Several years ago, I came to the conclusion that I was only interested in two things, both of which I view as existential threats.

The first was climate change, which is pretty obviously real, and pretty obviously a threat to human civilization.

The second was income inequality, which I view as an existential threat to American democracy (problematic though it may be).

Around that time, I asked myself how we could mobilize the country to address the threat posed by climate change at the same scale we mobilized the country to win World War II.

I didn’t come up with an answer to that question, but I see the outlines of an answer in the Green New Deal.

Back the ’80s, it struck me that we should be developing renewable energy sources and infrastructure and selling it to the world. We’ve lost our huge lead since then, but I believe we’re still in a position to do it, if we devote ourselves to the problems of ordinary citizens of this country, and not donors from the carbon economy.

The Green New Deal is hardly a complete set of answers to the two problems I identified those years ago, but it is a laudable framework in which we can develop the answers and save not just ourselves, but our children, our grandchildren, and our nation.