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For Immediate Release, December 12, 2011

Contact: Rose Braz, (510) 435-6809

Seattle Joins Growing List of U.S. Cities Seeking Urgent Action on Climate Crisis

SEATTLE— Seattle on Monday became the latest city to urge the Obama administration and the Environmental Protection Agency to use the Clean Air Act to reduce carbon and other pollutants and take significant steps to address the global climate crisis. The City Council unanimously approved a climate change resolution Monday afternoon, less than 48 hours after international climate talks in Durban, South Africa failed to take steps that scientists say are necessary to avoid the catastrophic effects of climate change. By passing its resolution, Seattle joins the Center for Biological Diversity’s national Clean Air Cities campaign.

“Seattle is a leader among cities in the fight against climate change, but we cannot act alone,” said Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin, sponsor of the resolution. “This resolution urging the EPA to enforce the Clean Air Act is an important tool to help us reduce carbon in our atmosphere to no more than 350 parts per million.”

“Cities like Seattle rightly recognize that the global climate crisis requires urgent action, not more dawdling and delay,” said Rose Braz, the Center’s climate campaign director. “Cities are giving voice to the American people, who clearly favor using the best tool we have for curbing pollution and limiting global warming: the Clean Air Act.”

The Center’s Clean Air Cities campaign is working around the country to encourage cities to pass resolutions urging national leaders to use Clean Air Act to reduce atmospheric carbon levels to no more than 350 parts per million, the level scientists say is needed to avoid catastrophic climate change. Albany, N.Y.; Boone, N.C.; and Arcata, Richmond, Berkeley, and Santa Monica, Calif., have also passed resolutions, and several other cities around the country will be considering similar resolutions over the next few months.

Meanwhile, the evidence of climate change already impacting our planet continues to mount. The decade from 2000 to 2010 was the warmest on record. 2011 saw Texas plagued by unprecedented drought, record heat waves striking Oklahoma and other parts of the United States, and a massive storm bearing down on Alaska’s western shoreline which is already far less resilient to such storms due to coastal erosion, ongoing impacts from global climate change and other factors.

Learn more about the Clean Air Cities campaign and get the facts about the Clean Air Act.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 320,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.


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