From: Jordan Van Voast
To: Commission-Public-Records
Subject: [EXTERNAL] PUBLIC COMMENT for April 28, 2020
Date: Monday, April 27, 2020 7:32:56 PM
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Good afternoon and thank you Commissioners for
hearing my comment. I’d like to address your equity
statements in the attachments for this meeting,
specifically as it relates to the Port’s cruise business, but
first, a critical update from our Mother Earth: Earth Day
has passed and our future has never been more
uncertain. Last week, the National Oceanographic and
Atmospheric Administration predicted that 2020 will be
the warmest year ever. The Southwest is already seeing
triple digit temperatures and it’s still only April. The
oceans are at record high temperatures, even without El
Niño and the hurricane and wildfire seasons are right
around the corner.
COVID-19 has given us an opportunity to reassess our
priorities. We’ve seen lately that the Earth can heal itself
from the burning of fossil fuels if we give it a chance
instead of continuing to expand non-essential industries
like cruise. We need to radically reduce greenhouse gas
emissions. Shelving the T46 project is a step in the right
direction, but if one looks beyond short term economic
market speculation and adopts a progressive climate
based lens, a wise response would see you cancel the
T46 cruise expansion project now. I note in your
Attachment 7B, “Equity in Port of Seattle COVID-19
Response”, some thoughtful words:
“The Port commits to values of equity, justice and
inclusion in the COVID-19 crisis response, from
immediate response to longer-term recovery. In
developing recovery plans, the Port will ensure that
principles of equity, justice, inclusion, transparency, and
accountability are embraced. The Port will engage
communities who are most impacted to understand their
needs. The Port shall consider its fiscal, legal and equity
responsibilities in all decisions made when applying
these principles. These efforts shall also follow the Port’s
principles of supporting regional economic vitality,
environmental stewardship, equity and inclusion."
and these quotes from an NAACP equity manual:
Recognizing these inequities, crisis response should
“...account for the needs of all people. Emergency
response and relief practices must benefit everyone
while also accounting for the specific needs of vulnerable
populations.”
“The response cannot just band-aid the immediate
damage or put things back to the way they were
before…efforts must advance a long term vision for our
communities that puts justice at the core.
I am inspired by reading these statements, but how will
you implement them? If one adopts the widest possible
equity lens which includes the global impacts of carbon
emissions, air pollution, sea level rising, drought, famine
and other weather related disturbances, labor abuses in
the cruise industry, harm to marine life including the
southern resident orcas on the verge of extinction, there
is no justifiable logic for the Port of Seattle to consider
expanding its cruise business. A recovery plan that truly
considers the principles of equity – not just for human
society, but for all life on the planet - would figure out
how to shrink cruise, and not put a band aid on it while
waiting for the cruise business to recover. Equity asks of
us that we look holistically at all living beings and
habitats affected by our decisions and make a just
transition that not only takes care of workers, but also
takes care of our shared world. Equity requires that we
acknowledge that the climate emergency and the
COVID-19 pandemic have a tragic similarity in that the
impacts of these crises are disproportionately felt by
marginalized frontline communities.
We need to ask ourselves - what significance is meeting
the Port’s emissions targets 10 years early when scope 3
emissions are excluded from those targets? Scope 3
encompasses emissions that occur after a cruise ship
leaves port, or after a plane takes off and dwarfs those of
heating buildings and operating equipment at terminals,
by some estimates at least a hundredfold. Who is
accounting for Scope 3 at present? Only the planet it
seems, and the billions of lives hanging in the balance.
This is not equity, and it won’t halt the climate
emergency.
Now is a time to build a more peaceful and
compassionate world that protects nature and people. As
the fossil fuel divestment movement has proven, it
makes good financial sense to engage in a just transition
away from industries like cruise which create widespread
harm with no lasting benefit. Not a single cruise ship is
operating at the time of this writing and life goes on.
People are in their gardens, or walking and biking on
closed streets, breathing cleaner air, smiling at people
they would normally never see from inside a car or office
building. There are abundant positive alternatives when
we think beyond putting things back the way they were
before.
The human species is incredibly adaptive. We’ve been
through ice ages, plagues, world wars, 9-11, and now
COVID. But the climate emergency is different and
demands that we make an unprecedented effort of global
cooperation if future generations are to inherit a livable
world. We simply cannot afford expanding such a
polluting industry as cruise. We all want to get back to
normal, except normal was already a crisis.
Please cancel the T46 project. Go deeper with your
equity analysis and use your mandate to champion the
protection of our world rather than the promotion of
unnecessary travel which is destroying it. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Jordan Van Voast, L.Ac.
2109 31
st
Ave S.
Seattle, WA 98144
(206) 860-5009
