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PROPOSED RESOLUTION
TO REACH NET ZERO EMISSIONS BY 2050
WHEREAS, the Forest Preserves of Cook County (the "Forest Preserves") and Cook County Government strive to be leaders in addressing climate change, and
WHEREAS, both units of government are working to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by the year 2050, a goal that is consistent with attempting to keep global temperatures from increasing more than 2?C over preindustrial temperatures, per the 2012 Doha Amendment to the United Nations Kyoto Protocol; and
WHEREAS, with nearly 70,000 acres of land, the Forest Preserves of Cook County ecosystems play an essential climate change mitigation role by absorbing over 1,544,000 tons of CO2 annually, and further restoration projects will help sequester even more CO2; and
WHEREAS, each year, ecosystems within the Forest Preserves already provide $469 million of ecosystem services including the above mentioned carbon storage and including flood control, water purification and groundwater recharge; and
WHEREAS, in October 2018, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a new study of the impacts of global warming; and
WHEREAS, the report's findings predict ocean rise of an additional 10 cm with 2?C warming compared to 1.5?C, an arctic free of sea ice in Summer once per decade compared to once per century, complete eradication of coral reefs compared to a 90 percent decline, and the loss of many more ecosystems; and
WHEREAS, in November 2018, the U.S. Global Change Research Program released the U.S. National Climate Assessment, which predicted that climate change could reduce the size of the U. S. economy by 10 percent by the end of the century; and
WHEREAS, an estimated minimum 200 million people around the globe would be subject to inundation from rising seas, and several hundred million more to climate related risks and poverty; and
WHEREAS, the current effects of climate change on Cook County from the warming of over 1?...
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