Ocasio-Cortez Appears To Change Mind Again On ‘Climate Disaster’ Deadline

Democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) appeared to change her mind again on how long humans have before time runs out and cataclysmic climate disaster strikes.

Earlier this month, after widespread criticism and watching her poll numbers sink, Ocasio-Cortez tried to play off her claim, suggesting that it was a joke and that anyone who believed her has “the social intelligence of a sea sponge.”

“This is a technique of the GOP, to take dry humor + sarcasm literally and ‘fact check’ it,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on May 12. “Like the ‘world ending in 12 years’ thing, you’d have to have the social intelligence of a sea sponge to think it’s literal. But the GOP is basically Dwight from The Office so who knows.”

Yet, on Tuesday night, Ocasio-Cortez appeared to re-embrace her belief in the 12-year climate deadline in a tweet where she was responding to the recent spate of tornadoes flaring up across the country.

“This guy reminds me of every climate scientist warning people we have 12 years left to cut emissions in half before our future is irreversibly damaged & all the GOP wants to do is yell about communist cow farts,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, ignoring the fact that she has been one of those yelling about “cow farts.”

Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet also largely ignored a recent rebuke she received from a prominent meteorologist over her claim about “casual tornadoes” and climate change.

That same meteorologist, Ryan Maue, explained separately on Tuesday that the link between tornadoes and climate change is “tissue paper thin.”

Citing a New York Times article published by MSN, Maue tweeted: “Tornadoes & climate change — how strong is the evidence? Tissue paper thin. ‘Its almost impossible to see any signal in the (tornado) data.’ After quiet 2018 & a long violent tornado ‘drought’, month of May hyperactivity is more reflection of normal.”

“As research is done w/more advanced models, we will learn more about tornadoes within our current climate & predict changes ahead e.g. location shifts or intensity distribution to more/less violent,” Maue continued. “Check back in 10 years. But we need better weather forecasts now, desperately.”

“From recent National Academies Report: Severe convective storms: Includes tornadoes,” Maue added. “Understanding of effect of climate change: Low. Confidence in capability to attribute events to climate change: Low”

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Ryan Maue

✔@RyanMaue

Replying to @RyanMaue

From recent National Academies Report:

Severe convective storms:
*Includes tornadoes

Understanding of effect of climate change: Low

Confidence in capability to attribute events to climate change: Low

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9:19 PM – May 28, 2019

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Prominent climate change scientists have pushed back on Ocasio-Cortez’s alarmist rhetoric. Axios reported the following quotes:

• Andrea Dutton, a paleoclimate researcher at the University of Florida: “For some reason the media latched onto the 12 years (2030), presumably because they thought that it helped to get across the message of how quickly we are approaching this and hence how urgently we need action. Unfortunately, this has led to a complete mischaracterization of what the report said.”
• Gavin Schmidt, who leads NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies: “All the time-limited frames are bulls***. Nothing special happens when the ‘carbon budget’ runs out or we pass whatever temperature target you care about, instead the costs of emissions steadily rise.”
• Kate Marvel, a climate scientist at NASA: “12 years isn’t a deadline, and climate change isn’t a cliff we fall off — it’s a slope we slide down. We don’t have 12 years to prevent climate change — we have no time. It’s already here. And even under a business-as-usual scenario, the world isn’t going to end in exactly twelve years.”

Here are just a few examples of Ocasio-Cortez promoting her 12-year deadline theory on climate change:

“We have an expiration date and the IPCC report says we’ve got 12 years to turn it around!” Ocasio-Cortez shouted at an MSNBC town hall event designed to promote her climate change hysteria. “12 years! My concern is we are going to be the frog in the pot of boiling water…and our kids are doomed.”

In responding to a tweet from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted last November: “Thank you, @NancyPelosi. We have 10 years left to plan and implement a Green New Deal before cataclysmic climate disaster. Reinstating the Select Committee is exactly what we need to do.”

“Next, we should define the standards of that committee,” Ocasio-Cortez continued. “To be truly effective, it should: 1. Have a mandate to draft a Green New Deal plan by 2020; 2. Not have officials appointed to it that accept fossil fuel industry contributions.”

In October 2018, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted: “The IPCC told us this week that we have only 12 years left to avoid climate disaster. We also learned that only *100 companies* are responsible for 71% of global emissions. To save ourselves, we will need a mass mobilization towards 100% renewable energy.”

In January, Ocasio-Cortez doubled down on comments she made at an event for Martin Luther King day, tweeting: “For some reason GOP seems to think this is a gaffe, but it’s actually a generational difference. Young people understand that climate change is an existential threat: 3,000 Americans died in Hurricane María. The UN says we’ve got 12 years left to fix it.”

In April, Ocasio-Cortez created a propaganda video with The Intercept, tweeting: “Climate change is here + we’ve got a deadline: 12 years left to cut emissions in half. A #GreenNewDeal is our plan for a world and a future worth fighting for. How did we get here? What is at stake? And where are we going? Please watch & share widely.”

Ocasio-Cortez’s constant hyperbolic climate change comments and theatrics appear to have impacted her poll numbers.

“A Quinnipiac poll released on Thursday morning found that 23 percent of Americans had a favorable view of the member of Congress, while 36 percent had an unfavorable view — a -13 overall approval rating,” Vox reported. “This new poll isn’t a one-off finding. Three prior surveys — one in January from Morning Consult, one in February from Fox, and a third in mid-March from Gallup — all found that more Americans had negative views of AOC than had positive ones.”