On Thursday, policy director at New Consensus and one of the minds behind the Green New Deal, Rhiana Gunn-Wright, appeared on MSNBC with host Ali Velshi.
During the segment, Gunn-Wright compared the cost of not acting on climate change to the number of deaths that came about as a result of the Holocaust, times 25 (emphasis added):
VELSHI: A CNN/SSRS poll indicates that 82 percent of Democrats say that aggressive action on climate change is necessary. How do you … make the argument that [climate change] needs a separate discussion? Why not health care?
GUNN-WRIGHT: So, in the issues that you just brought up, climate change is one of the main drivers of our public health. So, the difference between, say, 1.5 degrees of warming – which is the least that folks think that we can get – to two, you’re talking about 150 million deaths. That’s 25 Holocausts, right? So, how is that not a health issue? How is that not about health care, right?
You’re talking about immigration. Climate change is going to bring hundreds of millions of climate migrants, of climate refugees, both from outside the U.S. and inside the U.S. as you see people move. So, even the issues that you outline, all of them are affected by climate change – and how you decide to deal with climate is how you decide to deal with all of these other issues.
Velshi then cited an estimate regarding the financial cost of implementing the Green New Deal, and stated that he was “troubled by the idea that there are lots of people, critics particularly, who tell you how much it’s going to cost, but we don’t seem to have math on the other side.”
The Green New Deal, which was officially introduced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) in February, is a congressional resolution that proposes aggressive solutions to fight the alleged anthropogenic climate change threat.
According to The Hill, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez recently claimed that the proposal would cost at least $10 trillion:
I think we really need to get to $10 trillion to have a shot.
After noting how shocking a number that is, she stated: “I don’t think anyone wants to spend that amount of money, it’s not a fun number to say, I’m not excited to say we need to spend $10 trillion on climate, but … it’s just the fact of the scenario.”
Because the Green New Deal is a vaguely outlined set of proposals, it’s difficult to estimate its real-world cost. However, some organizations and commentators have attempted to calculate the financial burden such an ambitious new project would pose.
After walking through the potential costs of various aspects of the plan (the transition to renewable energy, the “smart power grid,” the reduction of greenhouse gasses, the upgrading of “all existing buildings,” guaranteed jobs, and universal health care), Forbes contributor Milton Ezrati writes:
Just these six of AOC’s long list of aspirations would then roughly cost some $2.5 trillion a year.
Ezrati adds: “That is a hefty price tag, considerably more than the estimated $700 billion a year that would emerge from AOC’s proposal to raise the maximum tax rate to 70%.”
The Daily Wire reached out to Rhiana Gunn-Wright for comment, but as of publication, we have not received a reply.