An overview of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Green New Deal
By Bridget Schneider
If you’ve perused any news outlet or even just skimmed headlines over the past month, you’ve heard about Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and the Green New Deal (GND) resolution. The proposal is a comprehensive—albeit incredibly ambitious—blueprint to remedy what may be the biggest threat to humanity: climate change.
The Green New Deal is not a novel concept, nor are many of the proposal’s core points. A GND has previously appeared in the agenda of many politicians; Barack Obama included one in his 2008 presidential campaign, and more recently, Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein—whose platform backed by the Green Party held environmental justice at its core—called for a GND in their 2016 campaigns. Aside from the more recognizable folk and their publicized platforms, the demand to address climate change and determine how we can help has been explored by environmentalists across the globe. Alas, the U.S. government has consistently failed to take the steps toward true, monumental progress, as the issue falls low on the priority list of many, and such change requires an unprecedented level of support and diligence from all sides of the political spectrum.
A hot topic for some time now, one could argue that climate change has received an exponential increase in attention from the media in recent months. You may remember that in October 2018, The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published a report revealing the detrimental consequences of a 1.5 degrees Celsius increase in global temperature. The report concluded that we have approximately 12 years until the effects of our unsavory environmental actions—namely the emission of greenhouse gases—are irreversible. The news was polarizing; raising panic in many, fueling skepticism in some and spurring more urgent action in others.
Shortly thereafter, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—a highly progressive and passionate Democrat—was elected into Congress as the New York Representative in the 2018 midterms. The fresh-faced liberal charged the political scene with a zealous agenda; of which environmental justice is a top priority. The following months included much talk but little concrete action toward the large-scale change Ocasio-Cortez so intently supported. That is until early February when she and Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) released the newest edition of the Green New Deal, which brings us here today.
The GND resolution is the first real move in formulating a game plan that goes beyond theoretical solutions. It’s both concise and expansive—that is to say, Ocasio-Cortez covers a lot of ground in little words.
The proposal’s preamble targets the two critical threats to our society: climate change and the economic stagnation/inequality that fuels what Ocasio-Cortez refers to as “systemic injustices.” As she explains in the tightly-knit document, the two issues go hand-in-hand.
Ocasio-Cortez first addresses the U.S.’s role as the main facilitators of climate change—we contributed 20 percent of global greenhouse emissions through 2014—and lays out our unavoidable fate if we don’t act now. Simply put, our future holds: rising sea levels and increasingly severe weather conditions (wildfires, storms, droughts) that will result in mass-migration from affected areas; damages of nearly $1 trillion in coastal real estate and public infrastructure; and global exposure to deadly heat stress by 2050.
The proposal then goes on to address our country’s additional slew of adjacent crises. Among the four most dire matters noted by Ocasio-Cortez are the inaccessibility of clean air and water, housing, transportation and education to a large portion of Americans; crippling wage stagnation and lack of socioeconomic mobility; under-resourced public sectors on local, state and federal levels; and “the greatest income inequality since the 1920s,” with a persistent racial wealth divide and gender wage gap.
Ocasio-Cortez connects the two key issues when she writes, “Whereas climate change, pollution, and environmental destruction have exacerbated systemic racial, regional, social, environmental, and economic injustices (referred to in this preamble as ‘systemic injustices’) by disproportionately affecting indigenous peoples, communities of color, migrant communities, deindustrialized communities, depopulated rural communities, the poor, low-income workers, women, the elderly, the unhoused, people with disabilities, and youth (referred to in this preamble as ‘frontline and vulnerable communities’);”
From here, the resolution dives into the five duties of the federal government, to be achieved over a 10-year mobilization period:
- Achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions
- Create well-paying jobs to ensure monetary security for all Americans
- Invest in sustainable infrastructure and industry
- Secure clean air and water, healthy food, a resilient climate and access to nature for future generations
- Promote justice and equality by “stopping current, preventing future and repairing historic repression,” as the document states, of the previously mentioned frontline and vulnerable communities
The five points as stand-alone ideas are relatively ambiguous, reminiscent of the broad declarations of politicians past. However, the remainder of the resolution breaks down 14 definitive goals to accomplish the GND in the designated window, and then an additional 15 projects that will allow us to achieve those 14 goals—a testament to Ocasio-Cortez’s attentive nature. To regurgitate all 29 points here would be tedious and, frankly, everyone should give the proposal a read for themselves.
Progress to combating climate change has moved at a glacial pace, and while any advancement is certainly worthy of celebration, to achieve the GND would require immediate, radical action from both the government and the American people. To say there is a strong divide among politicians on the matter is an understatement, leaving environmental supporters paralyzed in enacting policies and making real change. Right-wing politicians have already torn the resolution to shreds, deeming it an implausible, liberal-agenda pushing proposal, and evidence of Ocasio-Cortez’s naivety. Criticism from both democrats and republicans is plentiful, and one cannot help but question the realistic nature of the mission given our political and economic state. The outlook for a 10-year completion of the deal is far from promising.
But the triumph of the Green New Deal is perhaps not found in the tangible results it strives for. Rather, it lies in what the resolution and its writer represent. The proposal in full is the most thorough GND to date, marking the first significant step towards environmental change in the 21st century. It offers us a clear-cut, declarative solution to one of the most pressing issues at hand, regardless of whether or not it will succeed.
As for Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest woman in Congress is steadfast in her ideologies, which are rooted in justice and visibility for systemically oppressed communities. In her short time as a Representative, she has proven her commitment to progress, first and foremost, for the people. Her platform has struck a chord in many, most notably young democrats who seek to make change but cannot seem to find an avenue to do so. Ocasio-Cortez represents something practically unheard of in modern politics: youth, along with the forward-thinking, progressive ideas that come along with it.
What comes next for the Green New Deal is unknown. After all, this is a proposal—by definition, an idea put forward for consideration. But Ocasio-Cortez and the resolution have undeniably caused quite a stir in the political landscape, highlighting the urgency of climate change and igniting a more serious debate on where we go from here. Though if she has anything to say about it, what’s “here” now, won’t be for very much longer.
Read the Green New Deal resolution at ocasio-cortez.house.gov.
