A MESSAGE FROM THE FUTURE WITH ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: A glimpse into a different future.

WHILE IN NEW ZEALAND politicians continue to talk about the fiction of a 'green capitalism' and a corporate-friendly Climate Change minister talks carbon neutrality by 2050 when we're told we've only got twelve years to sort our act out, in the United States the talk is about a Green New Deal.

What would the future look like if a Green New Deal came to pass? This film, narrated by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and illustrated by Molly Crabapple, offers an exciting glimpse.

Set a couple of decades from now, the film is a flat-out rejection of the idea that a dystopian future is a forgone conclusion. Instead, it offers a thought experiment: What if we decided not to drive off the climate cliff? What if we chose to radically change course and save both our habitat and ourselves?

The scepticism is understandable, writes Naomi Klein in the accompanying article:

" The idea that societies could collectively decide to embrace rapid foundational changes to transportation, housing, energy, agriculture, forestry, and more — precisely what is needed to avert climate breakdown — is not something for which most of us have any living reference. We have grown up bombarded with the message that there is no alternative to the crappy system that is destabilizing the planet and hoarding vast wealth at the top.'

The film is about now, It’s about how, in the nick of time, a critical mass of humanity in the largest economy on earth came to believe that it was actually worth saving. Because, as Ocasio-Cortez says in the film, the future has not been written yet and “we can be whatever we have the courage to see.”