White House press secretary Sarah Sanders derided New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s recent claim that the world will end in 12 years due to climate change, and suggested the Trump administration has little need for the progressive firebrand’s thoughts in general, in an exclusive interview Tuesday night with Fox News’ “Hannity.”
“I don’t think we’re going to listen to her on much of anything — particularly not on matters that we’re gonna leave in the hands of a much, much higher authority — and certainly, not listen to the freshman congresswoman on when the world may end,” Sanders said.
Speaking at an event commemorating Martin Luther King Day on Monday, Ocasio-Cortez asserted that climate change constituted “our World War II” and added, “Millennials and people, you know, Gen Z and all these folks that will come after us are looking up and we’re like, ‘The world is gonna end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change and your biggest issue is, how are we gonna pay for it?'”
Related: Ocasio-Cortez: ‘World Is Gonna End in 12 Years if We Don’t Address Climate Change’
A United Nations report on climate change warned late last year that the world will face several consequences from climate change — extreme drought, food shortages and deadly flooding — unless there’s an “unprecedented” effort made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
Then, in November, the Trump administration released a federal report that found that the impacts of climate change are being felt across the country, and “extreme weather and climate-related events” are going to worsen in the years to come — with a significant possible impact on the economy by the end of the century.
Some conservative commentators have argued that most proposed solutions would do more harm than good, and also have accused climate activists of crying wolf. In 2006, a NASA scientist and leading global warming researcher declared that the world had only 10 years to avert a climate catastrophe. Meantime, President Donald Trump repeatedly has cast doubt on the risks posed by global warming, despite the report from his administration.
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‘‘Large parts of the country are suffering from tremendous amounts of snow and near record setting cold,” Trump tweeted on Sunday. “Amazing how big this system is. Wouldn’t be bad to have a little of that good old-fashioned global warming right now!’’
In 2012, Trump famously wrote: “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”
Now, Sanders said, the attention should be on pressing matters like the ongoing partial federal government shutdown over funding for Trump’s proposed border wall.
“We’re focused on what’s happening in the world right now,” Sanders told host Sean Hannity. “We wish that Democrats like herself would engage in that conversation, help us fix some of the current problems we know exist, and work with us to get some things done — particularly on the border, fixing the national and humanitarian crisis.”
The attention should be on pressing matters like the ongoing partial federal government shutdown over funding for Trump’s proposed border wall, Sanders said.
Sanders added, in an apparent reference to God, “That’s the kind of stuff we’re focused on, not things we’re gonna leave up to the hands of something and someone much more powerful than any of us.”
The president himself seemingly has little patience for Ocasio-Cortez.
Asked last week outside the White House for his response to Ocasio-Cortez’s claim that there is “no question” he is a racist, Trump responded simply, “Who cares?”
Gregg Re is an editor for Fox News. Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this Fox News report, which is used by permission.
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