WHEREAS, the California State Student Association (CSSA) is the official voice for over 480,000 students enrolled in the California State University (CSU); and

WHEREAS, the 2020 CSSA Policy Agenda establishes four priority areas- the second one being to “[e]nsure that the CSU is accessible, affordable, and sustainable”[1]; and

WHEREAS, the 2020 CSSA Policy Agenda states that “[t]he success of CSU students is tied to the sustainability of the CSU system–both financially and environmentally”[2]; and

WHEREAS, climate change and fossil fuel extraction have had, are having, and will continue to have profound, violent, and unjust consequences for current and future generations around the world; and

WHEREAS, these consequences disproportionately impact indigenous people and other vulnerable populations, and reveal disparities that occur along race-, gender-, and class-based lines[3], thus reinforcing systemic oppression on a global scale[4]; and

WHEREAS, climate change threatens biodiversity and endangers humanity, causing increases in natural disasters, heat-related mortality, ozone-related mortality, vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever, poverty, and sea level rise, as well as reductions in projected food availability[5]; and

WHEREAS, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has observed that as of 2018, global temperatures have already risen 1.0 °C since the pre-industrial era due to human

[1] 2020 Policy Agenda.pdf

[2] Ibid.

[3] IPCC, 2018: Summary for Policymakers. In: Global warming of 1.5°C. An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty [V. Masson-Delmotte, P. Zhai, H. O. Pörtner, D. Roberts, J. Skea, P. R. Shukla,A. Pirani, W. Moufouma-Okia, C. Péan, R. Pidcock, S. Connors, J. B. R. Matthews, Y. Chen, X. Zhou, M. I. Gomis,E. Lonnoy, T. Maycock, M. Tignor, T. Waterfield (eds.)]. World Meteorological Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, 32 pp.

[4] Kathleen Finn, Erica Gadja, Thomas Perin, and Carla Fredericks, Responsible Resource Development and Prevention of Sex Trafficking: Safeguarding Native Women and Children on the Fort Berthold Reservation, 40 Harv. J.L. & Gender 1 (2017), available at https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/articles/629.

[5] IPCC, 2018.