 Hey, everybody. Pretty sure I must have seen a flyer taped on a telephone pole or something with little tabs on it. Summer jobs for the environment. When I was a student at the University of Vermont and I was looking for a summer job and I wanted to stay in Vermont, I knew I wanted to do something environmental policy related. I started working for Perg as my first job out of college. I worked for Nye Perg for several years then I moved to Massachusetts to work for Mass Perg for eight years. I knew that I loved Vermont as a place and I came to V Perg in December of 2000. So I just started talking to people, like who are the most effective organizations in Vermont doing environmental advocacy and everyone I talked to was like V Perg, V Perg, V Perg was, you know, the top name. I had organized a club at UVM called the Committee for Environmental Action. Jeff Eulen and I went to the student government and we asked for 500 bucks with absolutely no plan. We knew we wanted to do more than what we were doing and we had read about the Perg stuff we called Washington and said, you know, we think we might want to do what you're doing here in Vermont. I joined initially in the back of a truck to do bottle drives, raise money to help amendments to the bottle bill. I first heard about V Perg many, many years ago. I think it was about 1975 when V Perg came to a campus that I was going to school out of the Johnson State College. Before I knew about V Perg, I knew about Mass Perg. And so when I was in Boston with a job I had for, I have to admit for a little while because canvassing is so hard. Lots of folks say, oh kids, you know, they don't get involved today. Well, all you need to do is spend about 10 minutes in a V Perg canvas office one day over the course of the summer to recognize how much young people care. Canvassing was an experience unlike any other. It was stressful, you're out in the conditions. Fundraising is really challenging. We had crazy, stupid, completely unsafe bikes that we had, I don't know, gotten out of a landfill probably. I think one of the most valuable things about the canvas is getting to the tiny towns and villages in the Northeast Kingdom and in Southern Vermont, places that feel pretty distant from decisions that are made in Montpelier. Kids were determined to get to those last mile houses. Sometimes, you know, you had some of your best conversations in those up in the mountains places. People need to feel heard, and that is something that V Perg does really, really well. It's making sure at a grassroots level, on the ground, they are listening deeply to what people have to say. One of the most important campaigns we worked on while I was at V Perg was trying to lower the price for streets and drugs. GMO labeling. Canvassing on the incinerators in Rutland and Claremont. The famous long-running dangerous Christmas toys campaign. Every year, V Perg would announce the things that concerned parents should not buy for their children for Christmas. There are chemicals that are used in manufacturing processes and all too often put into the products that we buy and use every day. V Perg was always on the issue and made sure to chip away at our reliance on nuclear power. Ban uranium transportation in Vermont. It took until 2012 to finally get it closed down. That tenacity that V Perg has to see things through over the long haul is one of the big success stories. You can't expect legislation to pass in one summer or two or three. Sometimes it's going to be six or eight or ten and you just have to keep at it. I'm incredibly grateful to have worked for this organization. I feel like I kind of started canvassing on a whim and I didn't know if it was going to be right for me and I ended up working with the organization for almost five years. You all do a really good job with young people that come and knock doors and do that hard work and I just want to continue to shine a light on how important it is for people to know that they're making a difference. Congratulations. It's the other thing I want to say. There's no small feat to have anything survive for that long. Hello everybody. It is so great to see you all here this evening. My name is Paul Burns. I'm the executive director of V Perg or the Vermont Public Interest Research Group. Thank you. It's really, really great to see you all here and I'm going to make a few remarks just to kick off the show but I want to say we're gathered here today to recognize and honor past achievements and those who made them possible. We want to highlight some of our current campaigns, paying particular emphasis to our work to address the climate crisis. We want to tap into the incredible reservoir of energy, ideas, and goodwill that we have in the audience here tonight. This is particularly important as we not only celebrate the first 50 but prepare ourselves to launch into the next 50 years of work and then of course we want to go have some fun. So we're thrilled to be joined by Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Peter Welch here. You will hear from them just very shortly. You'll also hear from V Perg's board president, Anna Suberling, and then we'll have our keynote address from Catherine Hayhoe, which we are so excited about. But I want to begin by thanking some of the people and groups who made this event possible. Our hosts here at UVM and the Davis Center have been great, particularly Renee Suderer, conference coordinator, the Rubenstein School and faculty leaders, including John Erickson and Amy Seidel have been terrific. And of course our V Perg team, if you haven't had a chance to check out all the things in back, that's just a small example of the work that has gone into this event over the period of many months. I thank them and in particular, our fearless conference leader, Lis Harwood. So, Lis. Our event sponsors that you see on the screen behind me have been incredibly generous, particularly our lead sponsors, Sung Common, Ben & Jerry's, 7th Generation. We want to thank all of our sponsors for helping to make this event possible. Well, 50 years is a long time, and over that time we've had literally hundreds of people who have been connected to the organization, as canvassers, as full-time staff, and as trustees, and thousands more as supporters. We've lost some of those friends over the years. And it's not possible to recognize each of them individually right now. I do want to bring four people to your attention. These are leaders who really helped to shape and to guide V Perg. On October 8, 1971, Ralph Nader spoke on the campus and gave a huge boost to the creation of V Perg. And working with Nader was a visionary organizer, activist, and lawyer, Donald Ross. Donald wrote the book on starting Pergs, and he did a lot of organizing with students here at UVM, on other campuses in Vermont, and around the country. He is, in many ways, considered the father of the Perg movement. Donald was looking forward to attending this event when I spoke with him early this year, and sadly he passed away about four months ago. Scott Skinner was chosen as V Perg's first executive director, arguably the organization's most important hire ever. He established our foundation, created our culture, attitude, and strategic approach. He remained involved, offering ideas, encouragement, and sharing entertaining and enlightening stories about the old days, as often as I could get him to. Just weeks before he passed in late 2018, I remember Scott talking to me about how hearing aid retailers were continuing to try to rip off vulnerable consumers. He never stopped caring or trying to make the world a better, fairer place. I think Scott remains our North Star. Those of you who knew Joan Mulhern will know exactly why I'm talking about her now. She was, unquestionably, the most tenacious advocate we ever had. She ran V Perg's first canvas in 1985, and the success of that endeavor created a trademark identity of the organization. Joan became associate director and spent some time as executive director too, but she was most known for her fierce determination as an advocate for the environment and for people who may be threatened by toxics. In others, she inspired respect, admiration, and in some cases, fear. She went on to do excellent work with