Reservation for Oct. 25 Program HERE       Reservation for Nov. 15 Program HERE

​

Video link to all past programs (available about a week after the live program) HERE

​

Hoodwinked in the Greenwashed Mountains

Why Vermont Gets Climate Action Wrong

In the past decade, we have seen a massive increase in activism to tackle the climate crisis. Indigenous Peoples’ resistance to destructive industrial projects – from stopping oil and gas pipelines to blocking mega-dams, has been on the rise world-wide. Young people have mobilized against the inaction of governments and farmers have rallied to stop policies that favor polluting corporations. More than ever before, the center-of-gravity of the climate movements have shifted to a climate justice narrative – where we do not distinguish between the global war on biodiversity waged by corporate greed and the wars waged against the cultures, cosmologies, communities and bodies of oppressed peoples world-wide.

        The same is true here in Vermont, where false solutions are finally coming under grassroots scrutiny. A climate justice framework does not reduce the climate crisis to a puzzle simply focused on counting carbon. Grassroots, community-led movements around the world look across the economy – at the exploitation of land, labor and living systems, and not just those here in Vermont. We are all part of one Earth and we cannot create systems that exploit peoples and lands far away in order to benefit our lifestyles. That is the definition of a supremacist, colonized mind… and it must cease.

        Regrettably, Vermont’s actions, so far, fail the essential climate justice framework and must be challenged. This series of a dozen programs over the next five months will confront the greenwashing and false solutions that have been brought forward (some even enacted into law), so that we can begin to shift the public’s awareness of what is being done in their name. Vermont citizens have been hoodwinked and that, too, must stop.

​

Hydrogen Hype: Hope or Hoax? Clean, Green, or Neither?

Wed., Oct. 25 at 7 PM, BALE Commons, South Royalton

Cathy Kristofferson               Reservation HERE

The fossil fuel industry is hyping hydrogen as an answer to decarbonization. Learn about its limited appropriate uses and find out why incentives for hydrogen will mean more fracked gas and a lot of wasted clean energy to make this inefficient, expensive, and climate-warming (not to mention highly explosive) gas—even when it's "green." Cathy Kristofferson is a co-founder of the Pipe Line Awareness Network for the Northeast working for an end to pipeline expansions and a rapid transition to clean non-combustible energy solutions.

​

​

​

Why Wind, Solar, and Battery Storage Are Not Renewable!

Wed., Nov. 15  at 7 PM, BALE Commons, South Royalton

Earl Hatley                             Reservation HERE

We must transition away from fossil fuels to low carbon solutions for our energy and transportation sectors. Solar, wind, and battery storage depend on mining for certain metals and minerals for their technologies, such as cobalt, copper, lithium and nickel. Depending on the metal, the mining industry estimates that about 25 percent of greenhouse gasses are produced by mining, transportation and ore processing. And key sources estimate that 70-97 percent of these metals are found on or within 35 miles of Indian reservations in the US and Canada. Given that, how are we to have a just transition to a low carbon energy and transportation system? Earl Hatley (Abenaki Nation) explains the problems faced by mining in Indigenous communities, Indigenous rights, and the Right to Say NO to Mining Campaign… as well as what can be done to make our low carbon transition more just for Indigenous and mining impacted communities. Discussion will also focus on low carbon solutions for Vermont.

​

​