All right, thank you, everybody.
I'm so happy that you could join us.
My name is James Williams.
I'm part of Got Green, and we're here representing the Seattle for a Green New Deal movement.
We have a lineup of great and powerful speakers.
I'm not going to take up a lot of your time.
I'm going to let the speakers speak, and we have a few council members who are here to join us and share some support as well.
Our first speaker will be Matt Rimley.
Can I bring you?
Thank you.
Hello, my English name is Matt Remley.
I'm from Standing Rock, but I live here in Seattle in the Beacon Hill neighborhood, and I'm the co-founder of Mazaska Talks.
In 2016, after a 17-year battle to receive federal assistance, the Biloxi Choctaw Tribe, located on the islands on the coast of Louisiana, received the dubious distinction of becoming this nation's first climate refugees.
On their islands in 1955, they encompassed approximately 22,000 acres of island.
Today, there's only 320 acres left.
In 2003, a government Office of Accountability report stated that 180 Alaskan Native communities are currently experiencing and will continue to experience loss of land and increased flooding due to the impacts of climate change.
The same report stated that 86% of all native communities are at risk due to the impacts of climate change.
Out on our coast, our relatives from the Quinault Nation are currently in the process of relocating their entire village of Tohola due to rising sea levels.
On July 29th, it was dubbed Earth Overshot Day.
This means, or what this does is it looks at the consumption of Earth's resources and the Earth's ability to, or time needed to regenerate those resources.
So on July 29th was dubbed Earth Overshot Day, meaning we are currently consuming Earth's resources at 1.75% faster then the Earth can regenerate those resources.
And the top consumer of those resources is the United States.
Just last week, upstairs in committee, we talked about June being dubbed the hottest month on record.
Well, that's changed as of a couple days ago, when July was named the hottest month on record.
On July 30th, the governments of the Pacific Island nations gathered in Fiji, where they released a statement and declaration declaring that climate change is the single greatest threat to the Pacific Island peoples.
An Intergovernment Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity report released just this past year states that one million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction due to climate change.
And we could go on and on with the various studies and reports out there, but what we are here today to do is to hold our elected officials, stand with our elected officials, and demand that Seattle take bold action on climate change, towards climate justice, and ensure that Seattle makes a strong and bold effort in being climate pollution free by 2030, and lead the nation in the effort to addressing this issue.
Additionally, in addition to the things that colleagues will be sharing today, one thing that we see as vitally important in this legislation will be the implementation of free prior informed consent for Seattle's government to work with local and regional tribes on assessing, addressing, and remedying impacts of climate change.
I'd like to end with a quote from another man from Standing Rock.
His name was Vine Deloria.
He states, and this was written in 1972, it remains for us to learn once again that we are part of nature, not a transcendent species with no responsibilities to the natural world.
As we face the 21st century, the upcoming decades will decide be a testing ground for this proposition.
We may well become one of the few species in our vast universe that has permanently ruined our home.
Now is the time to take bold action and thank you Councilmember O'Brien and the others who are putting forth this Green New Deal legislation and let's become a leader.
Thank you.
Thank you, Matt.
I'm really honored to be here with all of the speakers today.
I think they can explain better why we're here and what we're demanding than I can.
Up next, I would like to welcome Nikita Oliver with Creative Justice.
Good afternoon, community.
I'm Nikita Oliver, N-I-K-K-I-T-A-O-L-I-V-E-R.
I am the co-executive director of Creative Justice, which is an arts-based alternative to incarceration.
We partner with young people who are those that are most impacted by the criminal legal system.
who are also, in our city, those that are most impacted by climate change.
They come from South King County, Rainier Beach, Beacon Hill, South Park, and other neighborhoods that are from frontline affected communities.
I want to thank the organizers who have been making this change happen.
Without them, elected officials would not be able to achieve what they are achieving and will achieve.
because movements are required to turn this ship around.
As Matt Rimley told us, we are facing dire consequences of being a nation that uses far more of the planet's resources than we should.
