Title
A RESOLUTION encouraging the Washington state Legislature to address climate change and its health impacts, with a focus on communities disproportionately impacted by health inequities.
Body
WHEREAS, climate change is recognized as a serious health threat that is already affecting people and communities across King County and the state, and
WHEREAS, climate change threatens the quality of human health and life. Projected local impacts include more extreme heat days, more poor air quality days from larger and more frequent wildfires, and heavier and more frequent rain storms and flooding, with associated increases in respiratory, cardiovascular, heat-related and infectious diseases, mental health impacts and hospitalizations and deaths, and
WHEREAS, due to existing health inequities and individual susceptibilities, certain populations in our community are more susceptible to and harmed by the impacts of climate change, such as children, older adults, pregnant women, those with chronic health conditions, communities of color, low-income households and those experiencing homelessness, and
WHEREAS, the federal administration continues to roll back clean air and energy efficiency rules, weaken vehicle fuel efficiency standards, and scale back federal efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support our communities' work to respond to local climate change impacts, making state and local climate action more important than ever, and
WHEREAS there will be more demand for county resources, as the need for mitigation, emergency services, health care and other services increase, and
WHEREAS in 2018, Public Health - Seattle & King County released the Blueprint for Addressing Climate Change and Health, which outlines an approach to incorporating health and equity into climate change planning across King County and provides a framework for organizing across the Public Health agency and with partners, and
WHEREAS, on November 19, 2019, the King County Board o...

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