 Yeah, we went that one. Whole week day in January to express your support for urgent climate action. I'm Pash and I'm a senior at Regents Union High School, and it is very important to me to be here with you all today, so thank you very much. In today's program, we first need to acknowledge that we are meeting on the traditional lands of the western Abhinaki peoples. We have an obligation living on these lands to do what we can do to end the continued destruction caused by the climate and environmental crisis we have brought about. Before we get started with today's program, we want you to be alert. We want to alert representatives of climate and social justice organizations in attendance that towards the end of today's address, we will be inviting you to come up and give a one minute synopsis of your organization. Please be prepared to come up when we alert you at this moment. Pandemonium information for the rest of the day will be given at the end of this address. You can use your pots and bangers for applause during this address's practice, and let's shove them out right now to let the governor to give the people state of the state address. Here on the State House steps, we will tell the truth about the climate and ecological emergency and demand that our elected officials join us in this declaration. Our goal today is to join together to continue to build a people-powered movement for just transition. The United States and right here in Vermont, we are seeing daily evidence of this crisis. Most recently, we have seen flooding in Jakarta, Indonesia with people suffering and dying as the country makes plans to move their capital city to higher ground. We have seen apocalyptic brush fires in Australia and record temperatures with homes destroyed, people displaced and half a billion animals dead. We have seen enormous fires in the Amazon rainforest. We have seen hurricane Dorian stalling over the Bahamas for 40 hours. We have seen record thawing of our glaciers, including in the Arctic and Antarctic. Right here in the United States, we have seen catastrophic California wildfires followed by torrential rains and mudslides. We have seen record-setting floods in the Upper Midwest and devastating hurricanes in Puerto Rico, Houston and Florida. In Vermont, we have regular flash flooding, frequent high wind events, skyrocketing tick populations, increased mold and algae problems, and much warmer and variable winters. The list of climate-related disasters is very long. In November 2018, the IPCC reported that to avoid the worst effects of the rapidly accelerating climate crisis, we require rapid, far-reaching unprecedented changes in all aspects of society. In 2019, numerous peer-reviewed papers published findings that suggest the models that were used to make recommendations in the IPCC report were significantly underestimating the pace of climate change. Despite these grave warnings and the endless stream of climate disasters, it would appear that Governor Scott thinks all we need to do is get a few more Vermonters to switch to driving electric cars. Governor Scott claims to support the Paris Climate Agreement. He boasts about his creation of the Vermont Climate Action Commission and his collaboration with the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and other regional partners. But his actions speak louder than his words. These past three years, his actions have been severely lacking. And all evidence suggests that Governor Scott's lack of urgent action will continue through the 2020 Legislature Session. And so today, we demand that Governor Scott and the Vermont Legislature, number one, stand behind universally accepted climate science and tell the truth at every opportunity about our state of climate emergency. Number two, support the Vermont Youth Climate Congress's demand for significantly more aggressive targets than what is stated in the Paris Climate Agreement. Number three, ban a new fossil fuel infrastructure projects. Number four, provide a mechanism for direct public empowerment so that policies and responses to a changing climate can be developed and implemented locally. And number five, support a just transition which focuses on frontline communities and prioritizes racial justice, economic justice, environmental justice, regenerative agriculture, indigenous rights. We've invited a number of speakers today to address different aspects of the crisis we are in. But before we move on to the speakers, let's observe a moment of silence to acknowledge the victims of the climate disaster. All living things on earth, but especially those that have died or lost their homes and habitats. Thank you. Today's first speaker is Sam Peterson, a student at Hanover High School and member of Rise Up, Rise Upper Valley. All for coming out on this absolutely freezing day. It's a very important movement, so I'm really glad to see you guys all out here. So one of the biggest things that we need to focus on is that this is a youth driven action and this movement needs to recognize that 13 years ago legislation was passed for 75% decrease in greenhouse gas emissions by 2028. This past year, we were told by Peter Wock that we will not be meeting that goal. That is because there is no enforcement in that policy that guaranteed that we will be making these changes. We are tired of these empty promises that we are constantly hearing about and being told. This is not a bipartisan issue. This is an issue. The only question in front of us is whether we get serious now and pass real legislation with real enforcement, with real change in our society, or stand by as we watch toothless legislation be passed just so