Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned the planet could be overcome by ancient diseases, sun scorching, and starvation if the United States does not overhaul its whole economy.
“There are a lot of diseases that are frozen in some of these glaciers that scientists fear that there is a potential that a lot of diseases could escape these melted glaciers,” the New York Democrat said in a Tuesday night Instagram Live video, as she made mac and cheese. “Things that were frozen for thousands of years, and that they’re going to get into our water, and that humans could contract them, and there are going to be diseases that are thousands of years old that have vectors that we are not prepared for, that we have never seen.”
The freshman congresswoman also warned of the potential that the sun scorches the earth causing the food chain to break down and farming to become untenable.
“You think artificially having to create our food supply because the Earth no longer can sustain growing foods naturally, or the sun is scorching the earth so much, that we can’t grow the food that used to be able to grow, that’s going to be a lot more expensive,” the 29-year-old said. “So we need to bite the bullet on the cost, because the alternative to not spending the money is A) death and B) spending even more money.”
In February, Ocasio-Cortez introduced the Green New Deal which sought to change the U.S. economy to fight climate change. In July, Ocasio-Cortez’s then-chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti revealed the Green New Deal was not originally conceived to combat climate change. “[It wasn’t originally a climate thing at all … we really think of it as a how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy thing,” he said.
The rollout of the Green New Deal was attacked for a FAQ section which asserted the U.S. should end beef production and airplane travel. Ocasio-Cortez clarified Tuesday that she did not want to ban either of those things, but rather just wanted to see a significant change consumption.