We're calling this the Green New Deal, and as I think about it, it's actually the original deal, that as humanity being a part of creation, when we take care of the planet, the planet will in turn take care of us, that we cannot drink oil and we cannot eat money, that we are not the inheritors of the earth from our ancestors, but rather we are borrowing this planet from our children and our children's children and our children's children.
So what we do now is acknowledging that the future is actually happening right now.
I want us to think about how climate change is actually very close to home for us.
I want us to go to the South Park neighborhood and the Duwamish Valley, where many new immigrants to our city reside, many people of color, and many low-income communities.
A place where the sea level is rising and on any given day, the water might be at the third or fourth tier.
Where the rate of asthma in children who live in South Park is higher than in any other neighborhood in Seattle, and where the life expectancy is lower by 13 years when compared to children in Laurelhurst, which is only 8 miles away.
Environmental justice is an intersectional movement that pushes us to see how climate change is a race and social justice issue.
How climate change is an issue for all people of every class, no matter how much wealth or property you have.
Eventually, climate change will also get you if we do not turn this ship around.
Climate change is a human rights and civil rights issue.
It is an industry and economy issue.
It is an issue that every single one of us have to care about.
And so, it is beholden upon our city and our state, our county, to be employing every tool that we have to put green technology across the board.
to make sure that we put a moratorium on fossil fuels, as King County already did in January of 2019, and to ensure that as all this development is happening around us, that all of the new buildings in Seattle actually make use of the green technology that's in front of us.
I want us to imagine that it is 2045. And if it's 2045, as it is right now, we will be telling our children and our children's children why they cannot breathe the air, why they cannot drink the water, and why they cannot see the sun.
But if we employ the Green New Deal in 2045, we will instead be telling our children how the movements of our communities and our elected officials made it possible for us to thrive.
Because by ensuring that the planet can thrive, we ensure that we can thrive.
I want us to remember that the future is actually right now.
And the change that we needed yesterday is still very much possible today.
And so I'm looking forward to us showing what the green of the Emerald City really is.
That it is not money, but rather it is us saving our planet, our trees, our water, our air, our green spaces by putting a moratorium on fossil fuels and ensuring that our children and our children's children and our children's children can thrive.
Thank you.
Thank you, Nikita.
No more fossil foolery.
Up next, we have Maria Batiola.
She's here representing El Centro de la Raza.
Thank you.
Thank you everybody.
I really appreciate the chance to talk to you about my neighborhood.
El Centro de la Raza is an organization that's seeking social justice for all based on the Latino culture.
When it was founded 47 years ago, it already talked about stewardship of Mother Earth, and it already talked about the fact that we were all in for a long fight.
Back then, it was nuclear waste, nuclear power, and today, it's about fossil fuels.
We strongly support the Green New Deal.
It's the right thing to do at the right moment here and now.
Looking back 19 years ago, many of us community builders co-founded the Community Coalition on Environmental Justice to address environmental and economic justice for people of color, immigrants and refugees, and people with low incomes.
They are the ones most impacted.
We are called frontline because of the abuse that we take.
With a Green New Deal, we're at a place of hope with the Seattle Council and the mayor because it already has a race and social justice policy and practice.
We know that the Green New Deal policy will benefit us all.
For us in Beacon Hill, it will be a major relief because our environmental health injustice environment consists of 120,000 cars driving up and down I-90 each day, 250,000 cars on I-5 each day, Rainier Avenue and Martin Luther King, and when traffic is stuck, The emanation of carbon is relentless.
Overhead, we have airplanes that fly every 90 seconds on the average.
And if you hear about the air quality and the noise, we are even more afraid now because the Port of Seattle is planning to increase more flights.
It is very sad because the direct health impacts on us is our respiratory system, which is asthma, irritation of the eyes, nose, it is reduced lung capacity, it is ultimately cancer, and it impacts our cardiovascular system.
The noise is a stressor, regardless if you're used to it or not, and what that stressor does is it puts out It puts us on hyper alert, which hardens our arteries for our cardiovascular issues, for heart problems, for strokes.
There is no other bold idea on the table right now.
Let me repeat, there is no other bold idea on the table right now, an idea that is systemic, that I know for my community, it'll stop us from just accepting things, from feeling helpless, so we can help our Mother Earth, and so that we are all part of the solution.