Earth Justice, but she too always had a place for Vermont in her heart and in her mind. She passed away in 2012. Rob Stewart spent time as V Perg's executive director in the mid-90s, but I first met Rob when he was with New Jersey Perg, leading the charge there on issues of clean water and toxics. He continued that work here in Vermont and developed an expertise in tech and consumer issues. Rob continued his public service after leaving V Perg, working with the Rockefeller Family Fund and then others, helping nonprofits get connected in the emerging digital age. He too died far too young in 2011. I was very fortunate to know each of these leaders, and it's fair to say we wouldn't be here today without them. We respect them. We honor them. And we dedicate ourselves to this public interest work in ways that I hope would make them proud. Those of us who do this work today stand on the shoulders of so many who have come before us. We know that, and even as we grow and evolve as an organization, we try always to keep that thought in mind. Speaking of those who've been representing V Perg recently, may I ask all those who canvassed for V Perg at some point over the last year to please stand? Canvassing, thank you. Canvassing is tough, tough, but incredibly important work. And our canvassing program is the best in the country. I am happy to say that, without fail. So I thank you all. I thank you all for the work that you have done for us most recently. It is much appreciated. Could all the current staff of V Perg please stand if you're seated anywhere in here? Now thank you very much. Please stand up. Keep standing for just one second. This is a fantastic group of organizers, advocates, and rabble-rousers. If you have any questions or comments, certainly complaints, see any of them here this evening. Thank you. You may be seated. Now can I ask everybody who at some point worked for V Perg as a trustee or as a member of the staff at any point over the last 50 years to stand as you are able? Anybody? Anybody who's been associated with us in that way? Thank you. It's awesome. Okay, keep up for a moment. Now if you started working for V Perg in the last five years, that's after 2017, I'm asking you to do some math. Thank you and please take a seat if you started within the last five years. Okay, thank you. Thank you very much. Those who started after 2012, please take a seat. Those who started after 2002, please make yourself comfortable. Those who started after 1992, go ahead and have a seat. That would be me, but I'm going to stay standing, I'm sorry. Okay, after 1982, go ahead and sit. We didn't lose too many there. Okay, so if you are still standing, you were involved at the beginning. You were involved in the very early years of this organization. You gave V Perg its start. You cared for it. You nurtured it. You ran some hard-nosed and incredibly effective campaigns. You gave V Perg life and you did it so well. Thank you so much. Okay, in my last minute, I'm going to take a moment and share how personally grateful I am to have been able to make a career out of this work. It is something that my parents were skeptical about back in the day. Knocking on doors was my first job out of school in 1986. I went on to be a local organizer with Nye Perg in Syracuse, New York, something that I did while going to law school. Styles were different then. Okay, after law school, I went to Mass Perg in Boston where I worked for eight years. And they cleaned me up a little bit. I've been here now with V Perg for almost 22 years. And I've gotten to work on some amazing campaigns aimed at making Vermont a just, safe, healthy place to live with a vibrant democracy that removes barriers to voting and makes sure all voices count. Getting to work with so many of you who are here now in all of these fights has been a blessing to me. And my favorite partner in causing good trouble, of course, is the little guy you see behind me. I am so lucky for him. I'm so lucky for my wife, Alyssa. And I am so thankful to all of you. Thank you very much. And now let's get on with the show. It is my distinct pleasure and honor to introduce to you Senator Bernie Sanders, who for decades has been a champion for the environment and for working Americans like no one else, Senator Bernie Sanders. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you. It is a real honor and a privilege for me to be here because V Perg happens to be one of my very, very favorite organizations in the world. So let me thank you for what you're doing now and what V Perg has done for over the last 50 years. I don't have to tell anybody in this room about the enormous problems facing our country today and, in fact, the world. Climate change is, in fact, an existential threat not only to our country but to the entire world. You have all seen with our own eyes what climate change is doing in devastating communities from one end of this world to the other just in the last few months. And I think you all know that if we don't get our act together in an extremely bold way, the kind of planet that we leave to our kids and future generations is under severe threat. So I just want to thank V Perg for what they're doing now and what they have done for so many years in terms of educating people about the dangers of climate change, about the environmental crises that we face. You have been a leader in this state, a leader in this country, and I thank you very much for that. And what I like most about V Perg is, you know, we sit in our Senate office, and Katie Van Hase is here. Katie is my state director. And we sit in, you know, our Senate office, both in Washington and in Vermont, and we try to say, what are the major problems that we have got to address and how do we do it? And time and time again, the problems that we identify are exactly the same problems that V Perg identifies. And I appreciate that. You have a sense of priorities about what we have got to do to rally the people of Vermont, rally the people of America. I think you're right. You're moving in exactly the right way. And the other issue, one other issue of crisis that we face as a nation is, do we in fact retain our democratic foundations? And for a wide variety of reasons, in my view, having to do with millions of people, not seeing government work for them, giving up on government, seeing the very rich get richer while they fall further and further behind, we have in this country a significant number of people who no longer believe that democracy works for them. And we have a former president who is working actively to undermine our democracy, who lies about the results of the last election. We have Republican governors and legislatures all over this country who are today trying to make it harder for people to vote, for people of color, for young people, people with disabilities to actually participate in the political process. And VPIRD has identified that issue and has been a leader in bringing about long needed changes right here in our own state to become a model for this country to make it easier, not harder, for people to vote. And I thank VPIRD very much for that. And VPIRD has been a leader in the fight for racial justice in the fight to make sure that we end the systemic bigotry which has existed in this country, not only against African-Americans, against Latinos, against the gay community, et cetera. And I thank VPIRD for doing that. But I think maybe my most profound sense of gratitude to VPIRD comes from what you do. Now, there are a lot of you believing when you're in Washington you are surrounded by think tanks. You had a lot of folks, some of them do very, very good work and they write a whole lot of papers. But what I have always believed throughout my political career and it started way, way back, long time ago when I was elected mayor of Burlington, when I knocked on virtually half the doors in the city of Burlington to get elected. And what I have always believed and always told those people who I work with, state elections and local elections running for president of the United States that if you really want to make a difference you got to go out and knock on doors and talk to people face to face. Because a whole lot of people don't know what's going on. They've given up on