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<br />ATTACHMENT A <br />RESOLUTION NO. ______ <br /> <br /> <br />A RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF REDUCING GREENHOUSE GAS <br />POLLUTION UNDER THE CLEAN AIR ACT. <br /> <br />The City Council of the City of Eugene finds that: <br /> <br />A. <br /> The decade from 2000 to 2010 was the warmest on record, and 2005 and 2010 <br />tied for the hottest years on record. <br /> <br />B. <br /> The current level of CO in the atmosphere is approximately 392 parts per million <br />2 <br />(ppm). <br /> <br />C. <br /> In 2008, one of the world’s leading climate scientists, Dr. James Hansen, stated: <br />“If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to <br />which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and climate change suggest that CO will <br />2 <br />need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm (now 4 years later at 392 ppm) to at most 350 ppm.” <br /> <br />D. <br />The Environmental Protection Agency determined that current and future <br />greenhouse gas concentrations endanger public health, and according to the Global Humanitarian <br />Forum, climate change is already responsible every year for some 300,000 deaths, seriously <br /> <br />affecting 325 million people, and economic losses worldwide of $US 125 billion. <br /> <br />E. <br />Extreme weather events most notably heat waves and precipitation extremes, are <br />striking with increased frequency, with deadly consequences for people and wildlife; in the <br />United States in 2011 alone, a record 14 weather and climate disasters occurred, including <br />droughts, heat waves, and floods, that cost at least $US 1 billion each in damages and loss of <br />human lives. <br /> <br />F. <br />Climate change is threatening food security as crop growth and yields diminish <br />and droughts, floods and changes in snowpack depth are disrupting water supplies. <br /> <br />G. <br />Scientists have concluded that by 2100, as many as one in ten species may be on <br />the verge of extinction due to climate change. <br /> <br />H. <br /> The world’s land-based ice is rapidly melting, threatening water supplies in many <br />regions and raising sea levels, and Arctic summer sea ice extent has decreased to about half what <br />it was several decades ago, with an accompanying drastic reduction in sea-ice thickness and <br />volume, which is severely jeopardizing ice-dependent animals like polar bears. <br /> <br />I. <br />Sea level is rising faster along the U.S. East Coast than it has for at least 2,000 <br />years, is accelerating in pace, and could rise by one to two meters in this century, threatening <br />millions of Americans with severe flooding. <br /> <br />J. <br />For four decades, the Clean Air Act has protected the air we breathe through a <br />proven, comprehensive, successful system of pollution control that saves lives and creates <br />economic benefits exceeding its costs by many times. <br /> <br />Resolution - Page 1 of 2 <br /> <br />