Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Wednesday pushed the Green New Deal on Twitter Wednesday in reaction to record-hot temperatures in Puerto Rico and wildfire smoke from Canada overwhelming U.S. East Coast cities, saying the world is “unprepared” for the “climate crisis.”
“Between NYC in wildfire smoke and this in PR, it bears repeating how unprepared we are for the climate crisis,” the Democrat from New York stated Wednesday
“We must adapt our food systems, energy grids, infrastructure, healthcare, etc ASAP to prepare for what’s to come and catch up to what is already here,” she said.
There are currently 413 active wildfires across Canada, 249 of them considered out of control, according to Reuters.
As of Sunday, around 8.15 million acres have already which is nearly 13 times the 10-year average, Reuters reports. The smoke is so overwhelming it’s depleting the air quality in East Coast U.S. states.
In a statement Tuesday night, Mayor Eric Adams announced that at 10 p.m. EST, parts of New York City were reading 218 on the Air Quality Index, indicating “Very Unhealthy” on the Levels of Health Concern, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
He said air quality was “deteriorating across the five boroughs due to smoke coming from wildfires in Canada.”
AOC and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., reintroduced the Green New Deal for the second time in April, arguing that it is time to “aggressively” transform the American workforce.
“It is important to acknowledge that the scale and the scope of what we are proposing is massive, but the scale and the scope of the climate crisis is even bigger,” Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview with MSNBC in April. “If we are not proactive about very aggressively and transformationally addressing our infrastructure, our workforce, our preparation for the climate crisis, then the costs of not addressing it are going to be far greater.”
Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.