that legislators can pat themselves on the back while our world is falling apart. Our legislators from protecting our economy and the economic gains of a few over our environment out here to make a choice, a choice of where we are going to stand in this history. Your choice is to be a passive observer in this world of crisis where we let these legislators continue to just to put us down or to fight to preserve the one thing that we all share. Which includes people of color. And these are the people in our communities who are constantly being overlooked. Rachel Smokay is a biologist and a lifelong activist. She is currently co-director of BioFuel Watch, an international organization focused on land use, biodiversity, energy and climate. She has been active over the past several years in opposing Vermont's gas, ANGP, Fract Gas Pipeline as a member of Protect Geprags Park. Here she is. Buddy, it is really great to see all these people and it's great to have extinction rebellion organizing in our state and to see the youth movements that are rising up and people really starting to mobilize around climate change. Some of us who have been doing this for a few decades have been saddened by the lack of action. We just had our 25th cop, right? And nothing has happened in 25 years of meeting in the UN. It's time for us to give up on that process and start focusing on our communities and within our state, right? We can make progress. We need to work where we can be effective. And this is one of the places that we can do that. Let's do it. So I have sort of three points that I feel I have to keep saying. One is, you know, we're getting better and better at declaring this emergency because it's becoming very obvious to everyone that we are faced with an emergency. And we've seen catastrophes right, left and center in front of us. But to solve this crisis, we have to do a magic trick, which is basically sort of like climbing four mountains at once, both front words and backwards. Because we have people in our country and our community who still think that climate change is a hoax. There's one mountain we've got to climb up and over and around, and we have to make it clear that we are not going to let them stand in the way. So we need to declare that it's an emergency, but then we need to realize that declaring an emergency opens up doors and opportunities to people who would use this emergency for their own profiteering, right? As co-director of biofuel watch, I'm really familiar with that because we've been fighting what was put forward as a climate solution, right? Biofuels. Let's burn corn in our car engines. That was a really dumb idea. We fought it from the get-go. And it was always awkward to be standing there amongst people who recognized that climate changes was a problem, but didn't think critically about what the solutions should be. And there are so many purveyors of false solutions all over the place. And one of the ones in our state right now that we're facing is Vermont Gas. Calling their reckless, shoddy, unbelievably dangerous pipeline through our state, taking people's lands, they are now have the gall to say that they are going to become carbon neutral. Tell me how do you make methane carbon neutral? We need to fight and climb that mountain, frontwards, backwards, center every which way we possibly can. We cannot be misled, misinformed, distracted. We need effective actions and we need them now. We don't have time to wait. We're not going to get a second chance. We need to recognize in Vermont, for example, that we have a lot of our energy coming from Quebec, where they have been damning rivers and taking over indigenous peoples' territories and poisoning their food scapes with mercury and muskrat falls and elsewhere. And another large portion of our energy, anyway, we've got a lot of dirty energy coming into our state. The thing is, energy is not the only issue, right? We've got transportation. We've got heating. We've got everything, right? Naomi Klein said it. Climate change is about everything. It's about human rights, right? Declaration of human rights that recognizes our right to basic, basic rights, right? It does not say that you can get filthy rich at the expense of life on this planet and drive everyone and everything into extinction so that you can get more and more rich. That is not a right. Slaters may tell us that it's too costly and it won't pass and we can't possibly get this legislation through. Well, we have plenty of very wealthy people in this state who have not paid their share in taxes. And some of them probably would even be okay without idea if they have any heart for Vermont and for Vermonters and if they don't move out of the state if you don't like it. Full of good people, community-minded and capable of taking care of ourselves. We need to let our legislators know we are going to be here, right? It's not enough for us to stand up here and say, hey, it's an emergency. Do something. We have to stand behind them. We have to support them. We have to go to our communities. We have to be bold and demand bold steps and play our part in making these things happen. We can't just ask them to do it because we will get a plate full of false solutions and we will find ourselves rolling back down all of those mountains that we've been trying to climb. Let's get that ban on fossil fuel infrastructure into the forefront, right? Legislators, we're here. We're watching. We're holding you accountable. We're here. We're watching. We're holding you accountable. We're here. We're watching. We're holding you accountable. We're here. We're watching. We're holding you accountable. We're