EXCERPT:
OCASIO-CORTEZ: “There are a lot of diseases that are frozen in some of these glaciers that scientists fear that there is a potential that a lot of diseases could escape these melted glaciers, things that were frozen for thousands of years, and that they’re going to get into our water, and that humans could contract them, and they’re going to be diseases that are thousands of years old that have vectors that we are not prepared for, that we have never seen. And so, you know, that’s a concern. Even if there are no diseases frozen at all in these glaciers, you have diseases that are spread by mosquitoes, and now mosquitoes are starting to fly further north that carry diseases like malaria and a whole slew of other things. And there are parts of the United States and things that are moving much further north that we'll have to contend with, diseases that we haven't had to contend with in parts of the world before. So there’s disease, there’s sea-level rise, there is … And by the way, sea level rises probably one of the most expensive parts about climate change. You think overhauling our economy to decarbonize and saving the planet is going to be expensive? Try not decarbonizing our economy and allowing sea levels to rise, every coastal city to go underwater, every Midwestern city or large swaths of the middle of the country experiencing drought on a level that we have not seen, that’s going to be way more expensive.”