 It's an internationally recognized civil society human rights tribunal that functions independently of state authorities. It applies internationally recognized human rights law and policy to cases that are brought before it. The PPT is a descendant of the 1967 Bertrand Russell, John Paul Sartre, Vietnam War Crimes Tribunal and adheres cases in which prima facie evidence suggests abridgment of basic rights of ordinary people. The PPT sessions are virtually identical to courtroom proceedings in which a class of complainants brings an action against a government, a private party, or a private party and asks that they be judged against legal standards. The importance and strength of decisions by the PPT rests on the moral weight of the causes and arguments to which they give credibility. The goal of the PPT sessions is recovering the authority of the peoples when the states and the international bodies failed to protect the rights of them. And so this year it's been in progress for three years now since 2015. The permanent peoples tribunal has been planning this proceeding, focusing on fracking and climate change. It's the first time ever the international body has examined evidence of this kind. And I've called everyone here today because you are the experts. You have direct experience living with fracking and fighting against the companies to protect your land and your water. And Vermont is the first state in the country to ban fracking and the disposal of the wastewater within its boundaries. And I thought that it was important that the judges hear your stories directly from you. And so thank you so much for coming and agreeing to be a part of this process. One of the things that I wrote about in my brief on human rights, I just wanted to go over to help frame things a little bit, was from this Indigenous human rights attorney that I've met last year, last July named Sherri Mitchell. She has written this book called Sacred Instructions and she is talking about human rights and agreements and what we need to do to move forward. I'm going to start in the middle of rights and responsibilities. My tribal stories have taught me that our inherent rights are derived from our first treaty or agreement, the agreement we made with the creator when we first emerged in this world. This agreement was formulated under the balanced laws of creation and it provides us with the foundational authority for all the rights that we stand on today. Under this agreement we have the right to live unencumbered on this land with full access to the sources of our survival such as food, water and shelter, as long as we uphold our responsibility to live in balanced harmony with the rest of creation. We understand that these rights are not self-evident or self-generating. They are strengthened or weakened by the degree of responsibility we take to uphold our agreement. If we want evidence of this truth we only have to look at the unchecked destruction of the natural world that is being caused by capitalist greed. The failure of industry to take responsibility for the well-being of the natural world and other human beings and our complacency and complicity and the destruction that has resulted are quickly taking away our right to live on this planet. If we hope to live in a society where rights are valued then we have to be willing to adopt an ethical stance toward our inherent responsibility as human beings. We must be willing to do more than make a demand. We must be willing to actively work to create a world where that demand can be met. We cannot claim a right to clean water without taking responsibility for actively protecting the water from contamination and overuse. We cannot claim a right to clean air without taking responsibility for the creation of healthy and sustainable energy sources. We cannot claim a right to a more equitable economy without taking responsibility for where and how we spend our money. We cannot claim a right to ethical leadership without taking responsibility for voting in candidates that we believe in rather than those we believe can win. We cannot claim a right to life without taking responsibility for the lives that have already been created. And we cannot claim a right to peace without taking responsibility for cultivating peace within ourselves and in our relationships with others, even those we oppose. When we demand something for ourselves that we are not willing to ensure for others, our demand loses all of its power. We cannot take responsibility for the condition of our lives and the lives of those around us. We relinquish the power to chart our own course and the course of humanity. We also surrender our ability to create meaningful change. However, if we begin to take even small steps toward accepting the responsibility needed to balance our demands, we immediately and tangibly change the world around us. So I read that because I think that today everyone here is showing up and taking responsibility for what they know and claiming some power. And I thought it would be a good way to open the testimony and encourage folks to tell the truth. So this is the native waters of this place that's in the bowl here. And this is a tool I use for earth healing. And so I just wanted to get us all connecting in for a moment before we begin to talk to just tap in with our hearts, to tap in with our roots into this land and into this water. And just to send our greetings and our intentions to continue to act with responsibility to speak truth in service to the land, to the water, to the air. We are here on the sacred indigenous lands of the Abenaki. We honor the history that is this place, the ancestors of this place, both human and other, all beings. May they live in harmony here. May they be protected. May they be safe. May they be respected. We know that we are all connected through the web. May our words be true. Blessed be. Good morning. My name is Brian Tokar. I'm a lecturer in environmental studies at the University of Vermont. Board member of 350 Vermont and the Institute for Social Ecology and the author and editor of several books. Most recently, this one, which is called Toward Climate Justice, Perspectives on the Climate Crisis and Social Change, which