the process and the only way you do it is by sitting down and talking to people about the issues that are of concern to them. And right now, as we speak, we have learned a lesson from the PIRC. Right now, I'm doing what I think, I don't think too many other Senate offices are doing this, virtually my entire Vermont Senate office. You know what they're going to be doing the next couple of weeks? They're not going to be sitting in our office here. They're going to be out knocking on doors in the state of Vermont. And they're going to be asking people, what is on your mind? How can we be of help to you? What do you think about this and that we're going to do in a very non-partisan, non-political way? What we are trying to do, what you do, is engage people in the process of democracy. So, at the end of the day, what we are dealing with right now is living in a country where there is massive income and wealth inequality. There is massive concentration of ownership of our economy. We are living at a time in which we have a corrupt political system in which billionaires and their super PACs buy elections. That is the sad reality of what we are up against right now. The good news is that I can tell you because I've been working hard on this issue all across this country, including here in the state of Vermont, we are electing wonderful people to the United States Congress who will have the guts to take on powerful special interests and fight for the needs of ordinary Americans. That's the good news. And in fact, when Congress reconvenes in January of 23, there will be more strong progressives in the U.S. House than at any time in the modern history of this country. And that gives me a lot of hope. So I want to thank Paul for his decades of great work, and I've had the pleasure of working with him, and I'm glad that Paul acknowledged the people who came before him. I've known many of them, and you're absolutely right. These have been great leaders, dedicated to the environment, dedicated to economic and social and racial justice. And we are building on the shoulders of those who came before us, and they were great people. But most of them I want to thank all of you because what V-PURG is about is a belief, a strong belief in democracy, a strong belief in grassroots democracy, the belief that we have got to get people involved in the political process if we're going to be successful in counteracting the huge amounts of money that special interests have. So Paul and everybody here, congratulations on 50 years of extraordinarily important work. And I look forward, well, I'm not going to be here 50 years from now, but I certainly hope that V-PURG will continue in the years to come to do the great work that it's now doing. Thank you all very much. I don't know. I wouldn't bet against him being here in 50 years. All right. It is my great honor now to introduce to you our next special guest, Representative Peter Welch, who we have also been working, I've been working with for decades in the state legislature in the Senate and now in Congress. And I understand he's got more ambitions yet. So we worked with Peter on consumer issues, on environmental issues, on energy efficiency, on healthcare. I can think of press events that we've done together, issues in campaigns that we've worked on together in each of those areas and so many more. So it gives me great pleasure to welcome to the stage Congressman Peter Welch. Thank you. Hey, Linda. Thank you very much. I'm with Paul. You know, 50 years, Bernie will be right back here. The fight continues. You know, I, Bernie said a lot of things that all of us, all of us believe, and it was wonderful to hear him and to know how his life has been committed to the furtherance of economic, social, and environmental justice, just as VEPRG has been committed to it. And I want to say, I find this pretty moving for a number of reasons. Scott Skinner was one of the first people I met when I came to Vermont. I came in 1974. And it was this organization and there was this person, Scott Skinner, who just kind of electrified me. And I'm trying to think back about what it was. But of course, in 1972, no thanks to VEPRG, Vermont Yankee got started. And VEPRG took on a multi-decade battle for ultimately the closure of Vermont Yankee. And it persisted. But there's an element of what VEPRG has done in every one of its fights that's essential for all of us to do in all of our fights. If you remember, when Vermont Yankee was being proposed, the propaganda was that the power would be so cheap, it wouldn't be worth metering. And what happens, whether it's with the advocacy by the financial interests, for in this case, nuclear power, or the use of chemicals that are safe, is that the capacity to create a reality by those interests that serves a financial outcome but is completely false in its underlying assertion is very, very powerful. And what happens then when that power is used is that laws get passed that essentially protect that interest. So it goes from the assertion that this is going to be power that's so cheap you don't have to meter it to cheap power being subsidized by taxpayers with loans that don't get repaid with workarounds so that you can build without having to answer the question what happens to the aquatic life on the river where the discharge goes. And what I saw in my own beginning work in politics in the civil rights movement when I dropped out of college and went to Chicago was similar in that it was perfectly legal to deny a black family a mortgage because they lived in the wrong zip code. It was perfectly legal, legal, for a bank or for the federal housing authority to deny a mortgage to a service member who served us in World War II on the basis of the race. That was legal. And what we have seen is that so many of the injustices have caused so much suffering are legal. And what V-PURG did as an example with Vermont Yankee was it had to get the information out so that people then had a basis to start questioning the assumptions that were being peddled. And, you know, then it gets tied up with the justification that there's jobs and there are jobs. And that creates insecurity for folks who think their job may be in jeopardy. But the work that V-PURG has done, whether it was on Vermont Yankee where you got going right at the beginning or toxic chemicals where you've played such an extraordinary role or on our democracy, it does go back to accepting the responsibility and the burden of explaining and engaging with people so that they can see what it is that is happening and then be empowered to act, to change it. And you've been doing that for 50 years. And, you know, you think back about all of the battles in the ups and downs in these last 50 years where there were some accomplishments like the starting of the EPA, not only enough under a Republican. But then, fast forward, the energy companies denying climate change exist and the carbon emissions cause any problem, even though Exxon, to be a little specific, had the science within its own company that in fact it was doing untold damage. But they've got assets in the ground that have to be monetized. And that V-PURG modeled of exposing and explaining and then challenging through organization, through advocacy and eventually through change, the laws that really, really makes a difference. But that's the hard work that makes me so respect V-PURG. You know, I served in the Vermont Senate. I was there for 13 years. I was there with Bob Stannard. I was there for eight years, then I was the president, then I was gone quite a while, and I was gone so long they forgot why they were mad at me and made me Senate president again. But V-PURG was there when I first got there, when I was gone and when I came back. And V-PURG is still here. And it was always rock solid advocacy based on information and engagement. And what I so admire about that, you know politics, whether you do it in elective office, whether you do it in advocacy, it's really the stuff of life. And it's a commitment to a process where the serious challenges in our country are going to be worked out through a democratic process. But it's a commitment that has to be sustained in the ups and downs and thick and thin when it's going well and when it's not. And