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PROPOSED RESOLUTION
URGING PASSAGE OF THE CLIMATE CHANGE SUPERFUND ACT (SB 2981/HB 4773)
WHEREAS, climate change represents the biggest threat to humanity and is demonstrated by an increasing heat index, extreme weather patterns, reduction in biodiversity, wildfires, increasing air pollution, rising sea levels, carbonization of the ocean, floods, droughts, coastline erosion, decreased crop production, and other alarming environmental changes; and
WHEREAS, the World Meteorological Organization confirmed that 2025 was one of the three warmest years on record, and the past eleven years represent the eleven warmest on record, with ocean heating continuing; and
WHEREAS, climate change will make basic human necessities like food, housing, health care, transportation, and energy more expensive and difficult to obtain, disproportionately affecting vulnerable communities; and
WHEREAS, Cook County is experiencing direct and devastating consequences from increased heat and severe weather events, including but not limited to flooding and tornadoes; and
WHEREAS, the Trump administration moved to rescind the landmark "endangerment finding," a 2009 scientific conclusion by the EPA that found six greenhouse gases endanger public health, and required the EPA to regulate emissions to protect public health; and
WHEREAS, in announcing the proposed rescission of the "endangerment finding," Donald Trump called the move, "the single largest deregulatory action in American history," and
WHEREAS, the New York Times recently noted, the "United States will essentially have no laws on the books that enforce how efficient America's passenger cars and trucks should be," despite transportation representing the largest single source of greenhouse gases in the country; and
WHEREAS, federal inaction and rollbacks, including withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement and rescission of critical EPA findings and rules, have amplified the need for state-level leadership on climate ...
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