Earth Day 2021: Awakened Not Woke
…in culture and politics today, the most prominent uses of “woke” are as a pejorative…
It’s Earth Day 2021, and I hope the world’s leaders will boldly go where none have gone before. I am optimistic.
Timed to coincide with Earth Day 2021, 300 businesses, including Nike, Coca-Cola, Lyft, Google, McDonald’s, and Walmart, are asking President Biden to adopt the ambitious and attainable target of cutting GHG emissions by at least 50% below 2005 levels by 2030. Corporate Americans are not the only ones showing a willingness to go green.
This week, leaders of the United Mine Workers of America’s (UMWA) announced their support for the President’s efforts to speed the decarb-onization of the US economy — starting with the rapid expansion of clean power sources like solar and wind, as well as the electrification of the trans-portation sector. Together the power and transportation sectors account for 57 percent of US GHG emissions. (See Figure 1)
There are other signs of hope for a greener tomorrow coming out of both industry and labor. As reported in the Detroit News, trade groups representing major automakers, their suppliers, and the United Auto…
