Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Tuesday that racial injustice and the violation of indigenous rights cause climate change.
“We must recognize in legislation that the trampling of indigenous rights is a cause of climate change, that the trampling of racial justice is a cause of climate change,” the New York Democrat said during a speech that reintroduced the Green New Deal. Ocasio-Cortez and several of her Democratic colleagues reintroduced the legislation after announcing it in 2019.
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The legislation seeks to mitigate carbon emissions, which would reduce climate change, the American Action Forum (AAF) reported in 2019. The legislation includes several proposals, such as universal healthcare, “guaranteed green housing,” ensuring all Americans can access food and a “net-zero emissions transportation system.”
The Green New Deal could cost up to $93 trillion, according to AAF estimates, with the majority of the cost attributed to universal healthcare and guaranteed employment. Ocasio-Cortez said the Green New Deal addresses the phenomenon and clarified that there isn’t an “environmental or random” reason for climate change despite the issue being “a planetary crisis.”
“It’s not just human caused, it’s societally caused,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “The climate crisis is a crisis born of injustice and it is a crisis born of the pursuit of profit at any and all human and ecological cost.”
via wnd