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, as early as the 1850s, scientists began predicting that greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels would eventually lead to the warming of the Earth's surface; and

WHEREAS, the current international pledges to address the climate crisis are so weak that they could result in 770 ppm CO2 by 2100, a concentration of CO2 incompatible with human life as we know it; and

WHEREAS, 97 percent of scientific experts are convinced that human activity is responsible for climate change and there is a growing consensus among researchers that reducing atmospheric concentrations of CO2 to 350 ppm or below as soon as possible is needed to

avoid risking catastrophic and irreversible climate change; 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

deleterious consequences for people and wildlife; in the United States alone:

* 2005 had the most hurricanes on record since 1851;

* blizzards plagued the Northeast during the winter of 2011;

* intense rainfall and snowmelt forced the Mississippi River to overflow its

banks across the Midwest and South in summer 2011;

* the unprecedented 2011 Texas drought lead the U.S. Department of Agriculture to declare the entire state a natural disaster zone;

* heat waves scorched the Midwest and East in summer 2011, with many cities hitting record-high temperatures and for example, Oklahoma on pace to break its record for days over 100 degrees; 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 one in 10 species may be on the verge of extinction due to climate change with many animals and plants already losing their habitats and food sources, struggling to move poleward and upward to keep pace with our changing climate, shifting their timing of breeding and migration patterns, and disappearing as populations die out; and

WHEREAS, the oceans have become 30 percent more acidic since the industrial revolution due to their uptake of carbon dioxide, which is harming ocean life from shellfish to corals as they struggle to build the shells and skeletons they need to survive; and

WHEREAS, the world's ice is rapidly melting, threatening water supplies, raising sea levels, and jeopardizing icedependent animals, like the polar bear and walrus, so severely that Arctic summer sea ice is half the area and thickness it was several decades ago, alpine glaciers are in near-global retreat, and the giant Greenland and west Antarctic ice sheets are melting at an accelerating pace; and

WHEREAS, according to Scientific American, sea level is rising faster along the U.S. East Coast than it has for at least 2,000 years, and is accelerating in pace, threatening coastal wildlife and the 40 percent of the world's population that lives within 60 miles of the coast; and

WHEREAS, for four decades, the Clean Air Act has protected the air we breathe through a proven, comprehensive, successful system of pollution control that saves lives and creates economic benefits exceeding its costs by many times; and

WHEREAS, with the Clean Air Act, air quality in this country has improved significantly since 1970, despite major growth both in our economy and industrial production; and

WHEREAS, between 1970 and 1990, the six main pollutants covered by the Clean Air Act --particulate matter and ground-level ozone (both of which contribute to smog and asthma), carbon monoxide, lead, sulfur and nitrogen oxides (the acid gases that cause acid rain) --were reduced by between 47 percent and 93 percent, and airborne lead was virtually eliminated; and

WHEREAS, the Clean Air Act has produced economic benefits valued at $2 trillion or 30 times the cost of regulation; and

WHEREAS, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts vs. EPA (2007) that greenhouse gases are "air pollutants" as defined by the Clean Air Act and the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate them; and

WHEREAS, the Clean Air Act can work immediately to curb greenhouse gas pollution without new climate legislation or in conjunction with new climate legislation; and

WHEREAS, The City prides itself on being a leader in the fight against climate change and for clean air, including:

* In 2005, the City showed national leadership by launching the Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement through the U.S. Council of Mayors, with over 1,000 cities signing to date that they would strive to meet the greenhouse gas reduction targets of the Kyoto Agreement;

* In 2005, the City's municipally-owned electric utility became the nation's first carbon neutral utility;

* In 2006, the City adopted its first Climate Action Plan with a goal of reducing emissions to 7% below 1990 levels by 2012, and that the City had reached that reduction target by 2008;

* In 2010, the City Council adopted a goal to become a carbon neutral city by 2050.

NOW THEREFORE,

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SEATTLE, THE MAYOR CONCURRING:

Section 1. Climate change is not an abstract problem for the future or one that will only affect far-distant places but rather climate change is happening now, we are causing it, and the longer we wait to act, the more we lose and the more difficult the problem will be to solve; and we, the Seattle City Council, on behalf of the residents of Seattle, do hereby urge the Environmental Protection Agency to move swiftly to fully employ and enforce the Clean Air Act to do our part to reduce carbon in our atmosphere to no more than 350 parts per million.

Adopted by the City Council the _____ day of _____________, 2011, and signed by me in open session in authentication of its adoption this _____ day of ________________, 2011.

________________________________________

President __________ of the City Council

THE MAYOR CONCURRING:

______________________________

Michael McGinn, Mayor

Filed by me this ______ day of _________________, 2011.

________________________________________

City Clerk

(Seal)

BN: cb 12/07/11 CleanAirAct Reso (Ver. 3)