Editor’s note: This commentary is by Justin Lindholm, a member of Vermonters for a Clean Environment, and a former member of the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Board, the Chittenden Emergency Planning Committee and the Mendon Planning Commission.
[H]ow dare people attack Annette Smith, Burlington Free Press Vermonter of the Year, for being appointed as co-chair of the Technical Advisory Group of the governor’s newly created Climate Action Commission!
I challenge any one of these attackers of Annette who are claiming she is an obstructionist of effective responses to climate change to reveal their own personal carbon footprint. These people most likely have higher personal carbon footprints than Annette. She lives a very austere life, off-grid in a very small wood-heated house, nourished and sustained by her own farm animals and crops, and she carefully plans before she drives her car so as not to use it unnecessarily.
In 2003, David Blittersdorf awarded her a prize at a gathering of Vermont’s environmental group leaders for having the lowest carbon footprint of anyone in the room. Since then, her carbon footprint has only gotten lower.
To reach the goal of 90 percent renewables by 2050, we all have to live at least as frugally energy-wise as Annette Smith. I attended and filmed a speech in Middlebury by David Blittersdorf where he said that as well as needing 6,000 MW of solar, we will need to blast Vermont ridgelines for 3,000 MW of wind turbines, which equals 200 linear miles of end-to-end 500 foot turbines. He said we all must live in very small apartment-size domiciles and give up all jet plane travel and all car travel including fully electric cars, which take a lot of energy to build, let alone run.
Economist Art Woolf wrote basically the same thing in a Burlington Free Press article.
Those who criticize Annette Smith for being a global warming obstructionist should live the energy conserving life she lives. They are all talk and little walk. Having an electric car and LED bulbs means nothing in the grand scheme of things in this world if the rest of your lifestyle is not seriously energy frugal.
Some critics seem more interested in propping up the renewables industrial complex where large amounts of money in the renewables industry create political power which creates more money for the industry and so forth in a vicious cycle.
Critics say Annette is against renewables, when she in fact lives almost entirely with renewables. What she is against is irresponsible, uncompassionate renewable siting. Annette has so much compassion for the planet that she suffers to get her own carbon footprint as low as possible, which should serve as an example for others. The promoters of the huge industry try to make the rare ecology of the mountains and the people living peacefully among them suffer while these promoters try to gain profits on the backs of these people and these mountains.
Annette is too compassionate to let this happen without a fight.
Annette and the nonprofit Vermonters for a Clean Environment have been fighting compassionately for Vermont and Vermonters since 1999 when she took on a poorly planned major gas power plant and pipeline project. She also took on the huge Swiss company Omya when they wanted to destroy the ecology in a beautiful Vermont valley by creating a large quarry. Omya later told Annette that she made them a better company.
Annette has been instrumental in creating safe farming practices and safer water. She was a leader in stopping the Ira wind project where over 60 huge wind turbines were going to seriously harm the ecology and the people in several towns in Rutland County. This beautiful area has now been preserved forever for the state of Vermont.
In all these fights, Annette became involved after people came to her in hopeless fear looking for help. She uses her expertise as a researcher to understand the technical aspects of the subject matter. Through such research she learns things like what a level spreader is, and what a failed level spreader it. Few people know things like that.
No, Annette is not anti-renewables. She has fought a handful of the thousands of solar sites applied for in Vermont. Since we only have so much grid capacity, why allow badly sited renewables?
Vermonters for a Clean Environment should actually be called Vermonters for Compassionate Environmentalism. We need more people like Annette and fewer people who try to trump her with their words.
We have to all pull together to save our planet.
