From:            sarah shifley
To:                Commission-Public-Records
Subject:           [EXTERNAL] Comment for 2/23/21 Port of Seattle Commissioner Meeting
Date:              Tuesday, February 23, 2021 7:06:38 AM

WARNING: External email. Links or attachments may be unsafe.
Dear Port of Seattle Staff,
Please confirm receipt of this email and summarize my comment as follows:
You tout a commitment to equity. However, even a cursory consideration of who benefits and
who is burdened by aviation activity reveals that equity actually demands a swift and
substantial decrease in aviation activity. Airport-impacted communities -- who do not drive
demand for aviation -- bear the burden of aviation pollution, which causes wide-ranging
adverse health and learning impacts. Moreover, aviation activity is driving our region's
contribution to the climate crisis, a crisis that hits vulnerable frontline communities hardest.
______

Dear Port of Seattle Commissioners,
I am writing to provide a comment on your Economic Recovery Study Session and urge you
to think a little harder about equity and aviation activity. Equity, in fact, demands a swift
and dramatic decrease in aviation activity.
If you truly cared about equity, you would not plan for a "recovery" in aviation, since there is
nothing equitable about who flies and who pays the environmental consequences, both locally
and globally. The top 1% of the world population who fly most is responsible for 50% of all
aviation emissions. Meanwhile, Sea-Tac impacted communities have lower household
incomes, lower educational levels, poorer school performance, higher rates of unemployment,
and are significantly more diverse than the region as a whole. As you well know, these
communities suffer a broad array of adverse health and learning consequences from aviation
air and noise pollution, and do not drive demand for flights.
Your discussion of recovery is also short-sighted, ignoring the disastrous impacts of aviation
emissions on our climate and the long-term costs those impacts will have. Now is not the time
for a business-as-usual approach -- it is the time to chart a path toward swift and dramatic
decreases in aviation emissions.
Thank you,
Sarah Shifley