Number
111323
Version
SUBSTITUTE 2
Reference
Sponsor
ALD. KOVAC AND COGGS
Title
Substitute resolution urging the Environmental Protection Agency to enforce the Clean Air Act and reduce greenhouse gas pollution.
Analysis
This resolution urges the Environmental Protection Agency and the Obama administration to fully employ and enforce the Clean Air Act to reduce carbon in our atmosphere to no more than 350 parts per million.
Body
Whereas, The decade from 2000 to 2010 was the warmest on record, and 2005 and 2010 tied for the hottest years on record; and
Whereas, The current level of CO2 in the atmosphere is approximately 392 parts per million (ppm); and
Whereas, One of the world’s leading climate scientists, Dr. James Hansen, stated in 2008: “If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350ppm”; and
Whereas, According to the Global Humanitarian Forum, climate change is already responsible every year for some 300,000 deaths, 325 million people seriously affected, and economic losses worldwide of $125 billion; and
Whereas, Extreme weather events are striking with increased frequency, with deadly
consequences for people and wildlife; and
Whereas, Climate change is threatening food security as crop growth and yields diminish and droughts, floods and changes in snowpack depth are disrupting water supplies; and
Whereas, Scientists have concluded that by 2100, as many as 1 in 10 species may be on the verge of extinction due to climate change; and
Whereas, The world’s ice is rapidly melting threatening water supplies, raising sea levels, and jeopardizing ice-dependent animals so severely that Arctic summer sea ice is half the area and thickness it was several decades ago; and
Whereas, According to Scientific American, sea level is rising faster along the U....
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