Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (center) speaks on the Green New Deal with Senator Ed Markey (right) in front of the Capitol Building in February 2019. (Photo by ‘Senate Democrats’ via Wikimedia Commons.)

The Associated Students Board of Directors unanimously passed a resolution in support of the Green New Deal on April 10, bringing University environmental advocates closer to their goal of making climate change a priority in higher education.

The Environmental Resource Center initially drafted the resolution, which acknowledges the impact climate change has on all people, especially low-income students. Now that the resolution has passed through Associated Students, the ERC hopes to bring it to the California State Student Association to get other universities on board with emphasizing the importance of climate change legislation in the 2020 elections, according to ERC President Monica DiLullo.

DiLullo said that although the Green New Deal proposed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez died in the Senate, the sentiment of the proposal lives on.

“The physical kind of [Green New Deal] resolution has died, only because it wasn’t given the chance to be fleshed out and actually worked through,” DiLullo said. “Showing that [the sentiment] hasn’t died, especially from a bunch of young voters, is really going to terrify the people who are against it.”

AS President Nathan Jones said once SF State’s resolution gets on the CSSA agenda, it will go to the board for final approval in May. As outlined in the resolution, Jones will also send a letter to Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who represents San Francisco in the House of Representatives.

“Climate change in general [is] not just important to students here at SF State, it’s literally [important to] everyone on this earth,” Jones said. “It’s important especially to the younger people like us because we are going to be the most affected, and we need to do as much as we can to try and combat climate change.”