassroots–legislative political–environmental movement in the United States should change how urban planners think and act on spatial change and social justice. After the 2018 U.S. elections, organizing movements and progressive legislators endorsed the Green New Deal. In this Viewpoint I look at the Green New Deal's potential implications for urban planning. I analyze it in reference to the 1930s' New Deal inspirations and current climate and urban challenges, and illustrate the contradictions between large-scale spatial change and community-scale social justice. I explain how the imperatives of the Green New Deal, in conjunction with the shifting sites, scales, and politics of planning for climate change, should encourage planners to reframe their spaces and politics of practice toward a reconceptualized urban regional scale and a new politics of more public participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While all citizens are increasingly concerned with climate change and its associated effects, youth show particular interest and activism around the topic. Legislators and activists have recently championed a Green New Deal as offering goals for how the issue might be addressed in the United States and other countries. In this article, we offer an interdisciplinary inquiry in which students can explore sources to answer the compelling question, can the Green New Deal save us? Students will evidence, communicate conclusions, and take action in ways that help them explore the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed for ecological citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]