We know what it is to be left behind.
We applaud the Green New Deal's just transition for workers in the fossil industry with a retraining.
It is very hard to be left behind when all you can think is you've fade into the woodwork.
We want this Green New Deal to pass into an ordinance and get implemented right now.
We don't have any other choices, but to preserve ourselves.
Environmental justice isn't just about preserving Mother Nature, but also preserving people, because we ultimately are an endangered species.
Thank you.
Thank you, Maria.
Seattle needs a Green New Deal.
Up next, we have Nancy Huizar from Got Green, climate justice organizer from Got Green.
Hi, everyone.
Thank you for joining us today.
Like James said, my name is Nancy.
I'm the new Climate Justice Organizer with Got Green.
And I was born in Seattle.
You kind of don't really hear that too often anymore.
And I've lived in Beacon Hill for my whole life.
My mom immigrated here from the Philippines.
And when she came here, she didn't have asthma.
She's lived in Beacon Hill the whole time that she has lived in the US.
And she developed that over time.
And when I was driving to see her yesterday, there were no clouds in the sky.
But for some reason, I couldn't see Mount Rainier.
And that's because the wildfire smokes are starting to come up again.
And I think of my mom because she has respiratory issues.
And I think about why I am here today.
I think about all the folks in our communities that have all these health issues that we need to address.
And I think about, if this is our new reality, we cannot continue to fight climate change with soft policies and actions.
We have to be bold.
God Green has been hosting town halls, canvassing at transit stations, and talking to community.
And they're demanding that we address the following, fair green jobs, transit, health care, and child care, renewable energy, housing, healthy food, and all of this for all, for everybody.
And we're also looking to make sure that we have clean and cool air, and last but not least, no more fossil fuels.
We demand no more new major fossil fuel projects built in Seattle.
and that all new buildings are clean, safe, healthy, and fossil fuel free.
It's time to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable.
And like many other cities, buildings are the second largest greenhouse gas emitters behind transportation.
And as Nikita mentioned earlier, King County has already taken action on this and have put an immediate ban on fossil fuel infrastructure.
But Seattle can take this further and implement this Kind of project within our residential areas within our buildings to make it so that we don't have any more new fossil fuels ups fuel fuel What is this word fuel hookups?
There we go fossil fuel hookups.
I'll say that again.
No more fossil fuel hookups It is time for us to stand up to big industries and build a better community for everyone.
The city of Berkeley has already implemented such a policy, so it wouldn't be a strange new idea for all of us to try to work on.
So I hope that with today's new Green Deal resolution, we can all support this idea and we hope to hear from our council members on how they support this as well.
Thank you, Nancy.
I want to take a second and really thank everybody who's come forward and spoke and so eloquently made the points clearly why we need a Seattle Green New Deal.
I want to add that I'm excited.
I feel honored to fight alongside of these people and many more.
I want to make the point that the Seattle Green New Deal is led by community.
It's from community.
It's by community.
We're shaping it.
We're going to make sure it's what it needs to be.
But we're going to work closely with some of our elected officials to pass the urgent policy that's needed in these times so that we can do the work.
We can change the world.
We have something to pass on to our children and our children's children and on and on.
So I'm also very proud or I'm happy to be here today and to invite our next two speakers up.
Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda is going to come forward and say a few words.
Well good afternoon.
First I want to thank the organizers who brought us all here together.
A huge shout out to Got Green and 350 Seattle.
And along with them, the 200 organizations that have been working on the front lines to bring this proposal forward, community organizations, community leaders, working with labor unions.
The Laborers 242 are here.
I want to give them a shout out.
I want to give a shout out to All of the groups that have come together and said enough is enough, there is no more time, our house is on fire, and we demand action now.
I want to thank the people who have helped to make today possible.
We really thank Councilmember O'Brien, who has been working to try to lead this effort.
And in many ways, we wouldn't be here today without his past work that has led us to this moment.
So thank you for helping to lift up the voice and the plan in front of us.
This legislation affirms a commitment to addressing the climate crisis and transitioning to a fairer, more just economy for frontline workers and fence line communities.