first came out in 2010 and was substantially revised and expanded in 2014. We're gathered today in a really important place. This is Japrags Community Park in the town of Hinesburg, Vermont, about a half hour from Burlington. The events around Japrags Park were the apex of a four or five year campaign, still ongoing to stop the construction of a new gas pipeline to transport fracked gas from Canada down the western side of Vermont. At the same time that Vermont has banned fracking for gas or oil in state, we're continuing to import large quantities of gas and the gas company, which is Canadian-owned, had planned on continuing to expand this pipeline pretty far south to connect up with all the infrastructure that would allow it to eventually transport fracked gas from the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and Ohio through Vermont to Canada. The campaign at this point has not succeeded in stopping the first leg of the pipeline, but a portion that was supposed to go underneath Lake Champlain to fuel a huge paper mill was stopped and we believe that we've set things in motion that may eventually shut down this pipeline. We'll be hearing a lot more about that this morning and certainly prevent the gas company from extending this pipeline any further. The campaign against the pipeline here in Vermont has also inspired a statewide campaign calling for no new fossil fuel infrastructure in the state of Vermont and in early March on our annual Town Meeting Day, 36 towns all across Vermont passed resolutions calling for an end to the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure and work toward alternatives. These campaigns have in many ways been inspired by the themes of climate justice that are very much resonant with the human rights principles that are central to this tribunal. The climate justice movement, of course, highlights the disproportionate impacts of climate changes on those people around the world who are least responsible for the problem of excess emissions. It brings forward the leadership of the frontline communities that are most affected and also embodies an understanding that the institutions responsible for abuses of the environment like fracking and all of the other causes of climate change are the same institutions that are responsible for a wide array of other social and economic injustices that we face. So we believe that climate change is fundamentally a human rights issue. This movement is also focused on an understanding of moving toward solutions to the climate problem that go beyond the realm of the technical that really embrace a different outlook on how we want to organize our lives, how we want to organize our communities. Here in Vermont we have many models of people living very well at much lower levels of consumption than are considered the norm in the U.S. and throughout the industrialized world. And we continue to focus on community-based solutions to allow us to live better on this earth to challenge the institutions responsible for various abuses and really look toward a very different kind of future. My name is Rachel Smoker and I'm a resident here in Hinesburg. And a couple of years ago I got involved in fighting this pipeline that's going through the state of Vermont because it was coming through this beautiful park, which is our only public park in the town. This land was granted to the town by Dora Jeprags, who was a resident here for a long time. And in the deed of transfer it was specified that the park would be used only for educational, recreational purposes or for school. And when Vermont gas came along and said they wanted to build a pipeline through the middle of this park they created a lot of divisions in the town and those divisions are still festering and haven't fully been healed. We took it to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court ruled against us and the pipeline is now installed over behind me in the distance there. When we sort of got to the end point with the Supreme Court we didn't feel we were done fighting this pipeline because we know that this pipeline has at least a 50 year lifespan or so and we figured if we could stop it even tomorrow or a year from now or 10 years from now or even 20 years from now we would still be coming out way ahead. We spent a lot of time researching and watching how the construction was being done and the more we learned about pipeline engineering and how the contracting crew was working and seeing what was going on we realized this pipeline was being slapped dashed into the ground as hastily as possible and with just reckless disregard for our environment and our safety. And we did many many public records requests and ultimately we went to the federal regulating body the PINSA we said you need to look into this the state is not doing their job of oversight this is a danger to our communities. I started out with this being a climate activist for a long time and I was concerned about fracking and I was concerned about the pipeline from the perspective of the impacts of methane leaking from infrastructure but after learning and watching how the pipeline itself was constructed my concerns now are more for the safety of people who live along the pipeline route because we know that for example they put the pipeline into the trenches that they dug into shallow in some locations they didn't put the proper select backfill and padding around the pipeline in some places they didn't compact the padding around the pipeline safely the way they're supposed to in some places we know that they didn't install trench breakers that were meant to prevent water from leaking out where they crossed streams and around the edges of wetlands we know that they were lacking a quality assurance program through much of the construction of the pipeline there was regulations that the federal authorities required which are considered minimum standards and then the state had requested a lot of improvements upon that through a certificate of public good in our Act 248 process and the company came and told the state they were going to do all sorts of things to ensure that this went far above the minimum federal standards but nobody came out and enforced and looked