By Tyler Aprati
The soft crunch of orange leaves and crisp fall air were potent as we walked silently through Walden Woods on our way to the pond. The group, around 30 strong, ranged from curious citizens eager to hear about the proposed project to intrepid advocates ready to learn more. How would this feel with the sound of private jets flying overhead? Walden Pond was recently named one of America’s top endangered historical sites, and this is the direct result of the proposed private jet hangar expansion at Hanscom Field Airport. The brief overview is that the expansion would have devastatingly high carbon emissions and broad environmental impact, despite having low societal benefit (read more about the impacts of the proposal).
As we reached Walden Pond, the water was crystal clear, and a few locals were donning wetsuits to make the impressive swim around the pond. Now out from under the tree cover, the clear blue skies stretched across the horizon.
“Thank God, men cannot as yet fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth!” - Thoreau’s Journal, 1853
I wonder what Thoreau would think of this now. Commercial air travel may be inevitable, but we must do our part to make it as responsible as possible. As the most polluting form of travel per capita, we cannot allow the expansion of private luxury jets to expand the inequality of climate change impacts.
Please sign the petition if you haven’t already done so to let the Healey administration know that this expansion is not the right direction for Massachusetts. If you want to learn more about what else you can do, read more about the campaign here. Interested in adding your organization to our growing coalition? Email info@stopprivatejetexpansion.org.
As a joint event between the Sierra Club, the Walden Woods Project, and the Stop Private Jet Expansion campaign, this outing shows that through collective engagement and collaboration, we can bring about real change! A special thanks to The Walden Woods Project for hosting us, and thank you to Sarah and Kathi for teaching us about the history of Walden pond and Thoreau, and thanks to Lilly for sharing a fantastic overview of the SPJE campaign!
We’d love to see more advocacy and environmental education outings happen across the state! If you are interested in learning more about becoming an outings leader, check out the information here and email celeste.venolia@sierraclub.org with questions. There will be a new leaders training on February 1st in Boston; check out the details here.