 too usual in fracking was the big thing, you know, all the oil and shale oil. I learned about that shale oil when I was going to school. What do you use it for? Yeah, we can put the microwave on the ground and switch on the oil a lot, but it's just suckin' out. We never talked about it at that time. It's a new dawn. The one thing that we really want to happen today, we don't want just speakers up here blasting out at you. We'd like you to mingle among the people in the crowd and see if you can find somebody who might have similar ideas, different ideas, and ways to address the climate. That's on a death spiral for lack of a better word. We all need to get involved now when, if not us who, if not here where. So let's do it. Thank you. Next up is Rebecca White. So incredible to see such a community of people. So we're small. I feel like we're very mighty today. I'm wearing a couple hats. I work for the Solar Company Sun Common as a community organizer, and I'm coming to you from the Upper Valley. So I know we've got a little contingent at least in the front of some Upper Valley folks. The other two are state representative for the Windsor 4-2 District. Cox, who is also running in the Upper Valley. The big thing I wanted to talk about today was a feeling that I've had over the last, I don't know, let's say since about an individual or my small community can do to make a difference. And we can make change. And we found that it went in a small town having the ability of people who cares and is dedicated. Thank you much. Also in Plainfield, whenever you pass the resolution that Jayal was talking about, you'll find that you have some credibility when the resolution passes with no nays at all. Then when you come to the Select Board say, well, we've got a resolution here that says we could do this. This past week we met with the Twin Field Union School Board, and they have decided that they're going to proceed with their weatherization considerations, as well as looking at solar for the school. So you can make a difference. It's a little small community gathering. Put it together, get the ideas that the ones that are good and are the most important and go ahead boldly. This is Rachel. I'm a nurse at UVM Medical Center. We're here today to collect signatures in support of quality ranking. It's a strike. This is our first year that we have had a strike. It is directly related to what's been happening at the bargaining table and unfair labor practices that the hospital has engaged in. They have also increased executive compensation to the highest levels ever. We have the highest paid CEO in the state of Vermont. The top two executives at the hospital together last year made $3 million, and they are quarreling with us about raising the minimum wage at the hospital for all staff to $15 an hour. And, you know, they say that they really want to do that by 2020, but they will not provide us any proof. And they will not agree to a third party to make sure that that happens, among many other things. We have a list of about 10 to 12 items that we're still bargaining about. Contracts so that we can have a safe staffing level so that we can recruit and retain nurses to provide our community with the best care possible. And so therefore our community can provide our earth with the best care possible. So we are really, it's all one big continuum of care. So we're collecting signatures for the vote of about provide 20,000 signatures at the Board of Trustees meeting on the 20th of September. Next up is Bryce from Montpelier and Lauren Harrell from Vermont Conservation Voters. Hi, everyone. My name is Bryce. I'm a clinical herbal student at Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism. I'm passionate about kind of the emotional experience and environmental destruction and just honor that that is really big and real for a lot of people. I have an event that I would like to share with you all that is addressing and working with some of those feelings of grief and overwhelm and sadness and fear. It's happening next weekend. It's called Tending the Web, a Retreat on Grief and Gratitude. Changemakers, cultural workers and caregivers to process our grief for the state of the world in order to be more present, engaged and powerful forces for change. This workshop will be next Sunday, September, based in Joanna Macy's work, the work that reconnects. It will be facilitated by Abigail Singer who's coming to us from Oregon. It's also the Savoy Theater, 6 p.m. It's Joanna Macy's film, Joanna Macy's documentary. And also at my spray is some things if you're feeling overwhelmed, if you're feeling sad or angry or whatever it is, just some things to help with that experience. Next I'd like to introduce Lauren Harrell from the Vermont Conservation Voters and just letting you know that she is one of our sponsors today, along with Ben and Jerry's and the 7th generation and Vermont Natural Resources Council who helped out with the funding for the liability insurance for today. So thanks a lot for coming everybody and I give you Lauren. And you all pushing and working to get those people elected? Can push us over the end? So thank you to all my colleagues who showed up today. We have been advocating passionately as a company for over 30 years to address the climate crisis. But we know that we cannot do it alone. We know that even if we reduce our emissions on our own, it's not going to have the biggest impact. The biggest impact is going to come from systemic solutions, systemic solutions that can come from all of us working together to create a cleaner, healthier, brighter future, moving away from the use of dirty fossil fuels and towards clean renewable energy. So I'm really proud to be here. Speaking on behalf of our company and the next seven generations to make a commitment to help push us towards a clean renewable future and transition not just our beautiful state towards clean renewable energy but to be working with states and cities across the country towards a brighter future for all of us. Thank you. Hey everybody, I'm Jill Wilcox and I'm from Sharon, Vermont and I'm a part of an organization called TRAC, Two Rivers Action Coalition and we