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Ashna Jaiswal

Ashna Jaiswal

Philadelphia, PA, US

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Green New Deal : Post Carbon Futures

Rural Green New Deal: Float Away to the Green Future :Learning and adapting from traditional methods of resiliency from our South East Asian neighbors. Instead of encroaching the waterfront, they have developed eco-friendly system to survive on the water. Functioning out of boats and floating farms, at a local scale, they have been able to learn to live with water instead of fighting it. Incorporating this method emerging out of villages with green technology such as solar voltaic panels, one can efficiently grow local produce, inhabit and adapt. The concept is to save agricultural villages and make them more viable with climate change as rural sector is the first to fall. Such techniques can then be exported as green energy to other mega cities, profiting marginalized areas and towns. This technique also saves up on agricultural land which then can be used to incentivize other projects such as educational institutions or housing. Floating farms are also used as a mode of transportation for the produce, within villages and to cities. A net zero method banking food, electricity and transportation.

Rural Green New Deal: Compost for a Green Future :Every town with its own biodigester and neighborhood composting grounds. A co-op of villages within a district with a larger scale facility, composting the waste to generate energy which will be distributed within those villages. Hence a full circle by benefits circling back to the villages instead of richer communities, cities or countries. The waste management plant to employ village locals, owned by village locals and governed by the same. Installation of electric vehicle charging points and investing in green farm vehicles powered by electricity, generated from compost. Smaller neighborhoods can have underground composting mechanism. Local tax money can be used to incentivize such plants and energy systems. Introduction of electric powered public transport reaching and connecting every village as opposed to the current scenario where only a few major cities have public transport. Making a town self-sufficient in terms of energy, agriculture, public transport and waste management, using the tax money to promote solar panels for household functionality instead of depending on consumer to install it as per wish.  Enabling a local sector which will then replicate nationally, working with bottom up ideology. Many countries can be used specifically in energy sector on how to publicize energy. Working in private public ownership with energy production can help, where energy is being locally produced but the price is regulated by the local governing body as described above, based on the purchasing power.

Rural Green New Deal: Educate to a Green Future :Educational institutions regarding the ‘green practices’ being adopted. What is sustainable, what is not. How to delineate productions based on true gas emissions: Introduction to better practices in terms of agriculture and locally produced products, to deviate from unhealthy practices such as burning of fields and change in crops to learning from traditional practices, via incorporating new well-versed technology. Introduction of smaller practices such as using stubble to produce biogas. Institution catalyzing urban science hence dealing with the lack of understanding of green products. Better use of terminology and urban ecological science to tackle vagueness being fed in the market. Formation of groups like the New Deal, but the ones which take in charge of running these educational systems. These institutions can follow vernacular yet sustainable architecture with the concept of open schools, cable car transit, green campuses with green tech building to teach urban science using experimentation. New stewards cannot come up unless they have economic benefits hence the importance of educational institutions and local manufacturing. These small-scale practices keep a community in check considering natural events.

Rural Green New Deal: Panchayat for a Green Future : Tackling the governance structure, by understanding towns socially. Every neighborhood or town to have a local body governing them, which has the right to collect taxes being distributed as public works within that town instead of paying taxes to state and federal government with lack of accountability. Stabilizing towns for a good period by localizing the earnings. Taking Panchayat as a precedent, town residents electing a governing body which belongs to neither left- or right-wing party but is answerable to the central government at large. Panchayat system yields trust in the neighborhood as they are not conflicted to choose between registered parties but electing their own body. It helps correct the social impact as the body is directly answering the people before anybody else and uses the tax money directly at the local level. This system of democracy has found to successful in dealing specially with agricultural and rural town who need more stewardship till mega cities are better planned to accommodate everybody without negative impacts of gentrification. When a government is established in all the grains of a city, it helps better to be economically fairer rather than using averages of multiple neighborhoods.

In the context of this crisis of governance (inefficiency, corruption, lack of accountability, disbelief of the citizens towards government institutions and officials), decentralization was widely accepted as a powerful means to instill confidence and revive trust of people in government programs. Democratic renewal through reorganizing the power structure would bring the government closer to people. It is seen as a means to deepen democracy, make governance accountable and responsive. Not only does it enhance the effectiveness of public policies and service delivery, but also give greater voice to citizens.

 
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Status: School Project
My Role: Designer, Curator