Michelle Bowman: “This afternoon, we are focused on the Green New Deal. And I want to be very clear about why we need a Green New Deal.…”

“This afternoon, we are focused on the Green New Deal. And I want to be very clear about why we need a Green New Deal. Our fossil fuel-driven economy is making us sick and literally killing us. But with historic investments in green infrastructure and the care economy, we can do the opposite. We can repair the damage done and give every person what they need to flourish. In the Pacific Northwest, we just saw a brutal heat wave that took the lives of 116 people in Oregon, 112 people in Washington, and hundreds more in British Columbia. We saw catastrophic floods across Europe that killed nearly 200 people, and record-shattering rains that caused deaths in India and China. We are living with wildfires that destroy communities and suffocate us with smoke. Africa is being battered by drought, and Siberia is in flames. We literally saw the ocean on fire. We now live in a world in which extreme weather driven by climate change is killing 5 million people per year. And in parts of my district, you are three times more likely to die from asthma than anywhere else in the country. We need to be crystal clear about the fact that our economic system created this emergency, while our political system subsidizes and protects the fossil fuel industry. That has to change now. The Green New Deal provides the framework we need to rebuild our economy, society, and democracy from the ground up.…”