to be with people who are with an organization that has sustained that commitment for 50 years because of the solidarity that people in this room and who have been lifelong supporters of V-PURG feel to that shared mission of a more just, a more environmentally safe world. And then also to have some folks who then operationalize it and show that, you know what, when can work? Ever hear of a guy named Blittersdorf? And Matthew Rubin with water. All of the work that goes involved, it's not just asserting what needs to be done. It's actually showing what is being done is harming. What can be done, there's a way we can do it. And to also do that together, even as in the process of it, we don't know what's on the other side of the horizon. The commitment we have is the shared commitment to one another to stay the course and to fight hard for a more just world. So this is really extraordinary. Everything Bernie said about the work that you did and the organizing, the engagement, the solidarity, we so need that in this country and it's so much under assault. Because a democracy doesn't work if there isn't trust. And a democracy doesn't work if there isn't solidarity. And a democracy doesn't work if there aren't shared values. And the shared values here, to economic justice, to social justice, to environmental justice, they're enduring values, but as they are enduring, it's because we are the ones who insist that they be here today, tomorrow, and the next day. And we are the ones who insist that no matter what the resistance is, and it is the big nuclear industry, or it is the fossil fuel industry, or it is the stop the steel movement. Those are the things that we have to deal with and we will. So to V. Perg, on your 50th anniversary, you will be around in 50 years. And the problems and challenges will be around in 50 years. But the solidarity that you've had for 50 years will be with us then and we shall endure. Thank you all very much. Okay, we're getting close to our keynote. But before we get to Catherine, it is really a pleasure to introduce you to V. Perg's relatively new, this year, Board President. It has been decades since V. Perg has had a student as our president of the Board of Trustees. And this year, we went back to getting it right, by putting a student in charge. And of course, V. Perg started on the college campuses and for the first decade or so, we were run entirely by students and student trustees. And it is, and in recent years, we've always had student representation on our Board of Trustees, and we know how important young people are, just as so much of what this organization does. We are committed to that leadership development. We're committed to hearing the voices, the perspectives and the ideas of young people. And so it does give me great pleasure to introduce you to Anna Suberling, who is the V. Perg President of the Board of Trustees. Come on up, Anna. I just want to add that Anna went to school here at UVM and is now at Vermont Law School. She's hitting them all. And it's a really, really pleasure to have Anna here tonight. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Paul. Good evening. And thank you all for coming to celebrate V. Perg's 50th anniversary for those that don't know. It's not by coincidence or convenience that we meet here at the University of Vermont. As Paul mentioned, 50 years ago, Ralph Nader came to speak at UVM, urging students to take action on the environmental and consumer issues facing them by forming student action groups. A few students inspired by Ralph's words came together to form all the elements of a nonprofit, a Board of Trustees, a few full-time staff, one student intern and a small budget, of course. But that said, it's not only an honor to serve as the president of the Board of Trustees in V. Perg's 50th year, but a true testament to V. Perg's commitment to recognizing and uplifting the youth perspective. Despite the change in the growth of the organization over the past 50 years, V. Perg has remained true to our values and connected to our roots as a student-run organization. To this very day, students, their hard work, energy, and youthful perspective are a big part of what makes V. Perg a special organization, whether it be students volunteering for our Board, V. Perg's presence on campus, or, of course, the work of our summer door-to-door canvas. And canvas, perhaps no other single word more associated with V. Perg. Starting in 1985, college-age kids have been knocking on doors, interrupting dinners, and engaging with Vermonters for 37 years. It's this face-to-face approach that is so unique to our organizations. And two summers ago, I started going to door-to-door as a canvasser advocating for the Bottle Bill campaign V. Perg has worked on for five decades now. It was such a privilege to engage with these communities and educate and quickly realize how influential these conversations can be. Every door answered and conversation had is truly an invitation to Vermonters, no matter their political ideology, socio-economic status, race or gender, an invitation to act on the issues affecting their small communities. Our work is truly rooted in connecting with people and building a movement together behind one common goal, protecting the health and well-being of Vermont. This organization proves every summer by talking to people all across the state on bikes, on foot, in rain or shine, how committed we are to serving these small communities. And even through the pandemic without the summer canvas, V. Perg has always found creative ways to mobilize and purposely engage with Vermonters. It's this creativity and sense of purpose that will only serve us for another prosperous 50 years. And looking to the future, it's pretty exciting to think about what our canvassers and young staff will do in their next 50 years. V. Perg for many is the first paid opportunity for young folks to learn organizing and advocating skills. There are many examples of what the summer canvas has taught generations of students, how to find common values, work cohesively as a team, demonstrate leaderships are all examples of skills that not only serve the individuals working for the canvas, but the future of our environment and democracy. Because our nation's most salient problems, the climate crisis, reproductive liberty, consumer protection, democracy simply cannot wait for our generation to grow up, to run for office, to use our voices. So here we are through V. Perg using those voices and advocating for change right now. So again, thank you for celebrating with us today, but perhaps more importantly, thank you for being part of this organization, whether you've knocked on doors for V. Perg, made a single contribution, taken political action or helped support this organization in any way, know that you've made a profound difference in the lives of so many Vermonters. So thank you and here's to the next 50 years. Thank you, thank you. It is also my privilege to introduce our keynote speaker, Professor Catherine Heho, a client scientist with a Bachelor's of Science in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Toronto, as well as a PhD in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Illinois. She's a Paul Withheld Horn Distinguished Professor and Political Science Endowed Chair in Public Policy and Law in the Department of Political Science at Texas Tech University. Her research currently focuses on establishing a scientific basis for assessing the regional to local scale impacts of climate change on human systems and the natural environment. She is also the author of Saving Us, a Climate Scientist Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World, a book V. Perg used as a guide in designing for our Canvas Wrap this summer. Professor Heho is recognized as one of the world's foremost experts on climate communication and it is an honor and a privilege for us to have her with us here today. Please join me in welcoming Catherine Heho. Thank you so much. It is such a pleasure to be with you here. I am a climate scientist and I have spent most of my days over the last 30 years thinking about how climate change is affecting the planet and our lives. Now, lest you say 30 years, that can't be right, I'm exactly the same age as V. Perg, that