Seattle climate activists are protesting an upcoming U.S. Navy Blue Angels airshow, claiming the jets pollute the environment, while a local woman filed a lawsuit on Monday claiming the military jets traumatized her ailing cat.
The Blue Angels, the elite military aviation stunt team consisting of 140 active-duty Sailors and Marines, aims to “showcase the excitement, precision, and power of naval aviation” with their performances, now in their 79th year, the Blue Angels website says. The squadron has been performing at Seattle’s Seafair festival since 1972.
The Airshow Climate Action Coalition put up a billboard in Seattle this week declaring, “Say No to Blue Angels.” The coalition, made up of members from local climate groups as well as the radical global climate group, Extinction Rebellion, is planning to march and hold a rally on August 2 in protest of the Blue Angels airshow that weekend.
The billboard depicts people with hands over their ears and others raising their fists in protest of the jets, which they wrote cause “war trauma” and pollution. At the billboard’s unveiling on Tuesday, protesters held signs reading “Demilitarize Seafair” and “No military airshows.”
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The climate activists are calling for military fighter jets to be excluded from participating in the annual event and demanding military airshows be scrutinized for their “harmful waste of resources, pollution and carbon emissions.”
Aedan McCall, who designed the billboard, lived on Mercer Island for over 10 years before leaving because of the effects from the show.
“The sheer amount of carbon emissions the Blue Angels create – 670 tons in one weekend – is immense and wasteful on top of being a big display of U.S. militarism, McCall told The Seattle Times.
Community organizer Kimberly Larson crafted a petition calling for the end of the Blue Angels show, which has garnered over 5,000 signatures.
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The Blue Angels are also facing criticism from a Seattle woman who blames the noisy airshow for leading to the death of her sickly, elderly cat.
Lauren Ann Lombardi filed a lawsuit against Blue Angels officers in federal court on Monday, claiming her “beloved family member was terrorized” by the Blue Angels’ “state-sanctioned acoustic torture.”
The lawsuit claims the noise of the low-flying F/A-18 fighter jets spurred panic attacks in the cat, who was in critical condition due to her worsening congestive heart disease, and ultimately led to her euthanasia in August 2024.
Lombardi accused the Blue Angels of unconstitutionally blocking her profanity-laced comments criticizing the U.S. Navy squadron on its Instagram page. She is seeking a court order to unblock her account and prohibit the Blue Angels from blocking any other accounts “on the basis of viewpoint.”
The Blue Angels did not return Fox News Digital’s request for comment.