'Too Radical to Ignore': AOC Sends Aggressive Demand to Biden at Climate March
Tens of thousands of radical climate activists flooded the streets of New York City on Sunday, launching New York’s Climate Week with a resounding call to end the era of fossil fuels.
They urged President Joe Biden to prioritize ending fossil fuels if he wants to win a second term.
The march, aptly named the “March to End Fossil Fuels,” saw impassioned protesters rallying against coal, oil, and natural gas consumption while directing their fervor squarely at Biden and his administration, Fox News reported.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a leading voice in the progressive left, delivered a message to the crowd.
In her seemingly occasional ghetto-sounding accent — described by critics as “verbal blackface” but defended by a writer for The Atlantic as simply “code switching” — the leftist politician urged the crowd to make the climate movement “too big and too radical to ignore.
Ocasio-Cortez criticized the Biden administration’s approval of fossil fuel projects earlier this year, singling out the controversial Willow project by oil giant ConocoPhillips in Alaska, according to the U.K. Guardian.
Congresswoman @AOC spoke out at the #MarchToEndFossilFuels, describing a vision for the future with fully renewable energy by 2040, and “Not only will energy be renewable, but it will be available as public democratically-controlled goods for our most vulnerable communities.” pic.twitter.com/SoKtQ3GbiO
— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) September 18, 2023
“I’m in rooms in Washington all the time where people say that they have a commitment to this issue, but we need urgency on this issue right now, right now. And the way we create urgency on the issue of climate is that we have people all across the world in the streets … demanding a cessation of what is killing us,” she declared.
“We demand change!” she shouted. “It will happen now!”
Accompanying Ocasio-Cortez were Hollywood leftists like actors Ethan Hawke, Edward Norton, and Kevin Bacon, making the event a star-studded kick-off to New York’s Climate Week, according to Fox News.
“We have to send a message that some of us are going to be living on this planet 30, 40, 50 years from now,” Ocasio-Cortez vowed. “And we will not take no for an answer.”
The protest, estimated to have drawn between 50,000 and 75,000 participants, which included radical communists, sent a clear message to Biden, calling on him to prioritize “climate change” and the termination of fossil fuels in his re-election strategy.
Today, over 75,000 people marched on New York City to demand the end to fossil fuel extraction which is fueling the climate crisis.
Our comrade @pinko_fag spoke to why they came up to NYC for the march: pic.twitter.com/fRs8aluHcM
— DC Communist Party (@DCCommunists) September 17, 2023
Young activist Emma Buretta of the youth protest group Fridays for Future had a warning for Biden, according to The New York Times:
“If you want our vote, if you don’t want the blood of our generations to be on your hands, end fossil fuels.”
Placards in the crowd bore slogans such as “Biden, End Fossil Fuels,” “Fossil fuels are killing us,” and “Biden Declare A Climate Emergency,” according to Fox.
Protest organizers expressed their disappointment in Biden, many of whom had supported him in 2020.
According to Fox, Louisiana environmental activist Sharon Lavigne stated, “President Biden, our lives depend on your actions today … If you don’t stop fossil fuels, our blood is on your hands.”
Environmental activists say that nearly one-third of the world’s planned drilling for oil and gas by 2050 is driven by U.S. interests, Fox News reported.
According to Fox, the Rev. Lennox Yearwood, leader of the Hip Hop Caucus, likened the climate movement to the fight for racial justice in the U.S., describing it as a “lunch counter moment for the 21st century.”
“We need to end fossil fuels in all forms,” Yearwood said.
A representative of the oil industry tried to put the question in perspective.
“We share the urgency of confronting climate change together without delay,” said Megan Bloomgren, senior vice president of the American Petroleum Institute, according to The Associated Press.
“Yet doing so by eliminating America’s energy options is the wrong approach and would leave American families and businesses beholden to unstable foreign regions for higher cost and far less reliable energy.”
Climate Week, which typically gathers leaders from business, politics, and the arts in support of environmental causes, this year includes Wednesday’s special United Nations summit organized by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
While National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan announced that Biden is not scheduled to participate in the climate summit, activists called that decision “unacceptable,” according to the Guardian.
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