we're both celebrating 50 together. I become convinced that the most important thing that every single one of us can do when it comes to making a difference is not recycling, it's not a plug-in car, it's not what we do or don't eat or how we do or don't travel. It is quite literally using our voice to advocate for the changes that we may be making in our own lives. It's always good to be doing things ourselves, but to be advocating for changes in others' lives, in the cities where we live, in the state where we live, the organizations that we're part of. As another Vermonter who we haven't heard from yet tonight says, Bill McKibben, the most important thing an individual can do right now is not be such an individual. And that is exactly what V. Perg stands for, isn't it? Having those conversations that elevate all of the individual voices around the state because everyone has something to contribute, but bringing those voices together to ask, what does a better future look like for us all together collectively and what do we need to do to get there? Because when it all comes down to it, we have a lot more in common than what divides us. So I want to have a bit of a conversation with you tonight. And the way we're going to do that, and what I'm going to go ahead and put the screen on is, go ahead and take out your phone. You don't often get told to take out your phone, do you? Check if the ringer's off while you're at it. Take out your phone and go to pollev.com slash Catherine, or for those of you who are already savvy, I see you just take a picture of that QR code and it takes you right there. If you're typing it in yourself, make sure you put the two As in the Catherine because sometimes people get a bit messed up there. And I want to ask you some questions, but you can ask me some questions using this little app. So pollev.com slash Catherine, or just take a picture of it with your phone. I see a few people with their phones still up. Okay. The information will be here at the top. So the first question I want to ask you is a really easy question. A bunch of people already got there. I just want to know who you are. This is not a pass-fail quiz. And you might fit in one more than one category. So it looks like we have a lot of members and staff, a lot of supporters, a lot of students, a lot of people who are here for the party and there's nothing wrong with that. 50 years is a lot to celebrate. And some partners as well. And I would definitely put myself in that category. All right, so as we go along, keep your phones out because I'm going to be asking you some questions as we go along. But now I want to start by sharing with you why I love Vermont. I am from just over the border from Toronto and I have spent quite a bit of time in Vermont, especially growing up, and I can tell you that one of my all-time favorite ski days ever, it happened when I was in high school, but I still remember it well, was at Jay Peak. My dad and one of his friends had driven me and his friend's son down and we were all skiing together. My dad got sick. My friend's dad impaled himself to ski pole on his second run. So he was off at the emergency clinic and it was just me and my friend on the perfect snow day. By the end of the day, there was just pillows of snow and we were just going up and down and up and down here in the time of our lives until finally the lift stopped and we looked around and we realized there was nobody there. And in fact, the parking lot was closed, the road was closed, the chalet was closed and we were all by ourselves. We started to hung out there waiting, figuring something would happen and eventually a snow cat came and picked us up and took us down. I will never forget that day. Now, as a Canadian, I don't often find a group of people who when I tell them that I have three different types of maple syrup in my pantry will understand what I mean. But you do. I have the amber, I have the dark and I have the cooking grade, which I admit that I eat with a spoon. What about the amazing fall foliage that we're just warming up for and the gorgeous lakes? That's the best part about fall. And then what I also love about Vermont is the fact that you have a proper appreciation of the fiber arts. Now, for those of you who don't know what that is, that's the fancy term for knitting, also crocheting and weaving. I'm very into yarn of all types and I was very delighted, and I put this picture in before I even knew, I was very delighted to see them featured so prominently last year. There's so much to love about Vermont and so I want to ask you, give me one word, just one word you can't do two. I know I cheated, I had four. Give me one word about what you love about Vermont. I don't want to see the same words, I want to see different words, right? Because there's so much. All right, community, that's a great thing. People, mountains, nature. Oh, cider, okay. I didn't know about that one. I'll add that to my list for next time. The sun sets gorgeous. The green, yes, v-perk. That's a good thing to put on there. You get brownie points for that, right? The kindness, the fall, the creativity, the weather, the fact that it's heaven. You live here because you want to be here. This is an amazing place to be. But what we already know is that this place, just like every other place around the world, this place is changing. We already know, thanks to the report that the university did, this is from the report, that winters are warming more quickly. The snow season is getting shorter. Heavy rain events are becoming more frequent, causing more intense flooding. And then an analysis I did myself over 10 years ago is actually being used by the city to show that depending on the choices we make, where would the state of Vermont move to in the future? If we reduce our emissions as much as possible as soon as possible, Vermont would still be sliding over into the middle of Pennsylvania and eventually to the edge with Ohio by the end of the century. That's a big change, but compare that to going all the way down to Tennessee or even parts of Alabama or Georgia. This is what we're talking about, a profound change in the character of the place you live and you love. And this change is already happening. I talked about skiing. Look at the headlines. Climate change is already threatening skiing. It's not something in the future. What about maple syrup? Climate change is already threatening the maple syrup harvest. It's not just something in the future. What about the fall foliage? Again, we are already seeing impacts on the timing and in some cases even on the color of the fall foliage. The flooding, the spread of Lyme disease, invasive species, changes in phenology like the display on the stairs as you walked up here. You could go on and on and on about all the ways that we are already seeing changes right here. Why are we seeing these changes today? It's because we are truly conducting an unprecedented experiment with the only home we have. As far back as we can go in the history of this planet, we have never seen this much carbon going into the atmosphere this quickly. And that's why when I ask people how do you feel about climate change, I often get answers that are probably what you feel too. So give me one word here. In one word, how do you feel about climate change? I've asked this question about a dozen times. I've asked mothers in Utah. I've asked architects in Ontario. I've asked business people in California. I've asked students, senior citizens, church groups. And you know what? If I took this and I compared it with any other answer I've gotten from any other group, you couldn't tell the difference. We are scared. We are overwhelmed. We are angry and frustrated. We're sad. We're horrified when we see what's happening, apprehensive, filled with despair. And that is a normal and a natural way to feel. Now as we go along, if you have questions, you can go ahead and pop them in here. The cool part is you can upvote other people's questions too because we won't have time to get to all of them. So just keep your phone if you have a question, put it in there. But no wonder we feel terrified, depressed, stressed, worried, overwhelmed because climate change is quite literally affecting every aspect of our