and watched to see what they were doing and ensure that they actually followed the agreements that they had made with the people of Vermont and so now after very hastily getting the pipeline into the ground turning on the gas flow telling everybody yo we're providing cheap affordable clean gas for all you eager customers out there we are saddled with this very very dangerous pipeline I'm Lisa Barrett and I live in Huntington, Vermont and for just the last two years I have been deeply involved in this effort to stop the Vermont gas fracked gas pipeline in Vermont and looking at it from the point of view of human rights seems to me there's a human right to clean water there's a human right not to be subjected to human made earthquakes and there is a human right not to be killed for something as insubstantial as corporate greed I first got involved in this fight thinking that fracking was a terrible thing and it was incredibly hypocritical that this state that has banned fracking would allow a fracked gas pipeline and that the state would embrace a the state government would embrace a fracked gas pipeline I also first became involved because I was aware that in 2015 there was a heat wave in Pakistan and India that was definitely caused by our climate emergency and that heat wave killed at least 2,500 people and there is no doubt that that was caused by our climate change emergency now 2,500 people that's pretty close to the number of people who were killed on 9-11 when people were killed on 9-11 this country pulled out all the stops started spending billions of dollars killed people in the Middle East and to make us jump through security hoops every time we wanted to do something but 2,500 people dying in Pakistan and India because of a heat wave that brought the temperatures to 130 degrees has not caused us to do anything to stop fracking to stop fossil fuel infrastructure and the hypocrisy of that is overwhelming to me people have a right to live without fear and too many people in our little state of Vermont who live along the pipeline route are living in fear and they're living in well founded fear what causes them to be living in the incineration zone of a compressed gas pipeline it's corrosion that causes most of the explosions we haven't had any explosions in Vermont the pipeline is brand new but we have gas under pressure 600 pounds per square inch we have pipe lying on the soil that has rocks in it that can rub holes in it we have pipe with joints that may not be properly sealed and we have pipes that are running miles under high voltage electric transmission lines and that electricity can be conducted by the pipeline and the cathodic protection and other methods that are used to protect the pipeline from carrying that electricity are not working I'm one of the people, the small group of people who has poured over thousands of pages of documents to see how this pipeline was built and this pipeline has been built with a risk here and a risk there and a risk in another place and when you add up all those risks it is terrifying for people who live near this pipeline we have to stop fracking and we have to stop fossil fuel infrastructure and we have to keep people from having to live in fear from a gas pipeline my name is Nathan Palmer I own Laughing Tree Farm in Moncton, Vermont I'm one of the landowners that has been directly impacted by this pipeline and when they decided to lay this pipe it was in 2012 and they made a chart for the original route that was like so offensive to everyone that was along it so in the process of calming down some of the people they re-rooted the pipeline and that's when it came directly across our farm my immediate response was what's this going to do to my soil what's this going to do to my water I called a hydrogeologist and asked him what's this going to do to my water and he came over and did an investigation I called an agronomist at UVM and said what's this going to do to my soil and he said am I just freaking out here she said well send me the information on how they're going to build this and I'll take a look at it because you are kind of an excitable guy maybe you are getting too excited I sent her the information she came back with a report and said if they do this construction the way they say they're going to do it it will be 20 years at least for your soil to recover because I have heavy clay soil and even though I'm not organic farm I farm organically and there's just no way that the soil would be able to recover the hydrogeologist said the same thing this is heavy clay soil you cut a 5 foot trench through this land you're going to change the water flow in many directions and none of them good so we took that to the testimony and presented it to the public service board and we were hoping that by able to bring this information to the board that they would adjust the way the pipeline was built across the entire length of it instead they adjusted how they were going to deal with our particular farm as if our land was special and no other land is special all land is special all water is special what I really have a problem with here is that we're sacrificing our water for fuel and that is a terrible situation to put society to put anyone in where you have to make a choice between whether you're going to be able to drink or whether you're going to be able to drive your car because what happens is those that can afford to will drive their vehicles to heat their houses and drink their water and those who are unlimited income are the ones who are going to have to decide do I buy a gallon of water or do I buy a gallon of fuel to keep my house warm you know it sounds kind of like out there a little bit but the reality is that water is precious and we don't value it the way that we should you know it's like a commodity that we can get rid of real easily and we can come up with real easily and it's obviously getting harder and harder you can take that water and you can reclaim it but you can reuse it for fracking but you'll never be able to drink it you'll never be able to feed your animals with it you'll never be able to sustain a life with it and that's really what it comes down to are we going to have a livable planet