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For Immediate Release, Sept. 5, 2012

Contact: Rose Braz, (510) 435-6809

Gary, Indiana Joins Urgent Call for Climate Change Action

City Faces Rising Risk of Heat Waves, Respiratory Disease

GARY, Ind.— In the wake of one of the hottest summers in U.S. history, Gary, Ind., has joined 35 other cities in supporting the use of the Clean Air Act to reduce greenhouse gas pollution to fight the risk of catastrophic climate change.

In passing a resolution Tuesday night, Gary became the 36th city to join the Center for Biological Diversity’s national Clean Air Cities campaign, which urges President Barack Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency to take action on global warming. Gary is the first city in Indiana to approve the resolution, which was introduced by councilmember Mary Brown.

“Gary’s leaders understand the threat of the global climate crisis and support one key solution: the Clean Air Act,” said Rose Braz, the Center’s climate campaign director. “Cities around the country, from Los Angeles to Chicago — and now Gary — are sending an urgent message to our national leaders. To avert a climate catastrophe, we have to act now.”

Climate change threatens Indiana with a growing risk of heat waves, flooding and dangerous storms, according to a report from the Purdue Climate Change Research Center. In cities like Gary, higher temperatures are expected to cause more heat-related deaths and an increase in ground-level ozone, which is linked to increased incidence of respiratory disease and death.

The Center’s Clean Air Cities campaign is working around the country to encourage cities to pass resolutions supporting the Clean Air Act and using the Act to reduce carbon in our atmosphere to no more than 350 parts per million, the level scientists say is needed to avoid catastrophic climate change. The resolutions call on President Obama and the EPA to take swift action under the Clean Air Act to address climate change.

Similar resolutions have been approved in Albany, N.Y.; Berkeley, Santa Monica, Arcata, Oxnard, Santa Cruz, Richmond, and Los Angeles, Calif.; Seattle, Wash.; Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Pa.; Tucson, Ariz.; Boone, N.C.; Minneapolis, Minn.; Milwaukee and Madison, Wis.; Cambridge and Northampton, Mass.; Cincinnati and Oberlin, Ohio; Santa Fe, N.M.; Kansas City, Mo.; Salt Lake City, Utah; Miami, Pinecrest, Tampa and Gulfport, Fl.; Chicago, Ill.; Teton County, Wyo.; Eugene, Ore.; Boulder, Colo.; Burlington, Vt.; Wilmington, Del.; Detroit, Mich; and Providence, R.I. Several other cities around the country will be considering resolutions over the next few months.

Learn more about the Center’s Clean Air Cities campaign and get the facts about the Clean Air Act.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 375,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.


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