Greenwashing the Climate Crisis
Burlington Democrats Vote Against Climate Change Educator's Appointment to the Airport Commission.
Councilors Traverse and later Paul spoke effusively about the work students are doing at Champlain Elementary School to help counter the climate crisis. Elementary school children who will bear the worst effects of the climate crisis seem to be doing more than our elected officials who have real power to make change and cannot even vote for someone willing to help.
If you are confident that the Democrat you elected to the Burlington City Council is doing impactful work on Climate Change, your confidence is misplaced.
Burlington Democrats’ approach to the Climate Crisis is: use campaign materials and website as cover to demonstrate, through impassioned prose, a strong stance on Climate while simultaneously taking half-steps that will have little material benefit in actually averting the climate crisis and taking actions that further the crisis. I find this approach much worse than denying climate change altogether because in this case there is a large body of the electorate who voted these councilors in, having read the strong proclamations in support of climate action, and entrusted them with the power to act.
Doing a bit here and there around the margins—offering rebates for electric mowers and electric vehicles—or, worse yet, simply declaring that you care and doing almost nothing tangible while the world burns is a bit like polishing the brass fittings while the Titanic goes down.
Case in point is Monday night’s City Council vote on the sole applicant, Dan Castrigano, for the open seat on the Airport Commission. All Democrats present, Mayor Weinberger included, voted against this well educated climate change expert and educator who wished to provide his expertise and serve the community via this 8 month post (it is a partial term). Voting for him would have been a pragmatic choice given his background and given the fact that the Airport Director has himself evidently stated that he wishes to both catalog aviation emissions and seek ways to reduce them (no guarantees on this front as I have seen nothing in writing from Mr. Longo). Indeed, Mr. Castrigano stated his own desire to catalog emissions and seek ways to reduce them, including capping flights as the Dutch are doing at the Schiphol airport (the applicant’s idea, not the airport director’s). Mr. Castrigano also stated that he is well equipped and eager to assist and serve the Commission on the many other issues its members deal with, which would likely benefit from a math-minded approach. His appointment would have presented a unique opportunity for the Council to introduce Climate Change expertise where it is entirely absent as well as to demonstrate that council members who have expressed concern on Climate are willing to translate that concern into action.
Councilwoman Carpenter stated that she couldn’t support Mr. Castrigano’s appointment. She agreed that Aviation emissions need to be counted yet voted against the very person who has expertise in this area and could assist in achieving the city’s own “Net Zero” goal (which we now know is a farce). All other Democrats present voted against Mr. Castrigano’s appointment but neither defended nor explained their position.
The window has closed on the incremental approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions that could have been viable in 70s when the federal government first recognized the gravity of the problem or even perhaps in 1988 when then NASA scientist James Hansen first testified before Congress warning that human caused greenhouse gas emissions were warming the earth. 50 years on, with the climate emergency upon us, dithering around the edges will not solve the problem. Such an approach will lead to collapse of our maple sugar industry and ski industry, resulting in billions of dollars in economic loss and ultimately drive our economy into the ground. Most importantly, failing to act on climate change at the scale required consigns future generations to an uninhabitable climate.
Councilors Paul, Shannon, Carpenter, Traverse and Barlow, and Mayor Weinberger—all Democrats—all voted against Mr. Castrigano. These representatives chose to do what almost every politician has done for 50 years: avoid the bold leadership required. Resort to lip service. Having been entrusted by voters to act to avert catastrophic climate change, and after having voted to declare a climate emergency in 2019, they use smoke and mirrors- doing not what is necessary, but what is politically expedient: declare their concern, then take no material action. In the three years since their Climate Crisis Resolution, they’ve not even acknowledged the airport’s contribution to GHG emissions There is a path laid out before them thanks to decades of climate science—no crystal ball needed—only will. Failure to use one’s power to ensure a habitable planet for future generations is an abrogation of duty. We must demand more of our elected officials when they fail us so consistently and profoundly.