Ocasio-Cortez tells world's mayors drastic action needed on climate crisis | US news | The Guardian
11.10.2019 - Rede Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - C40 World Mayors Summit - YouTube - has her introducer, who says that she may be seeing a lot more of AOC in the years to come.
C40 World Mayors Summit 2019: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - YouTube strips away that intro. There are also longer versions, but they include some of the conference action before and after.
“It is unsustainable to continue to believe [in] our system of runaway, unaccountable, lawbreaking pursuit of profit,” she told the conference.
Instead, she said, the world needed to adopt “a cooperative, collaborative” system, “whose economy … benefits the middle and lower classes and marginalised people”.
“Our current logic created this mess and operating in the same way will not get us out.”
She then talked about how NYC's three major airports are vulnerable to sea-level rise. I fact-checked that assertion and I found that all three airports are very close to sea level. JFK at Jamaica Bay off the Atlantic Ocean, LaGuardia at the East River off Long Island Sound, and Newark at Newark Bay off of Hudson Bay. Much the same is true of San Francisco Bay, where I'd lived for many years, where San Francisco's and Oakland's airports are at the southern lobe of San Francisco Bay, though San Jose's airport is a little bit inland on flat land. Philadelphia's airport is on the Delaware River, a bit above sea level at Philly's location. DC's Reagan airport is on the Potomac River, close to sea level, while Dulles and BWI are a bit inland on flat land. The same can be said of an enormous amount of infrastructure and construction - shockingly vulnerable, and built there because of approximate constancy of sea levels over the last few millennia.
She then talked about what sort of world her children would live in, if she decides to have any. A world with much important infrastructure drowned, a world where it's much harder to grow food crops. I note California's Central Valley becoming much less productive because of droughts. She also mentioned drowned Internet cables and data centers, and she noted widespread inaction by national governments. She didn't mention Mar-a-Lago or take a swipe at Donald Trump for being so complacent about it.
Not just as an elected official, not just as a public figure,
“I speak to you as a human being, a woman whose dreams of motherhood now taste bittersweet because of what I know about our children’s future,” she said, her voice breaking as if she was struggling to hold back tears.
“That our actions are responsible for bringing their most dire possibilities into focus.”
Some right-wingers cited this as yet more evidence of what a great actress AOC supposedly is.
She then talked about how destructive Hurricane Maria was to Puerto Rico, being a big natural disaster and killing one of her grandfathers. Living under colonial rule made things worse. I remember how President Trump seemed to have a grudge against Puerto Rico, some feeling that Puerto Ricans deserve to be punished for their sins, a feeling that he did not have about Florida or Texas.
Also Dorian in the Bahamas.
She talked about what a massive worldwide effort that it will take to handle the climate crisis. She stated that it was only common sense to help those that were left behind as a result of uneven development.
She ended by paraphrasing the end of FDR's first inaugural speech:
The Avalon Project : First Inaugural Address of Franklin D. Roosevelt That's where he said that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself".
