WHEREAS humanity is faced with the growing crisis of climate change, with record-breaking temperatures, with consequences including sea level rise, prolonged drought, more frequent wildfires, more severe storms and flooding, and spread of diseases; and
WHEREAS the effects of climate change disproportionately hurt workers, people of color, and poor people, and constitute a civil rights crisis of our time, as seen so vividly in the recent devastation from hurricane impacts in Texas, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Carolinas, and Florida, wildfires in California, flooding in the Midwest, and elsewhere; and
WHEREAS the overwhelming scientific consensus attributes the warming trend to human emissions of greenhouse gases from the combustion of fossil fuels such as oil, gas, and coal; and
WHEREAS it is essential for the survival of humanity to drastically cut our emissions of greenhouse gases and convert our economy to renewable non-emitting energy sources; and
WHEREAS emissions from the transportation system are a major part of greenhouse gas emissions; and
WHEREAS affordable, reliable public transit is an essential public service, on par with utilities such as water and electricity; and
WHEREAS unequal access to public transit based on race, income, and disability persist to this day, and have to a degree become worse, with cuts in public funding for transit and consequent fare increases in many transit systems; and
WHEREAS public transit jobs in the United States have historically been good jobs that paid family-supporting wages, but in parallel to the cuts in public funding for transit and the trend of increasing fares, there is a growing marginalization of transit workers, who are facing worsening work conditions and erosion of their collective bargaining rights; and
WHEREAS transitioning our transportation system from excessive automobile dependence to public transit, especially electrified public transit with electricity from renewable sources, is key to transitioning our economy from fossil fuels to renewable energy and cutting our greenhouse gas emissions; and
WHEREAS the required expansion of public transit to address the climate crisis provides an unprecedented opportunity to create a large number of good, high-skill, family-supporting transit operation jobs, as well as construction jobs for building new transit facilities; and
WHEREAS the growth of public transit will also reduce automotive pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and particulate matter that have the worst impacts on the communities closest to highways and other major roads, which tend to be disproportionately communities of color and economically disadvantaged communities; and
WHEREAS increased community access to public transit, reduction in racial, economic and other disparities in access to transit and clean air and in the burden of climate change impacts, and increased opportunities for employment in good jobs, form a key part of a “just transition” from a carbon-intensive, fossil-fuel based, highly unequal extractive economy to a pollution-free, regenerative, renewable energy based, just economy;
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Coulee Region Sierra Club Group supports the call to observe a Day of Action on Public Transportation as a Civil Right on February 4, 2021; and
RESOLVED that the Coulee Region Sierra Club will draw attention to the continuing racial, economic, and other inequalities in access to adequate public transit, and the need for affordable and accessible transit, through the Day of Action; and
RESOLVED that the Coulee Region Sierra Club will use the Day of Action to highlight the vital role that can be played by expansion of public transit in the required shift from a climate-destroying fossil fuel powered extractive economy to a climate-protecting, renewable-powered and regenerative economy, with a just transition for communities and workers; and
RESOLVED that the Coulee Region Sierra Club will support legislation at the Federal, state, and local levels that:
Increases public funding for transit, including funding to expand transit systems, especially in underserved neighborhoods, communities of color, economically disadvantaged communities, and communities burdened by pollution;
Eliminates or reduces fares for particular populations such as seniors, people with disabilities, and school and college students;
Increases the accessibility of public transit for people with disabilities;
Increases job opportunities in transit system operation as well as construction, and ensures that the new jobs pay family-supporting wages, provide good benefits, and give workers the opportunity to organize a union and bargain collectively without employer pressure and intimidation; and
Prioritizes the hiring of economically disadvantaged people, people of color, people from communities currently underserved by transit and/or overexposed to vehicular and other forms of pollution, people with disabilities, workers displaced from polluting industries, formerly incarcerated people, and other marginalized populations for transit operation and construction jobs.
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