lives. It is affecting the quantity and the quality of the food available to feed 8 billion people on the planet. It is affecting the quality and the quantity of the water that we all depend on and can't live without. It is affecting the air that we breathe. Did you know that 10 million people around the world die every year prematurely from breathing in the air pollution produced by fossil fuels? That's double the number of COVID every year. And all of our buildings, all of our roads, all of our water systems, all of our electricity systems, all of our supply chains, all of our infrastructure was built for a planet that no longer exists. So no wonder this is overwhelming. And then you look at the headlines like this summer. Did you notice the headlines this summer? It was unreal. Every day there was a new headline about, oh, the U.S. has now had five 1,000 year floods in five weeks. Record-breaking heat wave in Europe. Record-breaking drought in Europe. Record-breaking flood in Europe. Record-breaking drought in China. Pakistan 30 million people displaced. Wherever we look, we see that climate changes loading the weather dice against us. Making our droughts, our heat waves, our wildfires, our storms, our floods stronger, more intense, more devastating, and more dangerous. It really isn't about saving the planet. The planet will be orbiting the sun long after we are gone. It is about saving us. And by us, I mean us humans and many of the other living things that share this planet with us. And so that's why when I wrote a book, I called it saving us. And people are like, well, you sure you don't want to call it saving the planet? I said, no, it's about saving us. And I said, well, here's a picture of the iceberg for the cover. I said, no, no icebergs on the cover. We have to realize it's not people or the planet. It's not the environment or the economy. It's all of us together or nothing. So then we think, all right, well, me and everybody else I know, we're worried. We're worried. But there's all these other people who just never talk about it. And they're not worried. And if they're not worried, what we have to do is we have to load up our wheelbarrow or maybe even our dump truck full of the scariest facts we can find. And believe me, there's a lot of truthful scary facts out there these days. And we need to dump it on them. Because if they aren't acting, they don't understand how bad it is. Well, it turns out that this is not how we are. When we look at the polling data, this is how we are. The vast majority of us are already worried, but we don't know what to do about it. So what do we do? Nothing. And when we're already worried about something and we just, people load on more fear-based facts, what happens? Our defense mechanisms kick in and we are paralyzed and we give up rather than taking action. So, yes, there is a small group who professes not to be worried, but I would bet down deep in their hearts, most of them really are. They're just really, really, really good at denial. But most of us are already worried. In fact, around the US, 70% of people are already worried. 83% of mothers are already worried. 86% of young people are worried. But fully half feel helpless and hopeless and don't know where to start. And as a result, only 8% are activated. Now, this is a big paradigm shift because usually we think we have to get people from not worried to worried. And yes, it's a good thing if they're not worried they should be worried. But the bigger gap, a gap that is more than twice as big in public opinion is between people who are worried and people who are activated. That gap is twice as big. How do we get people who are worried, activated not by dumping more fear-based facts on people, but rather by addressing the real problem? Now, you might say, is this really the case in Vermont? Well, thanks to V-PURG, we know that it is. These are V-PURG survey results. It turns out that most people are either very worried or somewhat worried, 67% right here in Vermont, and 95% of V-PURG advocates are at least somewhat worried. But only 9% say climate change is the biggest problem facing Vermont. So what's going on here? What's going on is two things. First of all, we understand why it matters in the abstract at the global scale in the future, but we don't understand how it matters to me personally yet. Now we're starting to, believe me. But there's still that gap. And then the second thing is we don't know what to do. So again, when we don't know what to do, what do we do? Nothing. The first one is something called psychological distance, and it's something that we humans are really good at. We practice it all the time. I'm not going to do a poll on this one. I'm just going to ask you, do you stand up as often as you're supposed to stand up every day in between sitting down? Do you exercise as much as you're supposed to? Do you eat exactly what you're supposed to and don't ever think about eating something you're not? Right? We're all really good at saying, oh, well, that's for the future, right? I'll worry about that later. So we already practice that in many ways, but when it comes to climate change, all four of these aspects of psychological distance are here in force. And I will prove that to you using polling data, ready? When you ask people, is global warming happening? Most people say yes. These are results from the Yale program on climate communications showing results across the U.S. by county. Anywhere that's orange means more than 50% of people say yes, and the darker orange, the more people say yes. Is it happening yes? Will it harm plants and animals, non-human species, distant how and relevance? Yes. How about future generations, distant in time? Yes. According to V-PURG analysis, 76% of people in Vermont agree it's going to harm future generations. If you zoom in, you can see there's a little bit of diversity from one county to the other, but in general people are pretty much on board with this. Do you think it will harm people in developing countries? Where's the distance there? They live far away. And then they ask the money question. Do you think it will affect you? Yeah. And according to V-PURG analysis, the answer is 47% for the state of Vermont. If you zoom in again, you can see that around Burlington it's a little bit lighter, but it's still below 50%. And there's a darker map. What do you think the darker map is? Do you ever talk about it? Look at that one. What's the connection? The connection to does it matter to me and do I ever talk about it is pretty simple. If you don't talk about it, why would you care? And if you don't care, why would you ever do anything about it? So when I saw these results, that's when I decided to do my TED Talk. They asked me to do a TED Talk and I said, I want to do a talk on the most important thing an individual can do. And it's like, well, we already have TED Talks on electric cars and plant-based diets and everything you can do with heat thumbs and renovating your home. And I said, nope. I want to talk about the single most important thing anybody can do, which is what we're not doing. Having that conversation about why it matters. Because right here in Vermont, we see that same pattern. Most Vermonters feel motivated to act on climate change, but with very little intensity. The mean score for all across Vermont is 55%, but of course, V-Perk advocates are 87%. Yes. How do you make that contagious by talking about it? People are willing to change. They're willing to move from worried to activated, if what? If they feel a sense of efficacy and these days people feel like crippling lack of efficacy. Efficacy is the simple idea that if I do something, could I make a difference? If we do something, can we make a difference? Most people today would say, no. But you know different. You know the answers, yes. And that's because you have been working with other people using your voices to make a change and you have seen those changes happen over 50 years, right here in the state of Vermont, as well as in the cities where you live and the organizations that you're part of. That's what people need to know. People need to know two things. They do not need to know about Antarctica. They do not need to know about sea level rise in Vermont. They