Those who are often closest to the problem have the solutions to the problem.
When we talk about crises of unsafe working conditions, those who know how to address that crisis are the frontline workers themselves.
In this case, it's the fence line communities, it's the frontline workers who have done the least to create climate change, who are the most affected by it, and we are taking their lead when it comes to the Green New Deal.
We are also excited to be standing in solidarity with this effort to make sure that Seattle does its part.
We, as a city, need to be creating green, energy-efficient buildings.
We need to be creating healthy work environments for the workers, for our communities, for our families at large in this city.
We have an obligation, a responsibility, and an option to be investing in energy-efficient buildings.
bringing forward our commitment to lifting up workers, investing in union apprenticeship opportunities, creating new good living wage jobs in a green economy.
We can do both of these things hand in hand and that's what this legislation does.
I'm excited about this legislation because it recognizes that workers must be prioritized, they must receive training, retraining, and access to good jobs with good union benefits and living wages, and that we can do so, and while we do so, it strengthens the resilience of not just the workers, but families and the environment to protect both good jobs and life on this planet.
This bill sets us up for action.
This bill invests in greater efficiency programs.
This bill invests in transportation infrastructure to enable our communities to access their jobs, access schools, access grocery stores, and not just unhealthy food in corner markets, but investing in locally produced food so that our communities can be sustainable.
And it invests in this infrastructure to make sure that we don't have to get into our cars.
This bill envisions ramping up investments in affordable housing and transit and updating our outdated, redline-based housing zoning policies to get us away from past discrimination practices and to actually create an inclusive Seattle.
When we think about it, Seattle is the third largest mega-commuter city in the entire country.
That means workers are commuting two hours into work each way.
That is unacceptable.
It's bad for the health of our planet, it's bad for the health of our families, and it's bad for the health of those workers.
And together, by marrying these items, which Councilmember O'Brien has listed out, which is a long bulleted list of items, together, These policies create the foundation for healthy, resilient communities.
I'm very excited to be supporting our council member, to be supporting labor, to be supporting communities of color, community organizations at large, as we invest in renewable energy and help to create jobs and strong labor protections that create a more just and centered green economy that we can all be proud of.
Time is up.
Climate crisis is now.
Our house is on fire.
This bill sets us up for action now.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much Councilmember Mosqueda.
Next up we're going to have council member O'Brien.
I believe after that we'll have time for a few questions and then we'll be inviting everybody to join us up in the subcommittee council meeting where there will be some resolutions introduced that are related to the Green New Deal.
Council member O'Brien, thanks again for all of your work that allowed us to come together.
Thank you, James.
Thank you, Got Green.
Thanks for all the amazing community folks for all the work you've done.
I'm really proud to have had the last ten years to work with you all.
I appreciate the shout out from my colleague Council Member Mosqueda, who I'm so blessed to get to work with.
And at the same time, I have to apologize because if we had taken the climate crisis seriously ten years ago, when I started on the City Council, we wouldn't be in such a shape as we're in today.
If we had taken this seriously 20 years ago when the environmental community was demanding action, if we had taken this action seriously 40 plus years ago when the oil companies knew exactly what was going to happen but hid that evidence, we wouldn't be here today.
And yet the reality is here we stand.
We have 10 years to radically transform our city, to radically transform our economy, to eliminate fossil fuel use if we want to prevent the asthma that's hurting households, the relocation of tribal communities that are being affected by sea level rise, the reality of whether we get to go outside in the summer or not because of forest fires, the hurricanes, the weather incidents.
All those things are dependent upon what we do in the next decade.
And while looking at the past number of decades, it might be easy to say we don't have a chance, I actually feel optimistic.
Because the exact communities we need to be leading this charge are here today demanding that we lead this charge.
And that's what it's going to take to make this effort work when previous efforts have fallen short.
I'm excited to work on the Green New Deal.
We have a resolution in committee in a few moments that has been largely drafted by the community members standing behind me.
I'm thrilled to support that.
