Climate Action Now Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. PRESSLEY. Mr. Chair, I rise to offer an amendment to H.R. 9, the Climate Action Now Act.

My amendment is a commonsense amendment that reaffirms the interconnection between climate change and public health disparities plaguing communities across our country and throughout the globe.

Mr. Chair, despite arguments to the contrary by many, there is no such thing as planet B. This is the only Earth we have, and we need to act like it. H.R. 9 will ensure that this administration acts accordingly.

It has been said that politicians consider future elections while statesmen and -women consider future generations. It is our responsibility to consider future generations, to take the necessary actions to reestablish our Nation as a leader in the global fight to combat climate change.

The impacts of climate change are not some futuristic threat. The threats are imminent; we are being confronted by them daily; and we must act now.

Climate scientists have made clear that, if we are to continue down this path without action, it will be too late. We must act now. We must act today. We must act at this very moment.

Climate change and global warming are threatening all aspects of our society and increasing the risk to human lives and health today, particularly for vulnerable communities like Roxbury and Chelsea in my district. These communities are finding themselves on the front lines of the crisis.

For example, in Boston's Chinatown neighborhood, a predominantly immigrant and low-income community that falls at the crossroads of two major highways, my constituents breathe some of the most toxic air in all of Boston, air polluted with car exhaust and other irritants that are exacerbated by rising heat levels.

While these are largely invisible pollutants, the impacts are crystal clear. Over the last several years, asthma rates at the Josiah Quincy Elementary School in the heart of Chinatown have jumped from 18 to 25 percent.

Mr. Chair, let me make this plain. Our children are breathing toxic air.

These climate injustices are far-reaching. According to a report released earlier this week by the American Lung Association, more than 141 million people in the U.S. live in communities with unhealthy levels of toxic pollution, including many living in my home State of Massachusetts where air quality has worsened each year.

The World Health Organization estimates that 7 million people around the world die each year as a result of these types of air pollution exposures. These toxic pollutants are affecting 9 out of 10 people, the vast majority of the world's population.

These statistics are staggering and, quite frankly, terrifying. If it seems that we are being fatalists, it is because the threat is a fatal one.

Again, my amendment recognizes the critical impact that climate change poses to our fundamental right to breathe clean air, to drink clean water, and to live in clean and safe communities.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment, and I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel).

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