As the co-sponsor — along with Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) — of the ambitious proposal for environmental, social, and economic legislation bundled together under the marketing sobriquet of the Green New Deal (GND), Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has become a spokesperson for those Americans who trust science and know that our planet is facing the kind of unprecedented existential crisis that threatens everyone’s very survival.
Unfortunately, the urgency and extent of the danger we all face has been downplayed by opposition politicians who are heavily funded by the very corporations that profit so mightily from the status quo of high-carbon emissions generated by the extensive use of fossil fuels and stand to lose much of their existing bottom lines from the massive shift in spending and priorities that the Green New Deal will entail.
The threatened monied interests are doing everything in their power to spread misinformation to fight off the potential passage of GND legislation that will choke off their gravy train even if it does save humankind from preventable environmental disasters in the future.
With a concerted effort by entrenched powers to frustrate her last-ditch attempts to save the planet from its most irresponsible human inhabitants, Representative Ocasio-Cortez knew she needed to develop a response that presented the concepts behind the Green New Deal and explained exactly what it is and why it’s so desperately needed.
Working with online news site The Intercept and illustrator Molly Crabapple, the Bronx-born Congresswoman co-wrote and narrated a short seven and a half minute animated film that shows how America could be in a future where Democrats win back the White House and a majority of both houses of Congress in 2020 and quickly enact Green New Deal legislation to attack the onrushing devastation that will surely result without immediate action on a massive scale.
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez tweeted out a link to the video this morning with a caption that stresses the urgency of her mission by starkly reminding everyone of the deadline we all face — 12 years to cut carbon emissions by 50% or face the catastrophic consequences.
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The short time frame and the massive levels of change required from how the world currently operates makes the task seem excessively daunting at first, but the animated film helps inspire hope that it a task that we can accomplish if we join together as the nation did in its most desperate times in the last century, during the Great Depression and World War II.
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You can watch the animated film presenting the essence of and the rationale for the Green New Deal made by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Illustrator Molly Crabapple in the tweet below.
Climate change is here + we’ve got a deadline: 12 years left to cut emissions in half.
A #GreenNewDeal is our plan for a world and a future worth fighting for.
How did we get here?
What is at stake?
And where are we going?Please watch & share widely ⬇️pic.twitter.com/IMCtS86VXG
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 17, 2019
Follow Vinnie Longobardo on Twitter.
Original reporting by Naomi Klein at The Intercept.