We know that a resolution alone is not going to solve the crisis, but if we can hold ourselves accountable, if you can hold these elected officials and future elected officials accountable to what's in that resolution and demand that we take the actual actions, I believe that Seattle can lead and this country and this planet can solve this crisis we're in.
and not just solve a climate crisis, which is a huge thing to solve, but solve a climate crisis and an economic crisis that is oppressing so many people in our communities to benefit a handful of wealthy folks.
If we can solve those simultaneously by centering the voices of the people behind me and thousands of people around our community who aren't here today, who, as others have said, are most impacted by the climate crisis, are most impacted by the economic crisis, and have the least responsibility for those crises that are upon us today.
If we can do that, imagine what an amazing community, what an amazing planet we will live on.
And I believe that is possible.
Now, what's that take?
Well, there's a long list of things that we talk about, and I want to touch on just one.
Eliminating fossil fuel use in our city in the next decade.
It's hard for me to imagine that I'm actually standing here saying that, that that is what we need to do, but it is actually what needs to happen if we're going to make a climate-friendly planet a reality.
That means that we can no longer rely on fossil fuels for our transportation system.
It has to be electric.
Of course, it also means people need to have good options.
They need to be able to walk and bike and take reliable electric transit where they go.
They can't probably live two hours from where they work.
They need to have housing nearby.
It means people need to heat their homes with something other than fossil fuels.
And I know that today, People, including some of the people standing behind me, rely on the fossil fuel industry for their job and to keep their family whole.
They rely on the fossil fuel industry so that they can actually get to work and take their kid to school.
They rely on the fossil fuel industry to make sure they stay warm in the winters and cool in the summers.
We have 10 years to eliminate that and do it in a way that protects the workers and protects the most vulnerable in our community so they actually have a path out of this where they're not making trade-offs, but it's actually a win-win scenario.
And that means we need to move with unprecedented urgency.
And at the same time, take enough time to make sure we get it right and don't do more damage than good.
And that is a real tension that I am struggling with today and that we collectively will struggle with over the next decade if we ask to commit to this.
But I believe by centering the voices of the leaders that are here today, and lifting their ideas forward and giving them a platform to deliver solutions that both solve the climate crisis, to provide new economic opportunities, and do it in a way that justly transitions us from a fossil fuel dependent economy into a clean economy.
We will be so much stronger on so many levels.
And I know we have the leadership in our community to make that happen.
So thank you all for your leadership.
All right, I was thinking now, what are going to be the logistics for how we do these questions?
That's what I was thinking as I listened.
I'm going to ask for people in the audience to ask questions, and then we'll ask any of the speakers to step forward and respond.
Are there any questions?
Would people like to ask questions?
Please.
How are the salmon included?
Would anybody like to speak about how the salmon are included in the Seattle Green New Deal?
So one of the greatest threats to our salmon today is ocean acidification and the rising temperatures out there.
We also know that dams, particularly dams on the Snake River, which are affecting certain salmon runs that have a direct impact on the health of our orca population, are critically important.
And asking that question highlights one of the tensions that we deal with.
Those dams provide carbon-free energy in a very reliable fashion, not as much as they used to.
And they also are an impediment to the health of the very salmon that we need to preserve our culture, to preserve the orca, to preserve the way of life in the Northwest.
So, as we move forward, we have to ensure that we're addressing all aspects of our community, not just the carbon reality, but how do habitat and wildlife survive, and how do our cultures, especially those cultures of indigenous people, where the salmon are not just a way of life, but actually family members.
We have to make sure that we do all that at once.
I don't have a specific answer on all the things we can do, but I can give you a long list of things that I know will be beneficial.
Council Member, how will this all be paid for?
I just want to add one additional thing to the previous question.
When I mentioned in my presentation about one of the aspects of this Green New Deal is the implementation of what's called free prior and informed consent.
Free prior and informed consent is a concept and policy that came out of actually a delegation of indigenous communities who met in Standing Rock back in the 70s.
And what it looks at is asserting indigenous title to lands and resources and working with other communities and other governments and moving forward on various projects, which could include absolutely salmon habitat restorations.
So that's one of the things we're referencing when we talk about free prior and informed consent.
Thank you.
Sorry.
Thank you, appreciate that question, appreciated the answers.
I think we have time for maybe one, maybe one, see if we can get two depending on how long the answer goes.
