The New York City Council just passed legislation that declares a climate emergency. It requires local and national responses to mobilize an immediate response to the global climate crises. With over 8.62 million inhabitants, it is the largest city in the US to do so.
The bill referenced several reports on the state of global warming and its impact. Such a reference includes, extreme weather events (increased and intensifying wildfires, floods, rising seas, diseases, droughts) brought about by rising temperatures. They demonstrate that the planet is “too hot to be a safe environment.”
The lawmakers wrote:
The United States of America has disproportionately contributed to the climate emergency and has repeatedly obstructed global efforts to transition toward a green economy, and thus bears an extraordinary responsibility to rapidly address these existential threats.
However, climate emergency declarations typically don’t contain policy measures on how to slow climate change. Their purpose is to function as symbols of municipalities’ commitment to fighting it with future legislation. According to data from Innovation for Cool Earth Forum, more than 670 governments in 15 countries have declared climate emergencies. Yet, only 18 of those local governments (now 19 including New York) are in the US even though the country is one of the top 10 emitters of greenhouse gases causing global warming!
At least, New York’s declaration is a significant step forward just for the sheer scope of its constituency: The next-largest council to make the statement has a population of almost 1 million inhabitants. NY hopes to become the “international leader in helping other countries become greenhouse gas neutral economies” while “bringing about a global transition from fossil fuels” and much more. It is all outlined in the resolution.
The lawmakers wrote:
The economy must shift from dirty energy that benefits fossil fuel companies to energy democracy that benefits our people, environment and a clean, renewable energy economy, from funding new highways to expanding public transit, from incinerators and landfills to zero waste products, from industrial food systems to food sovereignty, from car-dependent sprawl and destructive unbridled growth to smart urban development without displacement, and from destructive over-development to habitat and ecosystem restoration.
Restoring a safe and stable climate requires accelerated actions to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors to end the 6th mass extinction of species, and to protect all people and species from the increasingly severe consequences of climate change… People around the world have a fundamental human right to clean, healthy and adequate air, water, land, food, education, healthcare, and shelter.
