‘Not about planting trees’: What Earth Day meant to students, residents who rallied outside Old Main
They held up banners demanding a Green New Deal. They sang and chanted. They listened to speakers trade stories about greed and global climate change.
And, during Thursday’s Earth Day, they hoped their voices outside Old Main might echo through Penn State, State College and beyond.
More than 70 students and community members gathered on campus Thursday afternoon to raise awareness of climate change while demanding the town and gown unite to hasten their transition from fossil fuels, incorporate sustainability education in high school and college classes — and for Penn State to stop investing a small part of its endowment in fossil fuel-related companies.
“The core of Earth Day is not about planting trees and saving the polar bears,” said Penn State sophomore Abbie La Porta, co-leader of one of three groups who organized the event. “It’s about humanity. It’s about the living, breathing person standing next to you.”
State College students, Penn State students and borough officials/candidates took turns speaking during the event, each emphasizing in their own way that those who attended can make an impact: Get involved in local government, hold Penn State accountable, and stop wishing for a better tomorrow and start taking action.
Teenager Miranda Julia Marks, a sophomore at State College’s Delta Program High School, took that advice to heart. She led the crowd — which numbered nearly 100 at its height — to simultaneously call the office of U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey right then and there.
Julia Marks put her phone on speaker over the PA system, leaving a message for the senator and pleading for him to support the “For the People Act of 2021,” which in part seeks to take money out of politics — and, by extension, curb Big Oil’s influence. Dozens of fellow protesters followed her lead, including Borough Council President Jesse Barlow.
Most left messages. One student shouted, waving her phone, “I got a real person!”
Another State College student, senior Maddie King, echoed much of Julia Marks’ sentiment. Citing a report from the Climate Accountability Institute, she repeated — several times, for effect — that the top 100 corporations are responsible for 71% of global emissions. ExxonMobil, Shell and BP are among the worst offenders, per the report.
“Our politicians are protecting their corporate donors while they harm our environment and pollute our communities,” she said, her voice rising while noting State College experienced its hottest summer on record last year.
Signs and banners peppered the landscape. Behind the speakers, two students held an oversized yellow banner at both ends that read, “No compromises, no excuses.” Behind that, an even larger banner depicted a melting earth on fire with the tagline, “For the future that we wait.” Another sign called out U.S. Rep. Fred Keller, R-Kreamer, who has previously opposed climate-related legislation, with the same message as the yellow banner.
Barlow, who carried a “Make American Green Again” poster, took the mic near the end of the event and renewed his calls for Keller to resign, to the applause of the crowd.
“He is not representing our interests,” Barlow said. “His vision of the future is a vision where we go to war for oil, where we have pipelines through Native American land for oil, where it is illegal for you to protest a pipeline that’s going across your own property, where it is going to be illegal for you to protest pipelines.
“That’s the future that he envisions. And that is not a future I want to live in, and that is not a future that I see for you.”
Although the event centered on Earth Day, speakers often took time to acknowledge the fight for racial justice. There was a moment of silence Thursday, a call to participate in a 4 p.m. Friday march from Beaver Stadium to Old Main and even a sign that read, “Climate justice is racial justice.”
Siddhi Deshpande, a Penn State junior, emphasized the two were intertwined. When waste-processing facilities and fossil fuel facilities look to open new locations, they’re not setting up in rich, white neighborhoods, she said. They’re often building near poorer neighborhoods, which commonly have more minorities due to a history of redlining and racism.
“To me, the core of why I do this is it’s Black and brown people that are feeling the worst effects of climate change,” added Deshpande, whose parents immigrated from India.
Dozens of supporters lingered after the event co-hosted by Sunrise Movement, PSU Climate Action and Eco Action. Deshpande, who led the crowd in singing “Which side are you on?”, helped close out the event by summing up the 75-minute rally.
“We’re not alone,” she said. “The movement we’re building right now is in full swing. And right now we need each and every one of you here to speak up and let your institutions know that you care.”
This story was originally published April 22, 2021 at 5:30 PM.
