On Tuesday, March 26, the United States senate voted on a controversial bill dubbed “The Green New Deal.” The bill itself is a nod to former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Great Depression-era New Deal that saved the country from economic collapse.

Similarly, the bill’s co-sponsors, most notably Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have harkened the bill as America’s effort to save the environment from the destruction of climate change and human development.

After a series of political controversies and strong rhetoric from both sides of the aisle, the bill was ultimately voted down in the Senate lost 57-0 in the Senate, with 43 Democrats voting “present,” according to Reuters.

The no verdict was ultimately the same fate that Washington Initiative 1631 faced in the November 2018 elections.

Commonly known as the carbon tax initiative, it proposed imposing a carbon emissions fee with the goal of creating a financial disincentive to the production of carbon emissions, as well as funding various programs relating to care for the environment.

These two failed attempts at taking legislative actions against climate change represent a significant theme in the future of government and climate change.

We are consistently seeing climate proposals suffer more defeats than successes on both national and global stages.

What does this apparent inaction towards taking serious government action to address the growing issue of climate change and the global future of energy? Are representatives not motivated enough to pass these kinds of bills? Or is there something missing from how we have been trying to legislate the problem?

If our current methods of attempting to codify our approaches to climate change are not working, then it is the responsibility of the public to demand that our representatives find methods to pass initiatives that logically identify and address the environmental issues we face.

Perhaps now is not the time for America to pass significant legislative packages like the Green New Deal, but it is certainly the time for representatives and citizens to learn from past mistakes and begin to plan for new ways to take effective action.