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From: Willy Banta 'From:
To: Council Testimony
Subject: Please Declare a Climate Emergency
Date: Saturday,September 28,2019 2:22:18 PM /019 SEP 30 AN 9: 34
Aloha! The time has come to stop business as usual and change what we are doing that causes
climate change.
Fact Sheet: National Declaration of Climate Emergency Resolution
S.Con.Res.22 (Senate) and H.Con.Res.52 (House)
Senator Bernie Sanders, Representative Earl Blumenauer, and Representhtive
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are backing a National Climate Emergency Declaration
resolution to put the U.S. Congress on record, naming the climate breakdown as a
national emergency which demands an emergency response. An updated list of
cosponsors is here.
The resolution calls for a mobilization in alignment with the core solution of The
Climate Mobilization, an organization that has been fighting for a World War II-
scale response to the climate emergency since 2014. If you or your organization
want to sign on in support of this resolution, please visit ClimateEmergency.US.
The Congressional Declaration of Climate Emergency Concurrent
Resolution:
• Recognizes the ongoing impacts of climate breakdown in the U.S. and globally
as a "climate emergency" that demands a "massive-scale mobilization" and
cites our country's "proud history of collaborative, constructive, massive-scale
Federal mobilizations of resources and labor in order to solve great challenges,"
including "the Apollo 11 Moon landing, Reconstruction, the New Deal, and
World War II;"
• Calls for a "national, social, industrial, and economic mobilization of the
resources and labor of the United States at a massive scale to halt, reverse,
mitigate, and prepare for the consequences of the climate emergency and to
restore the climate for future generations;"
• Recognizes the need for a "zero emissions economy" that "guarantees good
jobs and union wages with quality benefits"
• Recognizes the critical need for a "just and managed phase-out" of oil, gas, and
coal in order to "keep fossil fuels in the ground;" _
• Recognizes that addressing the climate emergency will require massive levels
of public engagement in order to develop an equitable and effective climate LKIA '11
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• Explicitly does NOT call for granting expanded or emergency powers to the
executive branch;
• Points out that planetary heating, even below the 1.5 degree Celsius
benchmark, is already having and will continue to have devastating, irreversible
impacts on "public health, livelihoods, quality of life, food security, water
supplies, human security, and economic growth" and will continue to exacerbate
the accelerating biodiversity crisis, also known as the Sixth Mass Extinction;,
• Describes the $100 billion in annual costs to the U.S. economy from disasters
and the exponential increase of climate-related disasters between 2014 and
2018;
• Focuses on environmental and public health impacts to rural and urban
communities in the U.S. and globally from climate-related disasters and
disease, as well as from toxic pollution in the air, water, and soil;
• Explains that the impacts of the climate emergency are being borne by
historically marginalized communities in the U.S. and globally, a fact that
demands a just transition, "rooted in principles of racial and socioeconomic
equity, self-determination, and democracy;"
• Highlights the judgment of national security experts that the climate emergency
is a "threat multiplier" and a "top homeland security risk;"
• States that "Tribal governments and communities, people of color, and labor
unions must be equitably and actively engaged in the climate mobilization and
prioritized" so that "workers in the United States, and the communities of those
workers, are guaranteed a strong, viable economic future;"
• Points to the over 990 local governments in 18 countries that have declared a
Climate Emergency
• Calls for intergovernmental collaboration between the federal government, local
and state governments, and the international community
• Calls for accountability for those who have deliberately delayed action on
climate
Ma hal o,
Theodore Banta and Miriam Jacobson
13-1308 Kahukai Av
Pahoa, HI 96778
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