Title
Calling on the Pennsylvania General Assembly to adopt House Bills 2034 and 2043, House Resolution 151, Senate Resolution 201, and Senate Bill 189 and thanking Governor Tom Wolf, Representative Donna Bullock, Representative Malcolm Kenyatta, Representative Chris Rabb, and Senator Vincent Hughes for their commitment to addressing Environmental Justice in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Body
WHEREAS, Thirty years ago, delegates to the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit drafted and adopted the 17 principles of Environmental Justice, which continue to guide the movement for Environmental Justice; and
WHEREAS, The Environmental Justice movement has been championed by Black, Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, and Native Americans to combat the systemic environmental racism that exists in America and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; and
WHEREAS Environmental Justice advocates have fought tirelessly for decades to protect their communities from toxic and polluting facilities and their work has led directly to these landmark actions; and
WHEREAS, Environmental racism is well-documented with peer-reviewed studies finding a wide range of disparate impacts of pollution on communities of color and low-income communities; and
WHEREAS, Frontline communities, or communities surrounding industrial areas, are disproportionately communities of color, low-income communities, and areas that lack access to healthy food. Additionally, research has found these communities have high cancer risks and respiratory hazards; and
WHEREAS, These environmental impacts have led to significant health disparities for people of color, including higher rates of asthma, as well as premature, underweight, and stillborn births, and now higher rates of Covid-19 mortality; and
WHEREAS, The impacts of climate change will disproportionately impact communities of color and low-income communities, especially through hotter temperatures and more extreme weather; ...
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