New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez flew more than 1,600 miles [roundtrip: 3,200 miles] on an airplane to protest climate change and champion her environmental agenda.
Ocasio-Cortez traveled to Colorado on Sept. 21 to speak about climate change and the Green New Deal at a local high school.
The freshman lawmaker headlined the Boulder County Democratic Party’s annual Truman Dinner later that day, where she again spoke about environmental issues and climate activism.
“Nothing to fear except inaction,” Ocasio-Cortez said during the dinner in front of a sold-out crowd, according to The Denver Post. “The only thing we should be scared of is our future if we do nothing. We have to be bold and audacious and ambitious as possible.”
However, her commute to Colorado was not the most environmentally friendly method. She traveled by aircraft, which is a significant source of carbon emissions around the world.
I am currently in Colorado to visit families impacted by fracking sites and to cohost a #GreenNewDeal town hall with Rep. @JoeNeguse.
This is our first trip testing innovative approaches to childcare policies. We’re hoping to learn from it & refine for future trips/ideas 🍼 pic.twitter.com/OPFNTeQBIp
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 21, 2019
In response to a Twitter user who spotted her Saturday carrying an infant at Reagan National Airport in Virginia, Ocasio-Cortez revealed to her followers that the child was her staffer’s one-year-old baby.
She posted a selfie picture inside the airplane in a subsequent tweet and wrote she was traveling to Colorado to “visit families impacted by fracking sites.”
It’s been long known that the transportation industry is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.
Transportation — which includes airplanes, vehicles, boats, and trains — overtook the power sector in late 2017 to become the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., releasing 1.9 billion tons of carbon dioxide annually, according to Yale Environment 360.
Even relatively short flights can emit tons of carbon, according to an analysis the Guardian published in July.
For example, a return flight from London to Rome leaves a carbon footprint of 234 kilograms (515 pounds) of carbon dioxide per passenger, according to figures from German nonprofit Atmosfair, which is more than the average amount of carbon citizens of 17 low-income countries produced annually.
The distance from London to Rome is about 1,100 miles. The distance from Washington, D.C., to Denver, Colo., is notably farther — about 1,670 miles [758 pounds of CO2].
The two events in Boulder were not the only notable moments during Ocasio-Cortez’s Colorado trip.
Along with a group of environmentalists, she visited a fracking rig in the town of Broomfield. She tweeted out a video that showed an infrared camera that she suggested revealed emissions coming from the rig.
However, several fracking experts confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation the image was simply displaying heat signatures. In fact, no fracking was even taking place at the rig.
Read more at Daily Caller
AOC could have taken the train instead of flying to show her support for replacing air travel with trains. A non-stop Washington DC to Colorado Springs flight is almost 4 hours. The train is 1 day and 22 hours.
John Travolta has a 707 which has often flown alone in Yes these liberal eletists these pompious old Peacocks Do as i say not as i do im fed up witht heir hypocricy
WALK AOC WALK!
Never ever use any fossil fuel product again!
AO-C could have avoided the hypocrisy and embarrassment just by staying in NYC. Anyone who wants to experience her inanity can do so via the Internet.
Forget the private jet. First of all, there is no such thing as a “fracing rig.” The piece of equipment being observed in last Saturday’s site visit in Broomfield, Co was a rotary drilling rig. You have to drill a hole & case a wellbore before you engage in fracture stimulation (fracing) or any other form of well completion. So for openers, the folks at the site, including the environmental activists don’t even understand the basic equipment they are observing. Further, the FLIR (infrared) camera they are mis-using in the internet video is merely showing heat coming off the drilling mud being circulated out of the wellbore into containment. No “toxic emissions” as claimed and any qualified air specialist will confirm that fact. This is completely EMBARRASSING. Well, at least these folks are consistent. They have little understanding of oil & gas operations, routinely jump to WRONG conclusions on technical & environmental matters they are not qualified to have an informed opinion. So, only one question: You want these guys to dictate policy as to how we are going to transition our entire energy system? That should scare the CRAP out of any rational person…
Just your typical Go as i say not as i do Liberal Democrat thinking they have special privlages and AOC is just a drop in the bucket of privlaged liberal democratic drips