Green New Deal Imagined in 'This Moment on Earth'

Review by Bill Doughty

Vietnam branded John Kerry. His missions in the Navy, as a senator and as Secretary of State informed his life. And his confrontation with mortality brought insight and wisdom.
Kerry focuses that perspective on his most important mission on "protecting the planet." That's the last chapter in his new autobiography, "Every Day is Extra," and it's the subject of a book he and wife Teresa Heinz Kerry wrote in 2007, "This Moment on Earth" (PublicAffairs, Perseus Books).

Kerry and Gore at Yale University.

If the seeds for the Green New Deal were first planted by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Theodore Roosevelt, Marjory Stoneman Douglas and Rachel Carson – and in 1970 with the world's first "Earth Day" – those seeds were certainly watered and given sunshine by Bill McKibben (350.org), Al Gore ("An Inconvenient Truth") and the Kerrys.

"This Moment on Earth" is a call for action, acknowledging the reality of global climate change, the hazards of relying on fossil fuels for our energy, and the poisoning of earth's air and water. The authors offer a number of examples of individuals and communities – from Pittsburgh and the Carolinas to New Mexico, Washington State and Portland – taking responsibility and action.

United States Marines to the Rescue

Former Marine Bob Boyle organized fellow fishermen and helped clean up the Hudson Bay, inspired "by their growing disgust about the deterioration of the environment and our poor stewardship," demonstrating how Americans are a government of, by and for the people.

Former United States Marine Rick Dove, a Riverkeeper enforcer.

Another Marine, Rick Dove, a retired colonel, took on the unregulated hog farming industry and their political supporters.

"Listening to Rick talk about his work is inspirational. Sixty-seven years old – a marine – he could have been doing almost anything else; he'd earned it. But his personal sense of responsibility and love for the river kept him on the job. 'Semper Fi' – 'Always faithful' – the motto of the Marines, was his for life. His story conclusively demonstrates the connection between the choices we make and health of our communities. Few of us likely give much consideration to how our everyday choices – such as the seemingly straightforward decisions we make at the grocery store to provide food for our families – may have an impact on people we will never meet, in places we may never visit."

Americans Connected

"In recent times, particularly since the 2000 presidential election, we have generally bought into the idea of blue states and red states. But it takes people like Rick to remind us that, regardless of how we vote or which party we align ourselves with, we all share many very basic ideals. All of us certainly want clean water. No fisherman should be sickened by toxins in the water. No mother should worry that her child will become sick from swimming at the local beach. Nobody among us – young or old, farmer or artist, Democrat or Republican – should demand anything less than safe, available water. This is not a matter of politics; it is a matter of common sense, morality, and responsibility."

True conservatives are conservationists, by their very name. "Evangelicals talk of "creation-care" – that any damage that we do to God's world is an offense against God," an idea that "appeals to all religions of the world and to anyone with a moral guidepost."

President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy watch the first race of the 1962 America's Cup from aboard the USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Also pictured: Hugh D. Auchincloss; Under Secretary of the Navy, Paul "Red" Fay; Jamie Auchincloss; Janet Auchincloss; John Forbes Kerry; Press Secretary, Pierre Salinger; Naval Aide to the President, Captain Tazewell Shepard; Rep. Fernand St. Germain (Rhode Island). Newport, Rhode Island. (JFK Library)

In his recent autobiography, "Every Day Is Extra," Kerry reprises a JFK quote also published in "This Moment on Earth" in a chapter called "The Water of Life." 

"As (Navy veteran) President John F. Kennedy said in a speech he gave in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1962: 'All of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea – whether it is to sail or to watch it – we are going back from whence we came.' Water accounts for up to 90 percent of the weight of cells in the human body and three-fourths of the body's total weight. Essential to our survival, so powerfully linked to our history and culture, such a precious resource ought to receive the highest level of protection – nothing short of uncompromising stewardship."

John Kerry speaks of books and "storytellers of the sea" and rivers that influenced him over the years: Herman Melville's "Moby Dick," Rudyard Kipling's "Captains Courageous," Sebastian Junger's "The Perfect Storm," Richard Henry Dana's "Two Years Before the Mast," and Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn."

A Call for Boldness: 'The Green Rush is On'

John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry

Kerry's "This Moment on Earth" with Teresa Heinz Kerry – along with the final chapter of "Every Day Is Extra" – calls for the acknowledgment, will and action to combat climate change. His call, to include "an innovative and strategic national energy policy," is reflected in calls for a Green New Deal.

"There's no excuse for inertia. Even if, contrary to all science, the proponents of action on global climate change were proven wrong, what harm would the actions to combat global warming cause? We would have produced healthier people with cleaner air, sustainable farming and fishing practices, more healthful food, and more effective sources of cleaner energy, all of which adds to greater security. But if those who deny climate change get their way and then are proved wrong, we will suffer catastrophe beyond description."

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers uses solar energy at a remediation project at the former Nebraska
Ordnance Plant – energy-saving technology to treat groundwater and power equipment. (U.S. Army)

A Green New Deal would push innovation and ingenuity. "That ingenuity is alive and well among individuals and corporations engaged in the discovery of new and better ways to address our energy challenges" in a "post-carbon period," Kerry writes. "Americans have always pushed the frontier of discovery. We didn't become the most powerful economy on Earth by holding back. Innovation after innovation has unfolded because the American spirit has always pushed the limits. Innovation is in the American DNA."

The Kerrys call for individual action and offer to appendices: "The Energy Plan" and "What You Can Do," with a list of sites to get more information and get involved.