here. We're watching. The Venduzan is president of the Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CIO. So what I want to talk to you about today is a Green New Deal. But while we're talking about a Green New Deal, right, that's not only about creating new good green renewable energy. That is also about good paying union jobs. It is about a generation of blue collar working people who are going to find good meaningful work through this social process of recreating our economy. And as we strive to create environmental sustainability, we also need to create economic stability. Is that these are not, these cannot be allowed, anything being called a Green New Deal cannot be allowed to be called such if it does not also include project labor agreements with union labor and folks being able to get us family sustaining benefits and pay during this process. And the Green New Deal also not must be progressively funded. It must be paid for by those corporations that have created this crop climate crisis. And as such, this project, this historic project will not and cannot be something that is anything less than than in support of working class people in Vermont and beyond. So the 10,000 members of the Vermont AFL-CIO recognize that we are stronger as a movement together because the corporations want us to be divided. We stand together. And if you stand with us in our demand that these be good union jobs that are created out of this project. And if you stand with us when we demand that the funding for such projects be progressive and be not on the backs of working people, then we will stand with you as you fight a good fight for a sustainable, good, economic and environmental future for Vermont and everybody. So let me hear you say you're going to be reading his speech for us. But Stephen Leslie has been farming for more than 25 years. He is especially fond of draft horses and does all the horsepower work on the farm. He is the author of many books and magazine articles on draft power and sustainable agriculture. So introducing Glenn in place of him. Thank you. So my name is Gwendolyn Hall-Smith. And I'm from Extinction Rebellion Northeast Kingdom in the Headwaters Garden and Learning Center in Cabot, Vermont, which was modeled after my friend and mentor, Danela Meadows Cobb Hill in Heartland. And Stephen is the farmer at Cobb Hill. So it's an honor to read that letter. Farmers everywhere are on the front line of climate change. I began farming in the Upper Valley in 1996. As a dairy and vegetable farmer, I've seen my crops and livestock subject to the increasing stressors of a changing climate. We experience more extreme droughts and precipitation events and less predictable growing seasons. New insects and plant diseases are proliferating in our region. We can salute the current legislature for bringing forward climate initiatives such as the TCI and Vermont Green New Deal. But we must point out that their focus on transportation and energy efficiency is short-sighted. For a rural state like Vermont, land management represents a huge opportunity to mitigate and heal the environmental crisis. The agricultural and forestry sectors are crucial to the solution and must be included in any comprehensive legislation addressing climate change. Yay, Stephen. We can improve farm income and help save the planet by leveraging the state to pay incentives to land managers who use best practices to sequester carbon, protect air and water quality, reduce pesticide use, and transition from fossil fuels. The dairy sector occupies the majority of agricultural land in the state of Vermont and is by far the most important sector in economic terms. The working landscape is also a major asset of the tourism sector, which is the leading economic driver of our state's economy. Dairy farmers should be given viable options to diversify, reduce the number of cows and grow crops, such as hemp, medicinal, and culinary herbs and commodity foods, such as grain and legumes, for humans instead of livestock. The aim of all these incentives should be to re-establish a regional food system. Consumers should be able to buy a full diet of food grown within 100 miles of where they live. No more California lettuce coming to us on jet planes, but rather healthy, organic, and bioregionally produced food eaten with the season. All greenhouse gas emissions today, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere will continue to rise for centuries because of how much has already been absorbed by the oceans. As we slow down emissions, the oceans will release CO2 in a process of equilibration. We must halt emissions, but of equal importance is the restoration of our soil reserves worldwide. The most prevalent greenhouse gas is water vapor. There is a fixed amount of water on this planet. Through 10,000 years of soil degradation, we have desertified half of the planet's terrestrial surface and hugely diminished the soil's capacity to hold water. The only way to safely draw down and cool the planet is to rebuild the soil carbon storage. Building the sponge not only sequesters three to 10 tons of carbon per acre, it also naturally cools the environment by stabilizing the Earth's hydrologic systems, by which she has maintained a livable habitat for increasingly complex life forms for 130 million years. Building the sponge creates resilience for our food systems and also mitigates the damage of flooding and drought. It is the single most important task we can undertake to save humanity and all other species from the ravages of abrupt climate disruptions. The USDA land grant colleges and NGOs should promote the concept of the soil carbon sponge as a