FINAL Climate Emergency Resolution - Senate Legislative Counsel Draft Copy

[Donkees]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/08/climate-crisis-sanders-ocasio-cortez-emergency

Pages 3, 4, 5

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Whereas climate change is a threat multiplier—
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(1) with the potential to exacerbate many of the challenges the United
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States already confronts, including conflicts over scarce resources,
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conditions conducive to violent extremism, and the spread of infectious
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diseases; and
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(2) because climate change has the potential to produce new,
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unforeseeable challenges in the future;
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Whereas, in 2018, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projected that
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the Earth could warm 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels as early as 2030;
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Whereas the climatic changes resulting from global warming above 1.5 degrees Celsius above
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preindustrial levels, including changes resulting from global warming of more than 2
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degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, are projected to result in irreversible,
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catastrophic changes to public health, livelihoods, quality of life, food security, water
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supplies, human security, and economic growth;
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Whereas, in 2019, the United Nations Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on
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Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services found that human-induced climate change is pushing
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the planet toward the sixth mass species extinction and thus threatening the food security,
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water supply, and the wellbeing of billions of people;
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Whereas, even with global warming up to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, the
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planet is projected to experience—
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(1) a significant rise in sea levels;
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(2) extraordinary loss of biodiversity; and
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(3) intensifying droughts, prodigious floods, devastating wildfires, and
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other extreme weather events;
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Whereas, according to climate scientists, addressing the climate emergency will require an
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economically just and managed phase-out of oil, gas and coal to keep fossil fuels in the
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ground.
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Whereas the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has determined that
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limiting warming through emissions reduction and carbon sequestration will require rapid,
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and immediate, acceleration and proliferation of “far-reaching, multilevel, and cross-
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sectoral climate mitigation” and “transitions in energy, land, urban and rural infrastructure
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(including transport and buildings), and industrial systems”;
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Whereas, in the United States, massive, comprehensive, and urgent governmental action is
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required immediately to achieve the transitions of those systems in response to the severe
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existing and projected economic, social, public health, and national security threats posed
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by the climate crisis;
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Whereas the massive scope and scale of action necessary to stabilize the climate will require
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unprecedented levels of public awareness, engagement, and deliberation to develop and
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implement effective, just, and equitable policies to address the climate crisis;
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Whereas failure to mobilize to solve the climate emergency is antithetical to the spirit of the
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Declaration of Independence in protecting “unalienable Rights” that include “Life, Liberty
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and the pursuit of Happiness”;
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Whereas the United States has a proud history of collaborative, constructive, massive-scale
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federal mobilizations of resources and labor in order to solve great challenges, such as the
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Interstate Highway System, the Apollo 11 Moon landing, Reconstruction, the New Deal,
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and World War II;
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Whereas the United States stands uniquely poised to substantially grow the economy and social
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and health benefits from a massive mobilization of resources and labor that far outweigh the
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costs of inaction;
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Whereas millions of middle class jobs can be created by raising labor standards through project
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labor agreements and protecting and expanding the right of workers to organize so that
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workers in the United States and the communities of those workers are guaranteed a strong,
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viable economic future in a zero-emissions economy that guarantees good jobs at fair union
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wages, with quality benefits;
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Whereas frontline communities, Tribal governments and communities, people of color, and labor
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unions must be equitably and actively engaged in the climate mobilization and prioritized
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through local climate mitigation and adaptation planning, policy, and program delivery so
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that workers in the United States, the communities of those workers, are guaranteed a
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strong, viable economic future;
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Whereas a number of local jurisdictions and governments in the United States, including New
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York City and Los Angeles, and across the world, including the United Kingdom, the
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Republic of Ireland, Portugal, and Canada, have already declared a climate emergency, and
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a number of State and local governments are considering declaring a climate emergency in
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response to the massive challenges posed by the climate crisis;
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Whereas State, local, and Tribal governments must be supported in efforts to hold to account
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actors whose activities have deepened and accelerated the climate crisis and who have
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benefitted from delayed action to address the climate change emergency and to develop a
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fossil fuel free economy;
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Whereas a collaborative response to the climate crisis will require the Federal Government to
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work with international, State, and local governments, including with those governments
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that have declared a climate emergency, to reverse the impacts of the climate crisis; and
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Whereas the United States has an obligation, as a driver of accelerated climate change, to
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mobilize at emergency speed to restore a safe climate and environment not just for
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communities of the United States, including territories, but for communities across the
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world, particularly those on the frontlines of the climate crisis who have least contributed to
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the crisis, and to account for global and community impacts of any actions it takes in
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response to the climate crisis: Now, therefore, be it
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Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), That it is the sense of
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Congress that—
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(1) the global warming caused by human activities, which increase emissions of
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greenhouse gases, has resulted in a climate emergency that—
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(A) severely and urgently impacts the economic and social well-being, health and
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safety, and national security of the United States; and
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(B) demands a national, social, industrial, and economic mobilization of the
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resources and labor of the United States at a massive-scale to halt, reverse, mitigate,
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and prepare for the consequences of the climate emergency and to restore the climate
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for future generations; and
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(2) nothing in this concurrent resolution constitutes a declaration of a national emergency
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for purposes of any Act of Congress authorizing the exercise, during the period of a national
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emergency or other type of declared emergency, of any special or extraordinary power.

[Uncle Joe]

1. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread Donkees.