AOC Flies in the Face of Climate Change: ‘I Had a Very Tight Schedule’

AOC (Getty Images/Win McNamee)
Getty Images/Win McNamee
Hannah Knudsen

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), a leading advocate for Green New Deal initiatives, defended her recent flight to New York, attributing it to a “very tight schedule.”

In a Monday Instagram story, the New York Democrat highlighted the upgrades at LaGuardia Airport, telling her 8.8 million followers about the terminals’ $8 billion overhaul “with climate resiliency measures, public art, electric shuttle buses, & more.”

“It’ll be finished in ’22 but the completed parts are already opened,” she wrote before taking questions.

“I don’t mean 2 b THAT person, but y not take Amtrak? Cant [sic] solve climate crisis by flying,” one user wrote, prompting a response from the far-left Democrat, who defended her current travel status, saying her schedule was “very tight.”

“No worries! Amtrak or EVs are what I normally take to DC about 99% of the time. This weekend was an exception as I had a very tight schedule that meant I had to fly in & out,” she wrote.

“Since I don’t usually fly there, I decided to take this opportunity to show you all the new airport!” she continued, expressing hope that planes will one day use non-fossil fuel methods to power flight:

AOC Instgram

AOC Instgram

Ocasio-Cortez’s defense of air travel coincides with her appearance at Monday’s Sunrise Movement protest outside of the White House, where hundreds of activists gathered to demand the Biden administration to prioritize climate change initiatives in the infrastructure bill.

“What we are here to tell them is that you can’t break this promise to us anymore,” Ocasio-Cortez told the crowd. “They’re setting up a world that they won’t have to live in. Ok, that’s why this matters. That’s why we fight.”

“As a result of your hard work, we’ve got folks in the Senate, we’ve got folks in the House, not just me, not just like they like to say is a tiny group of the ‘Squad’ … we have a critical mass of people saying no climate, no deal,” she continued:

The Green New Deal champion’s defense echo excuses offered by John Kerry, the U.S. special presidential envoy for climate under Biden. Kerry, a climate activist who routinely warns of the dangers of global warming, has been known to use private jets, journeying to Iceland in 2019 to, ironically, accept an environmental award. He subsequently defended his climate-unfriendly mode of transportation, contending a private jet remained “the only choice for somebody like me who is traveling the world to win this battle.”

“I’ve been involved with this fight for years,” Kerry continued. “I negotiated with President Xi to bring President Xi to the table so we could get Paris. And, I believe, the time it takes me to get somewhere, I can’t sail across the ocean.”

It remains unclear what is stopping Kerry from sailing across the ocean, as Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg set sail from Plymouth England in a multimillion-dollar racing yacht to attend a U.N. climate conference in New York in 2019.

“I have to fly, meet with people, and get things done,” Kerry added, citing his purported life sacrifice to the cause.

“I offset and contribute my life to do this, I’m not going to be put on the defensive,” he added.

In 2019, Ocasio-Cortez warned that the world is essentially going to end in 12 years if climate change is left unchecked, adding that the battle against a shifting climate is this generation’s World War II:

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