Then we have a community choir that's going to share a song they created with us that talks about why we need a Seattle Green New Deal.
Hopefully we can all transition together up to the committee meeting.
I think we got another question coming up.
I was hoping we could talk about the revenue sources.
I think the original June letter said something that would cost like $2.4 billion.
Can we just talk about the revenue sources, how we plan to pay for all of this?
All right.
All right.
Would anybody like to speak to revenue sources?
All right.
Please.
Thank you.
I really am going to defer to you because you're in government, but I'll tell you.
because of my age i know that when we go back to the great depression we didn't have any money either but we knew that we had to do something and government had to create jobs and had to create a sense of livelihood housing some kind of income security for people and we did it and we do it as most americans do we do it what our government does which is either to create money by having bonds out there or borrow money.
But my sense is that because this is a rejuvenating economy, that investment, that return on that investment will be manifold.
Thank you, Maria.
I agree with that and I'll add a little to that.
The first thing to remember is the cost of not addressing this crisis is astoundingly high.
You know, major electric utility in California declares bankruptcy because forest fires.
When we add up the cumulative impacts that we will be facing, it's probably trillions of dollars in this region alone.
So it's a modest investment to make.
And yet the question is still very real because until we can identify sources, we can't do some of these actions.
So, some of these actions are going to be regulatory in nature.
We heard Nancy talk about no new gas hookups.
So, we can simply say, going forward, we're not going to make the problem worse.
And what does that mean?
Well, it means when people build new buildings, they would be using electric heat.
In the city of Seattle, our electricity grid is already 100% carbon pollution free.
Maybe the costs are slightly different, so maybe new development would bear some of those costs, although the technologies are evolving, and I don't know that there will be significant, if any, real cost to making those transitions.
What about people that ultimately need to get off of fossil fuels?
Right now, there's a cost differential between gasoline-powered automobile and electric vehicles, but we've seen those costs starting to converge, and we believe by many estimates that we'll start to see a time in the near future where electric vehicles are the cheapest vehicles to buy.
And people will start making those decisions if we make it easy for them to do.
And we know there are individuals that currently heat their home with gas.
And to change out a gas furnace to an electric furnace will require an investment.
Some individuals in our community will be able to pay for that investment themselves, and others will need support in doing that.
So we will need to raise new revenues to make that happen.
Similarly, we know there are workers who are currently in the fossil fuel industry, good people making good wages supporting their family.
Unfortunately, that industry can't continue to operate and us all be healthy.
So we may have to pay for job retraining and other support for those workers that need to transition.
Again, there's going to be a lot of new jobs that are created in all this work too, but it won't just happen seamlessly if people transition.
The types of revenue we're going to raise, if you notice, we don't have specifics in this legislation.
This is an area where I'm relying heavily on community members behind me for their leadership.
Because another tax that is regressive, that asks the people that are most impacted by climate change to dig into their pockets and wallets, and cough up tax revenues, disproportionate to other people, especially in a crisis that they didn't create, is not fair.
And so we need to find tax revenues, which is hard in this city and in this state, that are actually fair, and that might take some time.
And so we're gonna work on that urgently, but also try to figure out how we can do that right.
Thank you.
All right, thank you again, everybody.
I really appreciate people coming together today.
What we're talking about is important.
The work we're doing is going to continue.
This is a movement.
We're not going to stop until we see the change, till we make the change that we need to have a tomorrow for all of our families and our families' families.
I want to invite up now members of the Seattle Green New Deal community chorus to share a song they made and invite people to follow to follow us up the stairs to council chambers to take part in the introducing of a resolution supporting our work.
Thank you.
All right, y'all, so this is a call and response.
So we're gonna sing lines, and then y'all are gonna respond with a green new deal, a green new deal.
Can we practice that real quick?
A green new deal, a green new deal.
A green new deal, a green new deal.
All right, great.
Great.
Hey Seattle, it's time to heal.
Hey Seattle, it's time to heal.
Play the future that they steal.
A green new deal, a green new deal.
A green new deal, a green new deal.
Stop the payaways, that's real.
Stop the payaways, that's real.