Title
Authorizing the Committee on the Environment to hold public hearings to assess the City of Philadelphia's response to the findings of the 2018 National Climate Assessment.
Body
WHEREAS, The Trump administration issued the latest installment of the National Climate Assessment on November 23, 2018. The administration is required to issue the quadrennial report due to the Global Change Research Act of 1990, a law which establishes "a comprehensive and integrated United States research program which will assist the nation and the world to understand, assess, predict, and respond to human-induced and natural processes of global change." Were it not required by law, the administration may not have issued the report at all; and
WHEREAS, The 2018 National Climate Assessment offers clear and unambiguous warnings about the impact of climate change on the Country. According to the report, "the impacts of global climate change are already being felt in the United States and are projected to intensify in the future." It further states, "Climate change is projected to significantly affect human health, the economy, and the environment in the United States, particularly in futures with high greenhouse gas emissions and limited or no adaptation. Recent findings reinforce the fact that without substantial and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and regional adaptation efforts, there will be substantial and far-reaching changes over the course of the 21st century with negative consequences for a large majority of sectors"; and
WHEREAS, Scientists, including those involved in the National Climate Assessment, overwhelmingly support the idea of anthropogenic climate change. According to NASA, multiple studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals show that 97% or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree that climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities. Mainstream scientists are not "on...
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