need to know about what is happening where it matters to me, my home, my life, my kids, my job and what we can do together to fix it. So I was speaking in Iowa a number of months ago. I do most of my talks virtually. So it's a pleasure to actually be here with you in person. I'm one of my bundles. And in Iowa they said, okay, that's all fine but we just need to know how do you talk about polar bears here? I said, well unless there's a secret population of polar bears in Iowa that I've never heard of, you don't. What do we talk about? Well when I live in Texas, I talk about cotton. This is one of our cotton farmers, Jack, and he says I haven't had a decent crop since 2005. But that's why he's practicing regenerative agricultural techniques and his neighbors are always saying, what special Monsanto breed are you using this year? And he's like, oh I'm just using cover crops and they're like, yeah, yeah, right, right. So I'm going to start and ask him how he's doing it because he's getting better crops than they are in the dry years. I have a colleague Joellen Russell. She's an oceanographer who lives in Arizona. She has to wake her kids up before dawn in the summer to go out and play because otherwise it's too hot. Talk about our families. What do we talk about here? You know everything you put on that slide, everything I put on that slide, everything we care about whether it's the maple syrup, the trees, the nature, the water, the snow, the safety of our homes, the flood. Talk about why it matters here and now and show people that to care about climate change they don't have to be a certain type of person. They literally only have to be one thing and that thing is a human being living on planet Earth and as far as I know we're all that. We have to talk about the second half too. How climate change affects us and what we can do to fix it because we need to understand that we can make a difference. The biggest thing I hear from people is, but I'm not, but I'm not. And as we're just talking about before I started, unless you're literally a hermit living off the grid in Alaska so you have no human contact of any kind, you are. You are someone who's connected to other people. You have neighbors, you have family, you have acquaintances and friends and colleagues and coworkers. You have organizations that you're part of, you live somewhere, you have a voice. We need to talk about what we can do to fix it. And a lot of my fellow climate scientists do this. One of my colleagues, Dr. Garaba, so he just posted the other day on Twitter, our house is now all electric solar panels, heat pumps, induction stove and electrical appliances. This should be accessible, affordable and supported for all because it's healthy and safe. My colleague, Kim Cobb, posts all the time about the biking that she does around town. I like posting about my solar panels. My colleague, Henry Drake, posts about his gaming and how he talks to people about climate change as he's playing Fortnite. So what can we talk about? We can certainly talk about what we are doing ourselves, right? But I also like to talk about the potential of actions like, wow, if we could just save energy and save food, we could make a huge dent and save money. Food waste is such a problem that if it were a country by itself, it would be the fourth largest producer of heat-trapping gases in the world. Every day, the U.S. fills a 90,000-person football stadium full of food waste. I was speaking at a large church in my hometown of Toronto just before the pandemic, and as people were leaving, I was standing by the door, sort of listening to people, and one of the women was talking to her friend. She said, I've always been worried about climate change, but I didn't know what to do. So why did nothing? See how I'm familiar? And she said, but now I know what to do. Now I found out food waste is such a problem, we're going to start by eating the Christmas leftovers. And sure, it's just a start, but before you know it, the church has a green team. They're doing other things. They're doing discussion groups. They're figuring out what they can do together. You just have to start somewhere. And sometimes just sharing a hopeful piece of news like, did you know that as of this last week, the majority of energy workers around the world are now employed in clean energy, not fossil fuels? 56% of people in the energy industry around the world work in clean energy. Did you know that they've done a study showing that when you put the carbon footprint of the food on food, on menus, people order different things at restaurants. Armed abouts are not only safer, but they save carbon. I started a newsletter in April that has one piece of good news, one piece of not so good news, and one thing you can do. And I was a little bit worried I was going to run out. Not of the not so good stuff, but of everything else. I have stuff lined up. I'm thinking maybe I should be doubling up on the good news because there is so much to share and starting a conversation with did you know is a great way to get going. I love talking about climate solutions that do double, triple, quadruple duty, that give us cleaner air and water and take carbon out of the atmosphere, that protect us from disasters and help build climate resilience, that improve our physical and mental health and cut our emissions, that provide more affordable energy, that reduce our inequalities, that create healthy ecosystems and food systems and that give us a stable world. Who doesn't want that? And I love telling stories about who's in on it. We can tell stories about countries that are in on it. We can tell stories about warrior moms in India, young evangelicals in the United States, senior citizens, kids, teachers, medical professionals, churches, religious organizations, universities, colleges, companies, and of course cities. Telling these stories helps us see that the giant boulder of climate action is not sitting at the bottom of an impossibly steep cliff with only a few hands on it trying to push it up that cliff. We often think well maybe it's got Sir David Attenborough and it's definitely got Greta Thunberg and it's definitely got Bernie too, right? But we figure it's not budging and if I had my hand it's not going to move. The reality is when we look around at everything that's happening, that giant boulder is already at the top of the hill, it's already rolling down the hill in the right direction, it already has millions of hands on it and when we add ours and when we use our voice to encourage others to add theirs, it goes faster. How do we catalyze all of this? How do we knock over that very first domino? We knock over that domino by using our voice. As George Marshall says, who's a really good climate communicator who I've learned a great deal from, he wrote a really good book called Don't Even Think About It, How Our Brains Are Wired To Ignore Climate Change, he says, talk is the fertile field in which cultural change begins in its absence. It's impossible for a group of people to solve a problem. Now talking is not enough, no one ever said it was, but if you don't just have those conversations you're never going to change anything and isn't that exactly what VPIRC does. The goal of these conversations is not to tell people about the issue that you're talking about, but it's to expand the number of people in the conversation to bring them into it. So here in Vermont, analysis that VPIRC has done has shown that there's many trusted voices. Outdoor recreation enthusiasts are very trusted, doctors, nurses and medical professionals, scientists, I'm glad to see us up there, the governor, hunters and anglers, leaders from marginalized communities, black, indigenous and people of color, renewable energy companies. You might say, okay, I see myself on this list or you might say, oh, I don't see myself on this list. Well, this is a list of who Vermonters trust, but there is one group of people that no matter where you are, no matter what survey you run, is at the very top of the list and it's not here. The single most important, most effective messenger, according to scientific research, is people we know. You. You are the best messenger to people you know. You are better than a scientist, you are better than an