are advocating for legislative change on climate. I signed up to be to run for state representative in the progressive party in Windsor Orange too because I want to push the climate agenda and I don't think we're making strong enough or bold enough moves on climate. What got me interested in climate issues was in 2011 I think it was I was living in the same house I'd owned for 20 years and it's at 1500 feet so I used to go around bragging that I would never have to get flood insurance. I would never be flooded because I live on a small mountain. Well, when Irene came, water came running down my property, I'm on a slight hill, came running down so fast that it flooded out all the culverts. Well, I'm in my driveway. So I was on dialysis at the time. Don't get dialysis, you have about three days to live. So I had to be rescued by the fire department taken down to Hartford to the high school gym and in the red cross shell there with people I felt guilty because I had my home I just couldn't get out of it but I was there with people with really tragic stories of their homes being totally washed away by Irene get involved myself by climate agenda. So that's why I'm here today. That's why I joined Track Action Coalition and that's why I'm running for state representative today to stay strong on climate issues and to do all the advocacy you can and to help get a veto-proof majority in the legislature so we can override the governor who's taken no action on climate. All right, that does it for our formal conversations here today and I hope that you will continue the conversation with people who are at the tables showed up to talk about different things and maybe you can find somewhere where you can align put in some volunteer time and let's get this thing rolling. I want to remind you that Senator Vermont Climate Action is the prime sponsor along with 350 Vermont of the event today but do get involved it's too late to just sit there and do nothing about it get your neighbors involved do something about it and think about choices as you go through the world and go through your life it could make a difference into what car you buy it could make a difference where you buy your food it could make a difference where you get your energy from and it can make a big difference as to who you put down on the ballot when you vote so go for it and if anybody else feels inspired to speak to the crowd let me know and we can do a little bit more for you thank you for coming enjoy your picnic and do stay in touch bye bye the answer to that is yes we need to start acting on the scientists in the room to talk about the actual science which right now is just drowned out by noise I actually want to give the microphone to two of our upcoming you know there's a lot of rhetoric in the meat climate science it's a hoax the success of political movements and social movements a key to the part of that of a success rather is diversity and I can see all around me different ways to be an activist about climate change whether it's being kidding yourself about climate science this movement has a lot of different facets and the key underpinning of all of that is to simply talk about climate change bring it to people's awareness whether they disagree with you or not you need to discuss this because it's happening right now and you know we needed to act probably becoming scientists though on a national level to save science in this country to save open source data in this country and just going into the atmospheric sciences program I've realized that the concern for climate change has to begin here or somewhere and it starts with one person one person needs to talk about it in order to create a conversation this conversation doesn't just start with one group of people it's the whole world this involves everyone so the more people that get involved the better we just need to stop the global warming all the buzz again my name is Chris Bray I have the honor and privilege of serving as the chair of the senate natural resources energy committee to be in the state of Vermont I have a citizens legislature and the thing that drives that legislature and helps us do our best work is to be engaged with all of you so no matter what 180 people we ever elect the quality of our work outside the building the plea I make regularly is talking to your legislators help bring what you know and what you care about to the state house so that we can make progress sometimes I share a sense of a sense of frustration from the sort of I would say the community of caring people that are here that we're not making more progress faster I share that a sense of frustration as well the wheels turn a little slowly you know we want but we do it through changing the laws that then compel the agency of natural resources or agency of agriculture or the PUC to do the things we want to get done so I would ask people to keep on doing all the street work activist work you're doing engage your legislators and then when we do have changing legislation like our national our nation leading renewable energy standard or our nation leading efficiency Vermont program there's a long list but we need to keep pushing and legislators in the building to your help in terms of helping move bills and also bringing your expertise into the building so that we make progressive policies and see the change that we want day after day year after year out here in the state of Vermont so I thank you all for your work I hope you'll consider the legislators your partners and I look forward to talking with more of you today here thanks so much please feel free to come up in here what mother-up is about dealing with families in this time of climate change next up Jay Curley from Ben & Jerry's and after that George Plum speaking on sustainability thanks everyone it's an honor for us to be here we're really here to support all of you particularly that's important as is putting solar panels on your roof and making those little decisions but what we need much more than that is we need system changes we need changes right here in Montpelier we need changes down in DC and we can do that when we all get together and we bring our friends