By Stephen Mills
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MONTPELIER — Protesters disrupted Gov. Phil Scott’s State of the State address Thursday to pressure lawmakers to do more to combat climate change.
Minutes into his Scott’s speech, protesters began chanting “Listen to the people” and shouting that they were present because of a “climate emergency.” They demanded that students receive an education that prepared them for a “climate crisis” and insisted the climate change was “destroying the economy.”
After listening several minutes, the governor tried to quell the protest and said the activists could remain if they were quiet. Eventually, Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman adjourned the session and asked Sergeant at Arms Janet Miller to have police officers escort protesters from the House chamber.
According to Capitol Police Chief Matthew Romei, his officers, assisted by Vermont State Police and county sheriffs’ departments, escorted 16 protesters from the chamber.
According to a joint police news release, one protester, Henry Harris, 41, of Peacham, was arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct and will appear at Washington County criminal court at a later date. The remaining protesters were released on verbal no-trespass orders, the release added.
Harris was one of about two dozen activists from Extinction Rebellion Vermont, 350 Vermont and other affiliated climate activist groups who began lining up outside the entrance to the House chamber an hour before the start of the 2 p.m. address to ensure they would be able to find a seat.
“Phil Scott does not understand climate change,” Harris said. “It’s unsafe for him to be the number-one executive in this state.
“If you can’t recognize a crisis, you can’t respond to it meaningfully,” he added.
Another activist, Lila Markow, of Washington, said Vermont lawmakers were not doing enough to address climate change, and threatened that the protesters would keep coming back.
“I think the persistence of voices and people coming to these things proves again and again that we’re still here and we still care,” Markow said.
“Climate change is the biggest problem facing us right now in this generation, and I think all the efforts that I’ve seen to mitigate it are like a Band-Aid on a stab wound and to just pacify people and I’m ready to see real action,” said Fin Hewitt, of Stannard.
Jed Kurts, of Middlesex, added: “Climate change is the biggest problem that we’ve ever faced, especially for people who have less money, impoverished people. It’s crazy and we’re already seeing climate refugees in Vermont and the global south. As a national leader and a global superpower, the U.S. really needs to take the wheel and hammer the climate legislation and be a good role model for the rest of the world.”
Outside the State House, climate activists also staged a “Pandemonium” demonstration, banging drums, cow bells, pots and pans, and playing musical instruments to attract the attention of lawmakers inside.
Zuckerman, a progressive, joined the Pandemonium demonstration to address the crowd as a supporter and a farmer who had experienced crop reduction of 35,000 pounds due to a drought last summer.
“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 left,” he said. “We have to take action and we have to be big in our action …”
One activist present included Carmen Richardson-Skinder, 16, a Montpelier High School sophomore, who helped organized last fall’s weekend climate encampment on the State House lawn to protest climate change.
“I think this event was important, it was a youth-led action and as youth, we have no legal standing in the court and those in the legislature are the ones deciding our future now,” she said. “It doesn’t matter how much we ask them nicely, we’ve tried that, so this is one of our last resorts (to protest).”
Richardson-Skinder added that proposals by the state to join the Transportation Climate Initiative and the Vermont Climate Solutions Caucus to reduce carbon emissions would not be enough to combat climate change.
“TCI is based on absolutely no science,” she said. “I think the goal is to reduce the emissions to half of what we need to basically stall climate change and avoid the worst effects.”
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