This Video Shows The Future If Alexandra-Ocasio Cortez Pulls Off The Green New Deal

AOC narrated a video about what America’s future could actually look like, and it’ll bring tears to your eyes

There’s been a lot of news lately about how the world is heading for a climate disaster, unlike any we’ve ever seen before, that will impact the lives of hundreds of millions of people. Leading climate scientists have told us we have just over a decade to make massive, sweeping changes to the way we use and abuse the earth, or else that disaster will become inevitable. That means we need to act now, and yet, no real change has come. AOC, thankfully, is leading the charge.

Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, is one of the lawmakers spearheading the Green New Deal, what would be a sweeping series of legislation that aims to change transportation, housing, energy, agriculture, wages and more — the kind of far-reaching, radical change it’s going to take to avert a climate disaster.

Obviously, these plans have been met with all kinds of opposition. Like any radical idea, the Green New Deal has been dismissed as too expensive, too impractical, too big to implement in the time we have left (which is a pretty ridiculous argument, when you think about it, because what’s the alternative? To give up and wait for the planet to die?).

To help people see that the future doesn’t need to be dystopian, AOC teamed up with artist Molly Crabapple to create a video message from the future — a future where the Green New Deal has been implemented. Just watch the video, and make sure you have some tissues handy.

First, AOC goes through the history of climate science — and climate science denial. She explains how lawmakers and lobbyists have ignored scientists’ warnings about climate change for decades, instead prioritizing profits for gas and oil companies.

Then, she moves to the election in 2018, when Democrats retook the House of Representatives, and 2020, when they retook the Senate and the White House, in her telling. She talks about how the Green New Deal is implemented and millions of people are guaranteed housing and jobs with fair, living wages as they work to upgrade and retrofit American infrastructure to utilize renewable energy and lessen its dependence on oil drilling and fracking.

AOC goes on to talk about a United States where healthcare and dignified jobs are human rights given to all people. It’s not all sunshine once the Green New Deal is passed — the country still sees major disasters related to climate change. But it’s able to recover because it took action when it did.

“The first big step was just closing our eyes and imagining it,” AOC continues in her voiceover. “We can be whatever we have the courage to see.”

The video tugs at heartstrings because it reminds us that if we can work together, we can create a country where everyone prospers. We’ve done it in the past, like with FDR’s New Deal that the Green version is modeled after. That faced a lot of opposition, too, but it was implemented and became one of the most popular and important social programs in American history.

The time for a Green New Deal is now. We cannot afford to wait any longer. To support AOC and other politicians who are working to make it happen, call your representatives and ask them to support the plan.

The future that AOC asked us in her video to imagine isn’t out of reach, but it will take work and cooperation from all of us.