pivotal component to draw down and restoration of the Earth's natural cooling hydrologic capacities. Teaching the theory and practice of these concepts to all land managers is crucial. The very best way to sequester carbon and establish food security is to promote regenerative farming practices among every society around the globe. If every individual human being and every village, town, municipality, and city on this planet were dedicated to creating more topsoil through the promotion of small scale sustainable agriculture, we could sequester all the carbon we need to cool and heal the environment, provide meaningful employment and feed all the Earth's people. Agriculture has been part and parcel of the destruction of the natural world, but it doesn't have to be so. Vermonters can lead the way by embracing regenerative restorative practices. It's really important to emphasize that we're not just talking about farmland and woodlots. Every citizen, everyone here, everyone in that legislature relies on soil, and so every one of us should be incentivized to become caretakers of the land. No piece of land is too small or insignificant to be worthy of reparation and restoration. We need full citizen participation to create food security and restore biodiversity. I'm almost done. The key leverage points for a just transition in agriculture are to reward farmers for ecological services. This isn't only cleaner air, water, and carbon sequestration in soil, it's the production of nutrient-dense food is an ecological service. Establish price parity for farm products to ensure that every farmer and farm worker can earn a living wage. Institute regional supply management of farm products to keep pricing fair and to prevent industry from forcing out small producers. Divert funds that the state currently pays to subsidize tourism to build worker-owned milk bottling plants, artisanal value-added creameries, distilleries, hemp processing, community food processing centers, and more enterprises tied to local food, fiber, and forest harvests. Five more points. There's five more leverage points. Institute land reform for resettling of climate refugees, many of whom are farmers, and ensure young farmers have access to arable land. Establish cooperative markets and food marketing hubs. Establish biofuel farms to supply regional needs for transitioning tractors off gas and diesel. Yeah. Biofuel farms will serve as energy hubs for each reason to supply regional farms with fuel for converted tractors. Only biofuels that can be grown to balance out as carbon neutral will be used. Create incentives for electric tractors. Create incentives for electric tractors to be shared between farms. And, Steven's final point. Promote draft animal technology. Draft animal power can play a significant role again on farms in the forest and in the local transport of goods and services. Thank you, Steven, from Bob Hill. Thank you, Steven and Gwen. Next, we have Carmen Richardson Skinder, who goes to Montpelier High School and is part of Extinction Rebellion Youth. And the youth lobby. Two years ago, our government had a choice. They knew what the development of fossil fuel industry would do. They accurately predicted the increase of emissions and their impact on the climate. They had a choice between short-term economic growth and ensuring our generation had a livable future. They chose unsustainable growth. They chose profit and corporations over people. For the last 40 years, the federal government has been given this choice. Again and again, they chose economical growth. Frankly, I am terrified of what is going to happen. Of the food shortages, extreme weather, and disease my generation will face. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter how many kids ask for a livable future, because we have no legal representation. I am part of a generation that's future is decided by other people. But I can't stand up here and talk only about my generation's fears. The climate crisis is here. Millions of people are already facing the effects of climate change. This is not tomorrow's problem. It's here today, and we see it all over the world. The government refuses to take bold actions. They tell us that climate legislation cannot be passed if it costs us. They tell us that they don't have the political willpower. What they don't say is then 7 in 10 voters believe that the U.S. should prioritize environmental protection over economic growth. This is not an issue of politics. This is an issue of a government that does not represent its people. Government, Governor Phil Scott says environmental legislation will not be linear. He is correct. The government's complacency has put us back on the brink of causing irreversible damage. Unless there is unprecedented action at all levels of our government, we will have no chance of mitigating the worst effects of climate change. Once again, our government is faced with a choice. We have 10 years to take responsibility and recognize that those least responsible for the climate collapse are and will be facing the worst effects. We have 10 years to reduce emissions by 45% and mitigate the worst effects of the climate crisis. We have even less time to enact the legislation necessary to do this. Or we can continue down the path of complacent and incremental change. The choice is up to them. The people most affected have no vote. I ask Phil Scott along with the rest of our legislature to choose to act. I don't trust them to do this themselves. It's time to fight back. We cannot let our... let our legislative session go by without any substantial action. We are beginning to see climate and ecological collapse. So please, starting today, let our legislature know in every way possible that we aren't going anywhere until they start to represent us. Next, we have Asma Alhouni, who is an organizer for the Upper Valley. Growing up as a person of color in the U.S. and an immigrant, she has organized around these important issues to become who she is today. We are old, but we are here by saying As-salamu alaykum as you heard in Africa. We can't... thank you. We can't talk about climate change if we're not talking about promoting peace. And we can't talk about promoting peace if we don't talk about the United States of America, which is the antithesis of peace. It's its inception against brown and black bodies and those who disagree with it. Politicians making machine. When we talk about the climate, we can't for educational system. The Department of Defense is one of the largest energy in the world. Its votes, its tanks consumes 50 nations. And it continues today. This has recently come out. The military bases, and they're finding a lot of anomalies in the birth defect. This is a quote from a doctor that is in Iraq. And we talked about how we have bases everywhere around the world. And she said doctors are regularly encountering anomalies in babies that are so gruesome, they cannot even find precedence for them. So I'm going to end, but before I do, let's just say we need to get out of everywhere. We need to leave... The Democracy Collaborative and the Telus Institute. During the Carter administration, he served as a member and chairman of the U.S. Council on Environmental Quality. Gus has a long career of working at the intersection of government and environmental protection, including providing leadership to many task forces and committees whose roles have been to combat environmental degradation, including the President's Task Force on Global Resources and Environment, the Western Hemisphere Dialogue on Environment and Development, and the National Commission on the Environment. Here he is. It's good to see everybody. After that introduction, I know you're thinking this is going to be very boring. I'm bureaucratic. The mic up. Like that? You better? Okay. Pick it up. All right. All right. I'm so proud of what the young people have done in this past year. What distinction rebellion has done. The growth has been phenomenal. And I think there's a deep appreciation in both communities, so to speak, that our climate problem is deeply rooted in the priorities of our current political economy. Here's one example of how deeply it's rooted. You're familiar with the children's climate lawsuit, 21 grade school children, some in college now, because the suit was filed several years ago, but they tried to force the federal government to come up with a decent plan, the comprehensive plan. And they asked me to do a history of all the administration from LBJ to Trump. And so, and what they did and didn't do about the climate issue. And the fact is that we knew enough way back 40 years ago in the Carter administration to suggest that we should stop emitting greenhouse gases, put a limit on the buildup of greenhouse gases in the hours of 40 years ago, what we've had in those four decades is the greatest dereliction of civic responsibility in the history of the Republic. Governor Scott, I can imagine on this road to Damascus out here as he's walking from his office over here to give his State of the Union, State of the State of Dress, they have the conversion experience out there. And I wish for it, but I do doubt it, and I think that we need a new governor. That's a frankly political comment, but it's important that we become a political movement. Last thing I want to say is a bit more about we need all the things that people have been talking about up here. We need the Global Warming Solutions Act, an improved version of it past. We need other concrete things done. But I believe at the end of a long life of working on these issues that those are at the fringe of what we really need. We need to get them. We need to walk across that fringe and cooperate all those great initiatives that people have been talking about here and the Reggie Transportation Initiative and the Global Solutions Initiative. Those are going to be good things to get done and Vermont gets to do it. And we need to get beyond this shame of being behind our neighboring states. Good Lord! Who could have imagined but when we get across that fringe we're at the getting to the heart of the problem. We're getting deeper. And at that heart what we find is that the systemic priorities of our current political economy war against effective long-term effective climate solutions. So here's my conclusion. The United States will never go fast enough or far enough or do the right things on climate as long as our systemic priorities are ramping up GDP growing corporate profits increasing the incomes of the already well-to-do neglecting the half of America that's just getting by feeding a runaway consumerism focusing only on the present moment facilitating these great bastions of corporate power and helping abroad only modestly or not at all or being downright harmful. So we need a two-pronged approach fast rapid deployment of technology and the policy measures to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt and prepare for the changes we can't forestall now because we neglected so much for so long but the second part is just as important and too often neglected we've got to begin now to seriously change the system of political economy in which we live and work and Green New Deal absolutely which is the closest approximation to what I just went through as a response to the problems I just went through. The system change, not climate change. Thank you. Thank you guys. Our next speaker is David Papierski who is speaking as a veteran opposing climate change and global warming especially as we are on the brink of war. I wrote this essay a couple years ago and it explains very well the evil connection between racism, poverty, global warming and war. Hello everyone, my name is David Papierski I am a member of the Vermont Worker Center and the Vermont Poor People's Campaign I have been asked to speak today about American militarism and its war economy as I am a homeless vet who presently resides at the Canal Street Veterans Homeless Shelter in Winooski, Vermont. On January 8th of 1977 I turned 18 years of age I was in my final year of high school and I had joined the Marine Corps. I thought it was a good idea at the time as I wanted to learn some valuable job skills and gain work experience to arise from poverty. At least this is what the Marine Corps recruiter and my society's culture had told me anyway. In retrospect it became the worst mistake of my life that I compared to jumping out of the frying pan then into the fire. I should have joined the Peace Corps instead of the Marine Corps. What I found in my six years of service were either vets that had just returned home from Vietnam or new recruits like myself from unhealthy home and school environments who were misled to believe that they would escape from living in poverty by joining the military. Now 59 years of age I find myself homeless for the fourth time needless to say I have never been able to break free from living in poverty. One out of every four homeless people are vets. About 400,000 vets experience homelessness every year. On any given night there are over 40,000 vets on the streets. Every month 1,000 vets attempt suicide. Every day 20 vets die from suicide. That's almost one per hour. Far more than are dying in our endless, senseless, costly, unsuccessful, damaging and traumatizing wars. Countries never went at war. Both sides always lose. Always. Vets typically suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol and drug addiction. Some of these drugs, the VA itself administers self-blame for mission failure, depression, anger, survivor guilt and other mental illnesses, physical injury and a high number of both women and men are victims of sexual violence by other military personnel. Poverty, high cost of housing and inadequate healthcare. Rarely is it ever discussed as to what the individual loses in war, nor is it discussed where our country truly loses. Let's discuss the financial cost of war first. In 2017, the military budget was about $773.5 billion. It is expected to soon climb to over a trillion dollars unless we do something to stop it. This cost does not include foreign aid and externalities such as rebuilding a country we have just destroyed utilizing multiple government contractors. These funds include arming and training, a new foreign army to buy our political will. America spends more on our military than the next nine countries combined. Despite having only 5% of the world's population, we spend over 50% of the world's total military expenditure. Also understand that all of our tax money that is spent on war is profit upon by the rich. Burlington simply does not need 24 nuclear capable F-35s at well over 100 million dollars each. This money could be better spent on healthcare, childcare, teachers and nurses salaries supporting this disabled affordable housing, higher wages refugee resettlement and war refugees increasing increasing the SNAP program ending racism, ending poverty ending environmental destruction and provide affordable access to college and job training. America could work to heal itself and become a respected leader worldwide instead of perpetually being at war and both hated and attacked by most other countries. I just happened to serve between 77 and 83 one of the few periods in our country's history when America's military had been at peace. Most feds have not been as lucky and are much worse off than myself. They live in the woods or commit suicide. Being a homeless that is a direct reflection of America's unhealthy culture and war economy. The twist of culture that encourages an 18 year old to join the military and what amounts to killing other poor people like ourselves in a foreign country because there are no better alternatives here in our country. The most difficult hurdle for homeless feds to overcome when seeking help from an inadequate system is to trust the very same unhealthy culture that made them homeless in the first place. They are rewarded by being reintegrated into an unhealthy society and living in poverty where our country perpetuates a cycle by enlisting new recruits for a never ending war. Well that's never really returned home from war. Some never return from living in the woods while they hope and pray that someone will listen and finally put an end to our war economy. Thank you. Thank you David. Now the following is an unsolicited letter of encouragement received from a veteran. We have edited this letter for later. I am a military veteran 23 years of service. I'm writing for this for someone to read if you wish so you can learn that there are people allied with you whom you may not suspect would be. The ecology of the planet is not a liberal or conservative issue. It is a life issue. Human life and all other life forms. Did you know that the first time the US military did a study on the impact of climate change on national defense was in 1990? You don't have to agree with everything about the military. I sure as hell don't always but you do need to know more than many other big institutions in our country. The military takes living by the law seriously. Yes we screw up, we all do but we are your neighbors and your family members. So reach out to us active and veterans. Find allies everywhere. Not just among the usual suspects. If we do not expand our allies to every part of our society we will fail and we can't fail because this is an existential fight now. In 2011 I co-founded a climate symposium that ran for three years in Stratford. We brought keynote speakers like Bill McKibbin, Tim DeChristopher and Starhawk but more importantly we focused on organizing people on care for our children's future and we looked to spiritual and religious communities to do the work. Thanks to Greta Thunberg we now see this crisis globally through their young eyes. I want you to also know that Vermont was on that cutting edge a while ago. Vermont must stay on the leading edge of the fight. Every military member every business person every church lady every politician has family has children. This is what we must remind them of every minute. We are here not for ourselves we are here for the children. We are here for their future. That is what We are here for their future. Thank you. We've got it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm writing to you for my son and my daughter. We must let our children lead, I am speaking to you governor Scott. We have all means to make the green mountain State no excuses All of us here, all of us here have the will to do this. Do you? We are not your enemies. Join us. And this is from RB Breeze Major U.S. Forest Reserve who is retired. So we've now reached the time for the one-minute elevator pitches from climate and social justice groups. For those who are looking to get involved in bringing about the much needed change, we are all looking for there are many organizations that could use your help. We hope you'll find a group that's a good fit with what you feel most passionate about. Extinction Rebellion, if you could come up here first. You bet. Extinction Rebellion is an apolitical international climate movement that was founded in the United Kingdom a little over a year ago. It's now international. It's rooted firmly here in Vermont. And we're here to tell you and to tell our government that our goal is to use nonviolent direct action to disrupt government finance and big business in a meaningful enough way that the government acknowledges our four demands. Our demands are tell the truth. Cut carbon emissions by 2025. Form a people's assembly that holds the government accountable. And in all of our, this transition, it must be just. We must especially pay attention to frontline communities. Ed Brigade who are making their debut here in Montpelier. Extinction Rebellion. Extinction Rebellion has a huge emphasis on nonviolent direct action on regenerative culture. If you want to have a good time making a ruckus, come see us. Check us out on Facebook, XRVT. I'd like to introduce 350.org. He is here. Come give a pitch now. The F-35 group. How many of you here have heard the F-35s? We're going to be getting 20 of them. They each burn 1,500 gallons of fuel an hour. Vermont will be adding 2 to 3 million gallons of fuel every year from them. They're the biggest polluter in the state now. They're not included in any of the state's carbon plans, Burlington's plans. They're totally off. We give the military a pass when it comes to global warming. Too many environments. Not everybody does. I see signs here, but the big environmental groups give the military a pass. We can no longer do that. We can no longer give our elected representatives a pass. Sanders, Leahy and Welch are all welcoming them. We need to let them know they're not welcome. Thank you. And lastly, we're organizing a boycott of Burlington International Airport. Please do not use it as long as they host F-35s. Thank you. Is there a group that would want to come up here and give a little pitch? I'm doll-forcing from South Hero. There's a take action group in the islands. As I'm listening to this, it's all great, but as we deservely cast blame on our government and polluters and things, let's remember what we can do individually to have our own green environment in our lives. Walk to places, take public transportation, drive a fuel-fishing car, carpool for food. Raise your own garden, compost. Have a cold cellar, freeze and can. Stop using plastic. Stop using plastic. You know, buy your Asian garden. I don't use plastic in my garden for your home-eating needs. And electricity, use as much as you can solar. You all know this, but I'm just saying what we can do while we're waiting for the world to change around. Thus, you can model this for everybody. Solar, wind, hydro, as you will. If you're carnivore, you could raise your own sheep, make a hat. Pigs, you know, stuff like that. So let's not forget what we can do and model for our town. We can't see the grass roots right now, but they're here. So thank you. Hi, just, I'm from 350 Vermont, Rowland County. I want to thank everyone who came out here today and for everyone who organized this event. Thank you. I wanted to mention also, some group of 350 Vermont is called Mother Up. And it's a group specifically for parents and with young children who are coming together to fight climate change. We meet on the fourth Tuesdays of the month at 5.30 at the Unitarian Church in Montpelier. Thank you. A lot of community media here today. Great to see the coverage. My name's Todd Tyson. I'm the station manager of Free Vermont Radio down in South Royalton. We carry an environmental show called Green Zine. I'm from Green Zine, but you may be familiar to me at the M. A, I know that it's interesting to see a lot of you by the way. I just need to listen in just remember Free Vermont Radio W. F. V. R. An important thing about the literature, the climate caucus has been meeting at the exact same time as this rally. They couldn't change the schedule to be at this rally. I noticed someone has just joined us here from the government and possibly even the next governor of Vermont. eye on them we are watching we are listening and if you want to get in touch with me or other folks that are going to come up to the legislature on a regular basis sit in on important committees and make sure that the people's voices are heard join me great great day here my name is Susan Hodges I live in South Stratford and I just wanted to say there's a lot of very small communities in Vermont just because you're small doesn't mean you're off the hook we have a small group in Stratford we've had signs out climate change signs out on the main road through town every Friday since September 20th and we're they've got a climate emergency resolution up in our town meeting coming up and we're doing things to help spread the word in our community and anyone else that wants to come so you can do that in your community even if it's really small we only have a thousand people in all of Stratford thank you I'm jenny sassman I am with indivisible callous and lean left Vermont there's certainly a lot of work to be done here in Vermont and at the same time we're all going to be subject to what happens in Washington DC and lean left Vermont and indivisible callous and many other groups in the state are working hard at helping change the makeup of congress and state houses in other states because they really affect what's happening so this year we have to take back the white house we have to take the senate we have to keep the house and we have to affect change at the state level where there's a massive effort to suppress the vote and elect a disproportionate number of republicans nationally based on gerrymandering and other forms of voter suppression so you can check us out at leanleftvermod.org indivisiblecallous.org and uh and we can help you direct direct you to another local group if that's what you want to do thank you uh Montpelier and i want to encourage you all to get uh an eye on your local government many of them are changing zoning not prevent for protecting our waterways and our slopes encouraging development where there shouldn't be any right here in Montpelier that's happening they're changing the zoning please keep an eye on what they're doing in your local representation thank you thank you so it sounds like we're saying where we're from i'm david zuckerman i'm from heinsberg and who we're with and i'm with all of you and i'm not going to speak any longer than anyone else i just want to say that i know people here have been advocates and fighting for the environment and for climate change for many many decades and i'm so excited to have both longtime fighters and all of the new fighters who are with us working to change the discussion because we have no time we have to take action and we have to be big in our action we need to make policies that are moving forward on reducing co2 emissions and making sure people can live in their homes and have decent standards of living because the two are not opposed to each other and we're often like put in this place where you can either have you know houses and money and wealth and glorious whateverness or you can have a planet um well first of all without a planet we're kind of in trouble and as a farmer i felt it last year we were down 35 000 pounds of food on our farm because of the drought last summer and we're seeing it in australia and we're seeing it in paradise california and all over california we're seeing in Nebraska this spring without a planet and a sane environment we don't have food i mean this is pretty fundamental and we have to do our part here and so thank you for being here and being loud i i also have to tell you that i'm the parliamentarian in there in half an hour and i have to be mean if you're loud in there so i'm sorry but that's i do respect the system tremendously so well i'm sorry i think that's okay you don't have to respect the system but i have to do my job and um but i what i will urge you and i know many of you are dedicated to being here day in and day out and talking to your legislators even our good ones to remind them that this can't be let go for another year and let go for another year so thank you for being here i really appreciate it okay so for those who are saying for the pandemonium event please find a pandemonium wrangler uh with a red armband they will provide further instructions about the pandemonium accompaniment to governor scott at two o'clock between now and then we are able to warm up in state house room 11 and we also have food provided from the redhead bakery extinction rebellion vermont and capo grounds uh right up there thank you everyone so much for coming room 11 is not available okay room 11 is not available it was reserved for tomorrow so but okay here's hot coffee pastries blankets and warm socks right under the christmas tree please avail yourself of them yes thank you guys so much from glenn right here so yes legislature later today and every friday so i'd encourage you if you're willing to come a little bit later and bang some pots and pans let's get in touch with the people here and we'll give you further instructions but we've been working in this legislature and it's time they started listening to us so we're gonna make some more noise