When Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)  was first running for office, she played up climate change for all it was worth.

In 2019, she stated that we had just 12 years left before the world was going to end.

Well, we are six years away from her declared doomsday, and AOC is now dead silent on the matter.

End of the world

AOC had likened climate change to the millennial version of World War II.

She stated, "Millennials and Gen Z and all these folks that come after us are looking up, and we're like, 'The world is going to end in 12 years if we don't address climate change, and your biggest issue is how are we gonna pay for it?'”

This launched her into the national spotlight and made her the darling of the media, and, eventually, the darling of the Democrat Party as well.

Republicans mocked her, and now her previously articulated deadline is looming.

Refuted by scientists

Now, I am not sure how many people know this, but people have been making similar claims about climate change going back decades.

I think if they had been more realistic about their arguments, people who have taken them a bit more seriously, but everyone loves to be dramatic.

When AOC made her doom-and-gloom prediction, however, even climate change scientists had to take a step back. For instance, Kate Marvel, a climate scientist at NASA, stated, "12 years isn't a deadline, and climate change isn't a cliff we fall off -- it's a slope we slide down."

Marvel added, “We don't have 12 years to prevent climate change -- we have no time.  It's already here. And even under a business-as-usual scenario, the world isn't going to end in exactly twelve years."

Staying silent

A lot of climate change promoters are now stepping away from the doomsday scenario to paint a more realistic picture.

For instance, billionaire Bill Gates has moved toward helping people cope with life in areas where the climate is getting warmer, recently stating, "Although climate change will have serious consequences -- particularly for people in the poorest countries -- it will not lead to humanity’s demise."

He added, "This is a chance to refocus on the metric that should count even more than emissions and temperature change: improving lives. Our chief goal should be to prevent suffering, particularly for those in the toughest conditions who live in the world’s poorest countries."

AOC, however, has not taken this approach. She continues to remain silent about her dire warnings from the past, so I am wondering when someone will stick a microphone in her face to see if she will change her approach or continue to insist on the truth of her end-of-the-world scenario. This will be a big deal, especially if she decides to run for the Senate.