Fred Wolfe
– Artist’s Website –
Above photo: Lockdown on September 25, 2014. From Rising Tide Vermont.
Pipeline Resisters Refuse to be Intimidated, Going to Trial
Burlington, VT – Fred Wolfe, the former Santa of Strafford, VT, is awaiting a jury trial with the surviving members of The Williston Six in Chittenden County in the next few weeks. In September 2015, Wolfe and five other grandparent activists were arrested on trespassing charges by Williston Police, while blocking the pipeline construction staging site of Vermont Gas Systems on Route 2. Now, the State of Vermont is seeking jail time for the five activists. (One of the defendants, Nina Swaim, died of a stroke on October 15th, shortly after the September action.) The group says the project, and all fossil fuels, threaten the future of their grandchildren and future generations.
“Oil, gas, and coal that is in the ground must stay in the ground. This is what climate scientists are saying if we want to avoid catastrophic global warming,” said Fred Wolfe, a great-grandfather, and Korean War veteran. “Climate change is real, it is here now and we must act before it is too late.”
A tongue-in-cheek Wolfe added “Climate change is also a threat to his North Pole workshop and the future of the children he has grown so fond of throughout his career as Santa.
The group hopes to convince jurors and the public that their action was necessary to stop a much greater crime which threatens global food supplies, coastal cities and communities across the world.