FDR had a lot of critics too, but I think the New Deal worked out pretty well overall. There will always be way more people who say something can't be done than those who have the bold vision to try to change the arc of history in a positive direction. The "juveniles" have the most skin in the game, since it's our future quality of life and security on the line. It's only natural that someone would emerge from that generation to try to make create a movement to clean up the mess left to them by previous generations. It's called clear-eyed self-preservation. It's also predictable that the reaction from previous generations would be dismissive, since to admit there is an urgent problem would be to implicitly accept some level of culpability.
I think this Green New Deal does a good job of at least getting the point across that drastic, radical steps need to be taken immediately; even if the specific action items are questionable or debatable. Someone had to start somewhere to get us off dead center. We are talking about it more now aren't we? So I'd say the pot was effectively stirred, if nothing else.
Maybe instead of mocking and dismissing it out of hand, we could lend our collective expertise into improving the technical aspects and eventually lead to sound policies that can be enacted with bipartisan support. Issues aren't politicized by politicians - they are politicized by our collective attitudes. Politicians aren't going to take any legislation seriously until the population as a whole starts taking the threat seriously. Why do we expect them to have any guts to act boldly when we trash and mock the first person who dares to try something, instead of saying "OK, that's a start. But here's what won't work and here's what might work and here are the constraints and here are the areas we should focus our investment to overcome those constraints", etc.
My old boss used to say, "don't tell me why something isn't going to work unless you are coming to me with a solution". If government policy was enacted that forced us (and funded us) to find solutions, I'm confident engineers would bring solutions to the table instead of showing up with reasons it can't be done. It's what we've always done.
I'm currently working on a WWTP upgrade where the facilities are being constructed with "stilts" to accommodate a 4 ft sea level rise and increased storm surge predicted by the year 2075. So am I a liberal nutter or a pragmatic engineer doing what needs to be done to ensure water resources are available in the future? I certainly got a well-paying job out of it, as will the local masons, precasters, MEP contractors, etc.