outdoor recreation leader, you are better than a medical professional, somebody we know and trust is a more effective messenger. So that means that you are the perfect person to have this conversation with people you know. I want to close with these words and don't forget we've got those questions coming. We're going to do a couple of questions here. I'm going to close with these words that I wrote in an essay for Time Magazine after the last IPCC report came out and people were feeling like where's the hope? I'm going to read this to you so you don't have to strain your eyes too badly. Don't worry. They said, how can we as individuals make a difference? Well, I said, let's look back in history. Change in our society did not begin with the king of England waking up one day and saying, oh, we really should end slavery. Or the president of the United States waking up one morning and turning to his wife and saying, oh, dear, I think we should just give women the vote. Or when the National Party of South Africa decided, oh, we should just end apartheid, that is not how it happened. How did those massive societal changes happen when ordinary people, people at that time of no particular power, wealth or fame, people whose names were not known to anybody at that time, they decided the world could and should be different. We know a few of their names today, William Wilberforce, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela. But you know what, there's thousands of other people's names who we don't know. But they shared and supported and fought for those visions of a better world. They were the people who had the courage of their convictions, who used their voices to advocate for the systemic societal changes needed. Who were those people? They're us. We are the people who changed the world before. And we are the people who can change it again. So the only question right now really is, what are we waiting for? Before I go to your questions, I'm going to ask you one last question. Ready? I'm going to ask you to tell me in one word, how do you feel about climate change? How do you feel about climate change in one word? That's okay. There's still plenty of reason to be scared. I'm glad you feel better. I like that you feel inspired and ambitious. Let's be ambitious. Let's not settle for anything than a better world. I love the possibilities that you're motivated, talkative. That's a good one too. Yes, there is still, nothing has changed. There's still plenty of reason to be anxious, to be frustrated, to be angry. But what do we do with that emotion is what matters. We have a choice. And as Joan Baez said, probably didn't expect her to be quoted tonight, she said, the antidote to anxiety is action. So as you go forth, let us act. And our action begins with what? By using our voices to talk about why it matters and about what we can do to fix it. Thank you so much. Now I am very conscious that I'm standing between you and a really good party. So thanks to your assistance in upvoting these questions, I'm just going to go through a couple of top questions. So if you want a question to get up there, get up there. And I'm actually going to begin with one near the bottom. Actually, I'll do a speed rant. What do I tell my kids? Kids today, they get it. I mean, you can't escape the stuff that's in the news. With kids, it is just as even more important to show them that they can make a difference. When you look at what kids are doing, kids are blowing adults out of the water in terms of the actions they're taking. Eight-year-olds running podcasts. Nine-year-olds, you know, serving on city boards. Eleven-year-olds inventing technology to use river flow to generate electricity and presenting at the same conference that I do. Kids are phenomenal. And with our kids, we have to show them that there are things they can do to make a difference because you know what? Kids don't know the meaning of no. I've often been asked, as a Christian, do you ever feel like your faith and your science are in conflict? And I say, well, if I truly believe that the universe was created by the same person who I believe created the written word, the Bible, then how could the two possibly be in conflict with each other? The only thing that's ever given me pause is the people who call themselves religious. You get a spouse values that are 180 degrees opposed to what they profess to believe. So I actually don't believe in climate change. This is question number two. And if people ask me if I believe in it, I say no. And that often stops people dead. They're like, well, what do you mean? I say, well, I don't believe in it. It's not a religion. I look at the data, and the data is very clear that it is warming and humans are responsible. We've checked. But we have to realize that there's a small percentage in Vermont, according to VPurg Research, it's 10% of people in Vermont and my personal definition of somebody who's dismissive is somebody who, if an angel from God with brand new tablets of stone that said global warming is real and foot-high letters of flame came down, they still wouldn't believe them. So why would they believe me? So with people who are dismissive, people who post about it all the time, people who can't stop talking about how it's a hoax or Antarctica is actually getting bigger or those scientists are just in it for the money, with those people, and you might know somebody like that in a family. My best recommendation is to say I love you, but you're wrong, now let's talk about something else. Because arguing with them actually entrenched and validates them. But for the 90% who are not dismissive, we absolutely can have productive conversations and that's exactly what my TED talk is about. You got to begin with something you agree on, though not something you disagree on. You got to connect the dots showing them that they're the perfect person to care. And then you got to bring in the positive constructive solutions, which address the first question, the nimbyism, show them what difference it makes, what's in the air they're breathing because of fossil fuels, how much money we'd save if we did go with clean energy, how much more independent we'd be, how many more jobs there would be. We need to show people what's in it for them. And when I was recording the audio version of the talk saving us, actually I had to do this in person on the fly. I recorded the first three hours in the studio in Lubbock, Texas, which as you may know is a very conservative part of the country. And then I walked out to take a little break before going back in and the sound engineer said I didn't realize your book was about climate change. I have some questions. So I sat down but instead of answering his questions I started to ask him questions. How long have you lived here all my life? Tell me about your family. What do you enjoy doing with them? Fishing. Where do you fish? What changes have you seen? The water is so much warmer. There's all this algae now. The fish are a lot different. And we like to ski too. You don't even have a ski season anymore. Half the places are shutting down. Before he knew it, he was telling me why he cared. And so all I had to do was help connect the dots. And then he said, what are we supposed to do about it? There's just all these socialists running around in Vermont. No, he didn't say that. But he did say what are we supposed to do without destroying the economy? And then we got into a great discussion where I could bring up people like Bob Inglis who's a two-time Republican congressman who talks about free market solutions to climate change. I could bring up business solutions. We can really have these positive conversations if we begin with something we agree on rather than something we disagree on. But what you agree with someone on, you ask them questions and you listen to the answers. And that, I think, is exactly what VPERC does, and that is why you're so effective. Thank you. That is fantastic. Thank you so much, Catherine. When you can get up and talk about climate, what do you think about climate and still have words like hopeful and inspired and motivated there? Well, nice work. It might have something to do with this audience as well, but I really appreciate it. Okay, so now comes the fun.