Letters

The media newsroom has failed, or perhaps has been unwilling, to connect the dots between the urgent need to reduce the burning of fossil fuels and the egregious number of nonessential carbon-dumping flights enabled by KHTO, East Hampton Airport.

Pre-pandemic, 30,000 annual flights crop-dusted our area with carbon emissions. Even though there were fewer flights during the early months of the pandemic, the last four months of 2020 saw jaw-dropping double- and triple-digit increases in flights, primarily jets. In January 2021, KHTO jet operations increased 88 percent over pre-pandemic 2020. (The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that an average 9.57 kg of carbon dioxide is burned per gallon of jet fuel. Estimate based on fuel burned by all jet types.)

We hope the media’s attention will now focus on East Hampton’s unanimous approval of a Climate Emergency Declaration, committing the Town Board to a guiding principle focusing on climate mitigation and elimination of greenhouse gas emissions.

The declaration states that the town will henceforth follow the guiding principle in its policy, purchasing and planning, and zoning decisions, as well as in other aspects of town business. The declaration acknowledges that climate change is due primarily to the burning of fossil fuels.

If East Hampton Town is truly committed to immediate reduction of fossil fuel use, one action that would bring immediate results would be ending the sale of approximately 900,000 gallons of jet and leaded fuel sold annually at the pollution-enabling East Hampton Airport.

Another climate winner would be ending threats to safety, health and the environment by transforming the property for alternative environmentally friendly uses.

Patricia Currie

Noyac

Ms. Currie is a co-founder of the organization Say NO to KHTO — Ed.