where people can live on and enjoy their life or are we going to have a place that's run by people that have a big pile of money in their bank accounts and the rest of us are just going to have to fend for it the best of way we can you know I was really hoping that after the pipe was built I could put this to bed and not have to deal with it anymore but the reality is that it was built in a way that's so slip-shot you don't even want to live there you know they told me when they first were going to put this pipe through it's like once we put this pipe through you'll forget it's there if you forget it's there that's where you're going to have trouble and it's going to get really serious I'm Earl Hatley I'm the Grand River Keeper I'm the Grand River Watershed my organization is lead agency I'm Chikamagwa Cherokee I belong to the Long Hair Clan Fracking started in Oklahoma around 2007 Oklahoma was lied to about what was causing the increasing earthquakes over time in 2013 the earthquakes began increasing tremendously I had been fighting TransCanada and the Army Corps of Engineers who were building the Keystone XL Pipeline Southern Leg from Cushing, Oklahoma to the Gulf so I really couldn't turn to that at that point in time the Keystone XL Southern Leg was going to send tar sands and fracked oil from the Balkan region up in North Dakota and they had been sending it down to Cushing another way through a TransCanada spur from Nebraska to Cushing Cushing is the largest terminal in North America and it's the crossroads for pipelines if you saw a pipeline map in Cushing a plate of spaghetti would look more organized I mean it's massive and so is the terminal park and right now about half of it is now in bridge TransCanada had a good part of it at one point in time when they were building the pipeline so in 2014 I got a letter from Devin Energy they wanted to come on to my property that I still own in Payne County where most of the earthquakes were occurring and explore for gas or for oil and I threw the letter away and then a couple weeks later I got another letter saying I didn't respond to the first letter and so I looked it up and found that they could come on to my property anyway so I wrote them and then I called them and I told them I didn't want any part of it and they weren't welcome to come on to my property and they said well we'll work around you and I said well I don't think my neighbors want you either about three weeks later I got another letter giving me ten days to respond to they were going to go to court and get authorization to come on to my land anyway I organized citizens groups and a statewide group and Stillwater, Oklahoma which is the capital seat of Payne County passed ordinances for oil and gas within the city limits which in effect keeps them out of the city limits of Stillwater and they passed that two weeks after the state legislature passed a law saying the cities couldn't do that and they'd been threatened in lawsuits but nobody's done anything so their ordinances stand and so they were really proud of them I can't come on to my property anymore because I now have eight frack wells in my square mile in my section and a disposal well a mile and a half away and I have an autoimmune disease so when I go to my property within five minutes I start getting headaches and I start getting sick and the longer I stand there the sicker I get and it takes me about three weeks to recover when I go back home where I live in 2016 we had 10,000 earthquakes maybe more than that and the USGS is saying that even if they stop now we're still going to have a 6.5 or even larger in our future probably several of them because of all the faults that they've awakened now and some of our people that called in to the corporation commission about their homes being destroyed were told well you shouldn't you should be proud because you're contributing to our independence on oil and boys won't have to go to the Middle East to fight you know so that's your sacrifice most people don't have earthquake insurance because we're not an earthquake state so their homes didn't come with earthquake insurance and the few that did the insurance companies won't insure homes that are damaged by man-made earthquakes you know people are stuck with damaged homes in the 14 counties where the earthquakes are happening where the fracking is happening and now fracking is coming back because the price of oil is high so they're just going down and widening roads and getting ready for huge infrastructure of boiling gas exploration in these counties and the earthquakes are going to be coming back big time now they're drilling more shallow wells to get at the oil this more shallow more groundwater is going to be contaminated thank you hi so I'm Fern Lickfield and I am here from the Green Mountain Druid School and community based in Worcester Vermont I teach a lot about how to be a steward and how to connect more deeply with the spirit of place you know before there were individual religions with different gods all of our ancestors if you've traced them back far enough come from a place of animism and this is just understanding that everything is alive and all life is sacred and that means that we are connected to everything else because the same spirit that animates the tree animates us and so when we remember this and I love the word remember it's about pulling all of our pieces back together and remembering that we're not on top of this evolutionary pyramid we're actually in a web and we are connected to everything so that means that everything that we do affects everything else and so it's very much about taking responsibility it's about understanding that the health of the human is deeply dependent on the health of the land and on the water and on the air and it means that also health is not just about this level of physical you know it's not just our bodies we know that as humans for us to feel healthy we have to pay attention not only to our physical health but to our mental health and our spiritual health and so we also look at that at the macrocosm level with the land and it really has a lot to do with slowing down enough to listen and to hear what the land and the waters need from us