along this is George Plum I'm 81 probably the oldest speaker here if somebody else is older than me please come up and give me a hug afterwards representing any organization today although I am a sustainable population because early on I realized that population growth is the underlying cause for a sustainable population which recently changed its name to better than the Syracal a great environmental concern about global warming in 1988 nobody don't make Kippin publish The End of Nature 1988 and here we are 30 years later and things are just getting much worse I'm very concerned about global warming particularly because I have two grandchildren and I wonder if they're going to live as long as I have lived because things are happening just so abruptly and yes we need systems change but what we really need is people to change their lifestyles individual change to live more sustainably and simply and I've tried to do that much of my life when the first to drive an all-electric vehicle my leaf is over there when the first to install a solar rotating solar panel things that I'm most proud of and a jet plane once in my entire adult life for recreation purposes and that was just when we took my children to England only once in my adult life if there's anybody that can beat that record again come up and give me a hug please so we need to change our lifestyles and I've initiated a pledge to live more sustainably and simply and it's over there in the corner I hope you'll look at that eight point pledge and consider signing you're not obligated you've pledged to as much as your family will allow you to and your income will allow you to live more simply and sustainably so please come over there and take a look at the pledge at least and also pick up a copy of the wonderful green energy times I am the delivery volunteer delivery boy for the green energy times throughout all of Central Vermont deliver some 25 bundles all over Central Vermont great, great newsletter so I hope to see you over in the corner thank you it's an issue because when we have people who already care about that they need to do something introducing Sister Larian and I see that I am joining a chorus which makes me happy politicians saying when they start debating considering voting for Al Gore because I heard that he cared about the environment because the people who told him how to get elected told him leave that stuff out after you're elected to talk about it our fault it's our fault that these subjects are not being talked about one of us can do by raising questions school board not sure but I think creation that destroys its own habitat and that's kind of unbelievably scary we don't really need to but it is going to circle the sun for thousands of years just like Mars does what we need to be protecting is the human habitat next up is Tony these are matters that are important to all of us but I know most of you are already aware of what climate change is a little story about our affected by climate and that grew up pretty close to him he lives in the lower Shere one of the hottest areas the chief of the village and he looks after a big community of people it was raining for days it did not stop raining and my country started flooding dispersed the banks creating flash floods that left more than a million people displaced and we're looking at these people that are dependent on subsistence farming they became homeless and the state president of my country was forced to declare half of our country on disaster zone I was terrified because I couldn't get hold of my grandfather and his area was one of the areas that were declared the red zone and nobody was supposed to go there we do not have the privilege of having helicopters and rescue teams to go and rescue them but they were stranded there for weeks and because his house is on a higher ground most of the communities had to come and stay there for weeks with him and that's how they survived for the past few years floods have become a norm in my country now last year for the first time in history we were flooded in the city where I live in and I woke up one morning going to work and wondering why nobody was going to work that morning only to realize that 500 miles from my house the entire city had flooded and a lot of people were left homeless in just one night the rainy season starts again in November and nobody is sure of what's going to happen to us this year I'm Taona from Malawi and we are a landlocked country but I can't imagine how it is like for the other countries that are on the coast right now that Malawi is greenhouse gas emissions are very little it's minuscule especially children and women it's pushing people further into poverty there increases in temperature and longer dresses on more intense and concentrated rainfall which has led to droughts causing shorter growing seasons food shortages, hunger and spread of disease in my country the people are already in extreme poverty furthermore anything that worsens food insecurity is reliable to add both migration and poverty in Malawi climate change is a threat to economic growth long-term prosperity agriculture is a major contributor to the nation's gross domestic and foreign agricultural activities climate extremes and weather events severely erode conditions resulting food insecurity with significant impacts on the livelihoods of people living in the real areas so for you to come out today that's why I'm saying you should applaud yourself it's no better time for us to rise up if corporations are people person, legally change things and I say we because I'm guilty too constitutional amendment in Vermont that I think will change a lot of things and one of the things I think it will do will bring a lot of young people into Vermont because there are a lot of people out there taking care of the earth and taking care of it so besides which is marks the number 4 Vermont.com fossil fuel infrastructure pipeline that's native led and Karen's going to come up with any change or dollar bills or put your whole wallet in there so thank you very much and if you want to learn more about the pipeline fight come over and pick up the recent earth first journal thank you