Ocasio-Cortez says maybe people should stop having kids because of climate change

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) suggested during an Instagram-live video that young people should reconsider having children because of climate change.

"Our planet is going to hit disaster if we don't turn this ship around and so it's basically like, there's a scientific consensus that the lives of children are going to be very difficult," Ocasio-Cortez said while chopping food in her kitchen Sunday night. "And it does lead, I think, young people to have a legitimate question, you know, should, 'Is it OK to still have children?'"

Her commentary was aimed at Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and all climate change "delayers" who have dismissed her "Green New Deal" resolution, which she claims would save the environment. The plan was introduced by the freshman congresswoman and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) earlier this month.

The Green New Deal includes a plan to "upgrade or replace every building in U.S. for state-of-the-art energy efficiency" and a complete overhaul of the nation's transportation system. The estimated plan would seek to phase out all fossil fuels and airplanes, as well as eliminating nuclear power.

What about the Feinstein comment?

A group of children and teenagers recently visited Feinstein's office in an attempt to convince her to support the Green New Deal.

Feinstein appeared to dismiss the group's pleas and pointed to her decades of experience as a politician.

"You know what's interesting about this group is I've been doing this for 30 years," she said. "I know what I'm doing. You come in here, and you say it has to be my way or the highway. I don't respond to that.

"I've gotten elected. I just ran," she continued. "I got elected by an almost 1 million vote plurality. And I know what I'm doing. So, you know, maybe people should listen a little bit."

During her Instagram-live rant about climate change, Ocasio-Cortez took a jab at Feinstein.

"This idea that 'I've been working on this for x-amount of years,' um, it's like not good enough," Ocasio-Cortez said. "Like, we need a universal sense of urgency, and people are like trying to like introduce watered-down proposals that are frankly going to kill us. A lack of urgency is going to kill us."

"It doesn't matter if you agree that climate change is an important issue," she continued. "At this point, it doesn't matter. If you believe climate change is a problem, that's not even the issue. The issue is how urgently you feel we need to fix it."

Watch the video: