 Hi, I'm an organizer with safe landing BTV. We're here today on Tuesday, May 23rd In solidarity with other activists in Geneva, Switzerland. There was a the largest private jet sales event in Europe Happened today and about a hundred activists from stay grounded extinction rebellion scientist rebellion and Greenpeace protested many were arrested calling out the Wealth inequality and climate injustice of private jets and so we are here safe landing BTV and a lot of our allies are Here today calling for the immediate banning of private jets at Burlington International Airport because Because of the climate crisis and so that's why we're here today in solidarity with our friends Who are opposing the F-35s? I'm one of the organizers of a safe landing BTV and flight free Vermont and I organized with some other Climate justice organizations. Thank you so much for being here We put the word out just nine days ago for a rally on a Tuesday at three and so The fact that this many people showed up is awesome. So thank you so much for making the effort to be here. I am very grateful Thank you to the our co-sponsors so safe landing BTV and the women's International League for peace and freedom and the Vermont peace anti-war coalition and sunrise chit-n'd-in flight free Vermont code pink extinction rebellion Vermont and Cancel F-35 sub-stack media company But basically I just want to speak about why we're here today a bit about safe landing BTV's history So we are the group of organizers who? This organization was born out of the victory when the airport wanted to expand 11 acres into the working-class Chamberlain neighborhood, and we organized and we are victorious and so now we've gone in the offensive Where and we have two goals one is no expansion at all of the airport and two is 50% reduction of emissions by 2030 so does degrowth of the airport that means grounding planes because of the climate emergency the reason we are here today on May 23rd on a Tuesday and not on the weekend is this Action is in is in solidarity with Activist in Geneva, Switzerland, so today Yeah, and so if you've seen any of that coverage, it's been great so activists from stay grounded extinction rebellion scientist rebellion and Greenpeace about a hundred of them protested. It's called e-base e-b-a-c e It's the largest private jet sales event in Europe And I don't know how many were arrested, but many were arrested demanding an immediate banning of private jets And so that's why we're here today in solidarity with our anti-war friends in solidarity with our friends fighting for climate justice and Calling for peace around the world, but today's event is really about banning private jets There are private jets that fly in and out of the airport every single day You can actually go to flight aware calm and You can go to Burlington Airport and you can see all of the arrivals and departures That go in and out of the airport every day And if you click on them you get the tail number and that's like the vehicle identification number for a car And you can see who owns them right so a lot of them are owned privately a lot of them are chartered Private jets right so a rich person just said I want to fly to Cleveland or I want to fly to wherever There's this there are several other categories of what stay grounded called bullshit flights So short-haul flights so these are flights like to Plattsburgh or flights to Rutland There are recreational flights. They're flying clubs where you know group people own an airplane together And they just fly around causing climate pollution and noise pollution for everybody just because they want to see the sunset There are recreational flights at Vermont flight Academy called discovery flights We just go up in the air for sunset and like pretend you're a pilot for a while So all of these are luxury emissions, so we can't have them in 2023 When last week the UN said we're probably gonna hit 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2027 So it's basically right now. So no action at the airport is not an option We have to take action at the airport in the city of Burlington is not doing it There the plan is literally just endless Expansion so we are here allies in solidarity calling for degrowth at the airport Stopping the F-35s and in particular the banning of private jets, which is thank you. Thank you, right? And so that's why we're here and so I'm very grateful for all of you for for coming today I'm gonna pass to Duncan who's with the Vermont peace anti-war coalition So like a true modern activist, I'm gonna use my phone So you can think I'm a young Brianna Joy Gray or something like that. I'm very very Technocratic Which is what we need to do to survive. So I'm from the Vermont peace anti-war coalition and we're made up of a bunch of older folks you know us and We want some younger folks to join us, but I just wanted to point something out And make us aware That there's a cord going in here. That's getting all of this speech into that Camera, so I don't have to face them So we're all from different groups and this is what I just wanted to I wanted to point out We have to learn how to work as a larger movement And what makes this special today is we're at this airport today This airport is the symbol of Everything that's going on wrong. It's about growth. It's about emissions. It's about It's about nuclear Proliferation it's about everything and it's right here So that's why this is a special place right now this minute because we're here But it's not special because of those things. It's special because there are different groups endorsing this action There are groups that normally just don't show up together but here we are together because we're facing the same shit and So I think we need to think maybe you know in a creative sense. What are the messages that are the same and I can't come up with any. It's a tough one But what are the messages that are the same of all our groups? Because we're a vast minority, but we're a powerful minority and And you know as the as the two-party system sets up this next charade Where they they bait and switch on us every time we need to get out of that mindset because we are a force ourselves and You know, I've been in these movements for a long time my mother and Robin and you know all of us Have been in these movements and that we just continue because it's all the same It's all the same resistance It's all the same knowledge. I mean think of all the knowledge we have Studying the f-35. What is the f-35 done? There are people here who can tell you everything about it You know what what to private jets do there people can tell you exactly what's coming out of their engines You know, there are people here who can tell you all of the facts So we're a powerful force and I say let's find a way to merge our messages in a really Natural way that we all believe in what Sovereign what love of the earth I would for me. I think love of the earth is probably the primary Message that we're here together for that so and of course you see a lot of spiritual people working in in in resistance work because They love humanity So we're all we're all here for the same reason and I and I really am glad to be working with Dan Costa gano and others here and extinction rebellion Vermont. You guys are so awesome and Keep up the good work Thank You Duncan and thank you Dan Costa gano for organizing this that guy has initiative and I'm so glad to see that it's It's fantastic when we have an organizer among us a real genuine organizer of the people so I've Prepared a few remarks About this climate emergency and what we can do about it and I haven't actually come up with a proposal for action And it's very simple abolish all Aircraft that averages fueler than 50 passenger miles per gallon of jet fuel or gasoline at this city owned airport Right into the month, okay, so My name is Jimmy Leeds and I'll I publish a newsletter on Substack called cancel F 35 dot substack dot com Nearly all passenger airliners Already far exceed 50 passenger miles per gallon some Get over a hundred and twenty passenger miles per gallon for cargo planes The standard would have an alternative obviously a ton of cargo mile Per gallon standard that's equivalent to the 50 passenger per mile standard For passenger planes in a climate emergency Everyone has a responsibility to act the earth is In trouble and we're getting all kinds of emergencies from climate and It's mostly affecting Working-class people not just in this country, but around the world now You might worry that if Burlington established a standard like 50 passenger miles per gallon The FAA might step in and say no you can't do that, but the FAA only Has the full authority over aviation safety The courts have ruled that the FAA can preempt state and local government action in that entire field of aviation safety But gas guzzling aircraft has nothing to do with aviation safety Restricting aircraft based on passenger miles per gallon or tons of cargo miles per gallon is not Preempted by any federal law Burlington is the airport owner and In that ownership it has authority to establish standards for the airport and that was established In a court ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals some years ago But the there's one condition and that is that the standard is applied universally for all aircraft they can't discriminate and single out Some to avoid having that standard and a mission standard for Burlington Airport That requires meeting a reasonable passenger miles per gallon or ton of cargo Miles per gallon standard can be enacted now by the Burlington City government Such a standard would also apply to the F-35 Which is the worst of all the gas guzzlers at this airport. It only gets 0.5 Passenger miles per gallon. That's 100 times worse than the standard I'm proposing It burns a hundred times more fuel than any reasonable standard It's a gas guzzler on steroids. It burns 22 gallons of jet fuel every minute of flight It's a climate killer on steroids. It's not protecting us. It's endangering us 240 years ago the founders of this country established a system with powers divided between federal and state governments Vermont did pretty much the same thing It delegated powers to the local governments to regulate vehicles of every kind To protect public health safety welfare and convenience that means that the Vermont local governments The city's towns and villages have the power to put a stop to this abuse The mayor of Burlington the city council and the airport administration Can take action for the welfare of the people their constituents and the entire planet They have the power to ban any aircraft that cannot meet a reasonable Emission standard from using this airport, but they're not using that power and non-discriminatory admissions rule that applies to ban all gas guzzlers is reasonable sensible practical necessary and legal one step to prevent needless outrageous CO2 emissions and Protect the climate But it's not just Burlington Citizens of every town in Vermont can take important steps to protect the climate one of them is to demand Is something we can do demand that our own local governments, whichever town we live in And every local government join in adopting an ordinance banning gas guzzling airplanes of every type That so I run State chapter of flight for USA called flight free Vermont where people quit flying or take Flight-free pledge for one year because of the climate emergency and just want to highlight that 1% of people are responsible for 50% of all aviation emissions and 80% of people on earth have never been and will never be on an airplane because it's too expensive So it's 80% of 8 billion is 6.4 billion people So if you are rich enough to fly in the first place and want to extract yourself from the aviation Fossil fuel industrial complex That's what flight-free is for it's about storytelling because data and graphs don't always work So Kurt is one of our future stories at flight-free VT on Instagram. I quit flying in 2019 I know Robin is pledged to be flight-free in 2023 and a lot of other Vermonters are saying we're going to stop flying Because of the climate emergency and I think that's really important Because there is data showing about the hypocrite effect. So if you go to safe landing VTV social media Which kind of exploded in the last couple days There's a lot of trolls which means you're winning because you're challenging the status quo So there's a lot of comments like bro you jealous and look it's John Kerry flying in a private jet And there's data showing that if you actually walk the walk if you quit flying if you stop eating meat if you do these Personal climate choices that you are more credible and people look up to you more So if you could pledge to be flight-free and you tell your story, that's really really powerful That's not going to solve the climate crisis, but it's an important piece. And so I wanted to highlight that. I'm Jimmy Lee's and I'm here with safe skies Burlington and people for peace and security and we've We've organized this demonstration To call for climate justice especially with regard to aviation aviation accounts for 10% of all of the Transportation greenhouse gas emissions and the F 35 at this airport the 20 F 35 jets account for at least Half of the aviation emissions or it's let's put it this way the F 35 emissions equals all of the emissions of civilian airliner flights put together So what we're saying is abolish the F 35 at Burlington Airport abolish Gas guzzling aircraft here some of the aircraft is abysmal as far as Passenger miles per gallon and the F 35 is the worst It burns 22 gallons of jet fuel every minute of flight Every minute more than a tank of gas for an automobile Burned it's burning 1500 gallons an hour In straight and level flight much more when it's doing high G maneuvers Taking off and landing This is something that is damaging to the climate It's the worst climate killer We've got here in Vermont and the best way for Vermont the lowest hanging fruit for improving Our greenhouse gas emissions is to remove the F 35. It shouldn't be here It shouldn't be anywhere and that's just for training if it was involved in war It would be much much worse Nothing is as bad for the climate as war. We've got to put a stop to this dangerous Horrible war machine that's taken power in the United States Why are we devoting Almost a trillion dollars a year to war more than the next 10 nations put together Huge amount of money wasted on the F 35 and other war machines and the US with its bases in 80 countries is Causing it's causing conflict overthrowing governments instigating wars Like the war in Ukraine. We've got to put a stop to it put a stop to a government that's Gone crazy with war To vote the resources of this country the brilliant people The material the workforce to build it. My name is David Ross I volunteered twice served two tours as a combat medic with the first infantry in Vietnam I'm against this airplane not only because of the noise pollution it creates Which is damaging to children's hearing Damaging to their cognitive abilities. There's lots of studies that back this up The airplane is made out of Certain materials that are virtually impossible to extinguish with normal firefighting equipment They off gas Mr. Speary who is one of the people that worked on these projects The off-gassing is equivalent to nerve gas. So if one of those things goes down around here a lot of people are going to die My personal experience with this type of airplane F4 phantoms and 111s and so on Is what their job is their job is to slaughter people Uh who largely are pretty much defenseless against such such huge things So I was in vietnam I saw people burn to death from airstrikes people blown up whole villages just leveled nothing left women children babies old men All just dead and and worse than that the ones that weren't dead and we just leave them You'd want to try to work on if you try to work on You know get your get you get yourself together guy. We got to move on to the next grid. Come on quit fooling the they'll take care of their own Nobody take care of their own. They're they're gonna just lay there until they die So, uh, I'm against war generally and I'm also against war because the the wars that we get involved in There were light end of these things. Look at the history of vietnam And look at some of the silk we from this. How about heroin addiction? Well We were forbidden by congress to be involved in louse So we got this opium king named vian power who had his own army And the cia supplied him with everything and he's he funded a lot of the cia stuff by selling opium And that opium went to vietnam the capital was converted into heroin That's where all of our gis got addicted to heroin Uh, and then the heroin came into the west coast and then it won't cross the country Same thing with cocaine cocaine's a byproduct of the cia secret wars in central and south america So the policies that these airplanes back up their corrupt policies were lied into these wars And then on top of all of it. There's just the human suffering Final thought before I give up the mic Homelessness there's a lot of homeless vets. There's a lot of homeless non vets There's people I've seen videos where they just drive block after block people living on the streets. I'm in a tent So i'm in a camper some on the ground without even a ground cloth This plane in the end is going to cost over one trillion dollars. You know what? One trillion dollars put every homeless person in a house and feed them So what the hell are my country's priorities? They're certainly not my priorities My priorities are for peace and justice And without justice there can be no peace. So Thank you My name is megan emory and i'm a south burlington city counselor. I am here on my own behalf I'm not representing the council From the very beginning in 2010 when there was a scoping meeting for the basing of the f-35s I was alerted by a resident that this was A base that was being considered and I immediately became involved in this I I saw the risks to this community and to I I think you know not only loss of homes which then came to pass But also the political divides that this would cost and it has this has divided chitinon county And potentially beyond chitinon county and it continues to create Um real issues for our families here who in spite of homes being gone We have households that live under the flight path or adjacent to the airport In order to Have their lives disrupted and and more than disruption They've lost their neighbors. They've lost their their peace of mind and they've lost their peace They can't go outside when the planes are taking off There are parents who have bought expensive headgear for their children For fear of their children these very Young people with very small ear canals for fear of them losing their hearing We have people who have fled from more torn areas who have come here as migrants And and refugees they live under the flight path We have veterans with PTSD who live here We have elderly people who live here who have health issues And we know that the vibrations from these planes in addition to the deafening noise Exacerbates health issues We have people who represent the middle class and and the working class here and these are protected classes of people according to our united states air force The basing decision included these environmental considerations which included the economics of and and the populations and the homes that could potentially Be impacted by the basing All of that was not only dismissed It was erased and we have evidence that it was our senior senator senator patrick lehi And his office who were instrumental in fudging the numbers and making this basing come to be Senator lehi has done a tremendous job for our state and for our nation He has been a champion of peace in the world And I cannot understand how the economic Supposed benefits of this basing could trump The peace that has now been lost in his homestead He's never spoken to the people most affected by this basing about this And that is simply unacceptable And I have always been present to hear from the people. I have very limited power. I think we should have done more I think we could still do more We need to elect leaders who are willing to to continue to speak to this issue because until these planes Are retired or we have a new a new flighting mission or a new mission altogether Lives here will continue to be hurt By this decision And so i'm just here to express my support And I will always express my support whether on the council or not So thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak Hi there. My name is phil hammerslaw the f-35 We are all equal under the noise of the f-35 It doesn't matter what class what color or anything else As a matter of fact, it doesn't matter whether you're human or not Animals are affected just as much as we are The f-35 is a boondog it was created as originally a fighter If you read forbes magazine You'll find that even the generals who help planet said it's like driving a Mercedes Benz or a Ferrari One mile to the grocery store It's a boondog. It's a waste of money. It's a waste of energy But most of all it's a waste of resources human resources We should be making other things We do not have to always live in fear And what the f-35 represents they say protection. It's not just protection It's a demonstration of our fear of others of other nations The haves versus a have nots if it's One thing we should think about it's yes that jet is here now But how long will it take for us to put in the energy To get rid of it And that will only come when we start working totally together. Thank you Hi, I'm Kurt McCormick a former member of the house representing the old north end and downtown berlington um I came out here today because This is a difficult issue because it's so um not talked about and um people Think nothing of flying here and there and everywhere and um Uh, and there are alternatives or we never we never talk about them. So um I'm here to point those things out like amtrak take amtrak. You don't have to you don't have to fly Uh, I I've been taking the no fly pledge With this organization here for Since I first heard about them three or four years ago I haven't flown since I just take amtrak I I'm I'm terry baritius live in berlington And I happen to have a job Right near the airport here. I work at a test center where Uh nurses doctors engineers people like that have to come and take their tests to get certified or licensed Uh, so we have all kinds of professions having to test there And when the f-35s take off often, we have to sort of suspend testing for a bit We have to I have to write a document uh case Uh documenting that there was a noise distraction so severe that uh, it could impact people's Competence on the test Uh, so that's a frequent occurrence. It basically makes the business that I work at Uh handicapped because we can't really Do the job that we are here in south berlington to do because of the f-35s So it really has a direct impact on the business that I work at Hi there. My name is Caleb quittner And um, I'm a little nervous standing up against the aviation industrial complex And the vast power and money that's involved in sustaining it But fortunately, I have a lot of friends and allies Here in solidarity to speak out against the Neurologically damaging and environmentally pollutive Flying of military and private jets here in vermont Otherwise small and little to do state With not a lot going on Um, but we like it that way And um, we want to have a peaceful Um state to live in And what brought me here Is a concern about children And the future of our planet and the future of human civilization The chief of pediatric neurology at uvm a couple weeks ago came out with a statement That the damaging effects of the f-35s Engines being so loud well above legal limits in an urban area Can cause effects comparable to chronic lead exposure In young and adolescents children and adults So at best This is about Drawing attention to the neglected youth in this state Who are being ignored by our politicians in the burlington municipality who specifically Asked for the f-35s to be placed here when they could have been placed somewhere else With a lower population far away from schools And city outside of sim city limits Um And um It's at worst at worst It's it's a it's a racist crime That the f-35s are positioned directly over the most ethnically diverse city in vermont With being winooski Because burlington and winooski are very special places to Our state that is the least diverse in the nation but instead of Respecting and caring about our neighbors Who have either immigrated here or lived here for a long time that add diversity and cultural Wander to our neighborhoods We've chosen to exploit their vulnerabilities And their low income status as winooski is a very low income city so If anyone any of the politicians really care about setting up a safe future and protecting the air in the environment In showing at least a shred of decency Towards the young people who are trying to learn and become healthy full-grown adults To lead the nation this most powerful nation and the greatest nation on earth Into a happy habitable future I don't know if that's a complete sentence But the amount of negligence and financial Concern being prioritized over the health and minds of developing Brains Is extremely perverse and confusing So We can't focus on the confusion. We have to focus on what we know And that's that we care about our families and our communities And then we don't want to damage their hearing and we don't want to cause Brain damage that's comparable to chronic lead exposure and the youth and the ethnic communities here Or as as well as any of the communities who don't have an option to just get up and leave When the place they've been living has become uninhabitable and completely Well, I think this is an opportunity for hope for all of us to come together and share our thoughts And to learn about how the government and politics work to affect um the infrastructure of our communities and our society because a lot needs to change and We have the power to do it as america as united states citizens and We got to bring ourselves together in love or reason and real concern And just keep thinking because I don't know that much, but I know I'm here for the right reason Thank you Well last night I watched a news program of the the g7 Which are the big Countries meeting in at hiroshima japan And one of the comments was that they're planning for a nuclear war So That's not related exactly to private jets At least on some on some level, but the thing that leads to private jets that leads to grotesque wealth When other people are struggling um Are the same types of leaders Who meet And and devise ways to destroy the planet Which is what's happening with climate change, of course So it's the same issues And thanks for listening