Nine-year old Nora Schindler has a message for Pennsylvania’s legislators. “I want the lawmakers to do a better job to keep us and the animals safe,” said Nora, as she and more than 20 other children dressed as The Lorax rallied in the Capitol rotunda in Harrisburg yesterday. How does a politician say no to that? All too easily in Pennsylvania, it turns out, where Nora is already a seasoned activist who fought the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline as a member of Lancaster Against Pipelines. The pipeline got built with Harrisburg’s blessing despite massive public opposition. It’s a story that has been repeated so frequently that the Better Path Coalition decided it was time to remind state elected officials that preserving a healthy environment isn’t just something they should be doing to be responsive to constituents’ needs; it’s a constitutional obligation.
The rally was organized by the coalition as part of its campaign to call on the state’s elected officials to uphold the amendment that puts the right to a healthy environment on par with due process, free speech, and other fundamental rights. Largely ignored for most of its 48 years, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court breathed new life into the amendment in 2013 with its ruling that parts of the state’s revised Oil and Gas Act were unconstitutional on the basis of Article I, Section 27. The other two branches, as well as state regulators, continue to ignore it, however.
Nora was followed by 12-year old Radnor Middle School student and environmental advocate Wim van Rossum, Serena Hertzog and Ashton Clatterbuck, both leaders in the Sunrise Movement in Pennsylvania, Melanie Attieh and Dan Stevens, both students who lead climate action and sustainability efforts at Northampton Community College, the largest community college in the country to commit a 100% green energy plan, and Anneke Walsh, a Delaware County native who is studying political science at Ithaca College and, at 22, is a longtime environmental advocate.
Governor Tom Wolf eventually met and posed with the children.
After the rally, the children led their parents and supporters to Governor Wolf’s office where they planned to deliver more than 9,000 petition signatures to him before making deliveries to the state’s 250 legislators. Staff members tried to tell them that the governor wasn’t available for even a few minutes to see them, but some members of the group who’d trailed the others ran into Wolf on their way. One who followed him up the stairs saw him go into his office from a side entrance.
Aidan Graber, one of the Loraxes, said, “I think he might not want to listen, and that’s not something we want.”
Representative Chris Rabb donned a Lorax hat to pose with the children.
Within minutes, a different staffer arrived to escort the children into the governor’s office. Wolf took the petition from them, shook the hand of each child, and posed for photos.
Some legislators posed with the children. Representative Chris Rabb, (D-200), donned a Lorax hat first.
Some were less enthusiastic. It is, after all, Pennsylvania, the state that is looking for ways to expand the natural gas and petrochemical (plastics, as in single-use plastics) industries in the state while much of the rest of the world is making plans to transition to renewables and ditching plastic straws. Many parents referred to the experience as a valuable civics lesson for their kids, or as so many rally speakers called them, future voters.
