The League of Women Voters of New York State Urges Action on Climate Emergency.
At its June 2021 biannual convention, the League of Women Voters of New York State’s members unanimously adopted a resolution declaring climate change an emergency and advising the League’s 46 local chapters to implore state and local governments to adopt and publicize Declarations of Climate Emergency.
Declarations of Climate Emergency acknowledge that humanity is in a climate emergency and encourage governments to plan next steps for climate change mitigation. The resolution cited damage to marine ecosystems and food sources, a rise in sea levels resulting in flooding and the displacement of coastal businesses and residences, extreme weather events, adverse impacts on human health, and species extinctions as grounds for state and local governments to declare climate change an emergency and take action.
“To effectively implement the current and future laws enacted to achieve a socially just and environmentally sustainable state will require sustained education, citizen engagement and law enforcement,” said Elisabeth Radow, the League of Women Voters of New York State Environmental Issues Specialist. “Thinking globally about the climate crisis while acting locally can give people control over outcomes.”
The resolution was co-sponsored by Radow and Kathleen Stein, President of the St. Lawrence County League.
“The League is a trusted source of information in our communities. Through this resolution we add our voice to the many others, domestically and worldwide, demanding treatment of climate change as the emergency that it is. Through public education and citizen advocacy around a Climate Emergency Declaration the League brings our expertise to this critical action,” said Stein.
The League of Women Voters of New York State joins the state Leagues of Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts and Oregon who have passed similar resolutions to urge action addressing the climate crisis.
RESOLUTION ADOPTED AT THE LWV NYS CONVENTION 2021:
Whereas, an environmental condition adversely affecting Earth and its inhabitants once referred to as “climate change” has advanced to become a climate emergency including:
Ocean acidification, damage to marine ecosystems and food sources, and a rise in sea levels resulting in flooding and the displacement of coastal businesses and residences;
Extreme weather events, including extremes of temperature as well as increasingly devastating storms and wildfires, causing severe harm to America’s agriculture, forestry and tourism industries;
Adverse impacts on human health, as well as the introduction of new vectors for infectious disease, and
Species extinctions and related threats to biodiversity, with accompanying grave impacts on food and water security, economic security, and social-emotional wellbeing, and
Whereas, the world’s leading climate scientists predict that the climate crisis will catastrophically intensify if prompt public action is not taken through public policy and legislation to curb emissions, and remove atmospheric CO2 through natural and technological sequestration, and
Whereas, the climate crisis disproportionately afflicts the most vulnerable among us: members of indigenous nations, people of color, rural and coastal communities and low-income households in general—all of whom have fewer resources to cope with the common consequences of climate change, such as property damage, displacement, job loss, and health problems, and
Whereas, prompt and robust mobilization of civil society acting in concert with all levels of government to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions is necessary to avert, or even to mitigate, the progressive and increasingly catastrophic deterioration of Earth’s environment and with it, massive societal disruption;
Therefore, be it resolved,
We, as delegates of New York State League of Women Voters’ local Leagues assembled at the 2021 LWV NYS Convention, call upon the LWV NYS Board and local Leagues to urge state and local governments to adopt and publicize Declarations of Climate Emergency appropriate to local conditions and take appropriate action to implement the Declarations of Climate Emergency.
Contact: Jennifer Wilson
Deputy Director
League of Women Voters of New York State
Jennifer@lwvny.org
@LWVNYS
www.lwvny.org