Bower-Bjornson and her husband, David, are raising three sons and a daughter in the Scenery Hill section of North Bethlehem Township. The kids, she said, have been afflicted with illnesses – rashes, nosebleeds, swelling of limbs – that she has not been able to link directly to the natural gas industry.
But she suspects emissions to be the culprit, in a county where hydraulic fracturing – fracking – is among the most commonplace in the state.
She was one of four featured speakers for “Stories of a Just Transition Pittsburgh.” It was the second of three discussions about the region, organized by Human Impacts Institute, an environmental and social justice nonprofit based in Brooklyn.
A longtime dance instructor, Bower-Bjornson doesn’t dance around her concerns about fracking, well sites, abandoned wells, pipelines and related concerns.
So she reaches out to the public, working as a Southwestern Pennsylvania field organizer for Clean Air Council, a Philadelphia-based organization for which she leads Frackland Tours. Bower-Bjornson started the tours in 2017 as in-person events, open to the public. They are near – but not on – properties with well sites, compressor stations and other natural gas activities.
Elected officials and media members have occasionally joined the tours, which have been virtual and in-person – with COVID-19 protocols – since the pandemic began.
Her diligence and expertise led to Bower-Bjornson being selected for a panel discussion Monday focused on getting officials and the general public together to implement stronger environmental protections in the Pittsburgh region.
She was one of four featured speakers for “Stories of a Just Transition Pittsburgh.” It was the second of three discussions about the region, organized by Human Impacts Institute, an environmental and social justice nonprofit based in Brooklyn.
Bower-Bjornson was raised in Fredericktown, in a region that was once heavily industrial. She remembers coal barges coursing up and down the Monongahela River and steel mills roaring throughout the river towns. She believes many companies at that time operated without concern for the environment or residents, and anticipates that indifference returning.
Bower-Bjornson said she lived in the Mexican War Streets area of Pittsburgh’s North Side as an adult, “where air from the (area’s) steel mills was not going. All the wealthy people lived there because there was no pollution.”
She said residents of other regional communities were accustomed to industrial operations, “so when oil and gas companies came in, they thought they’d revive the old industrial towns and create jobs. You could almost call it a genetic trait.”
She paused before asking, “At what point do you get rid of that? Yes, energy production in this part of the state has been good. But at what point do you let it go? And if this is a clean energy state, why aren’t we producing more clean energy?
“We have people who worked in the energy sector and they could make the transition to clean energy. And there are jobs there.”
Lack of communication among groups is a major issue, Bower-Bjornson said along with panelist Alyssa Lyon.
“When I meet a lot of people, they say, ‘No one will listen to me,’” Bower-Bjornson said. “Most people want someone to listen to them. We have to meet people where they are. Plant little seeds and flowers will grow instead of weeds.”
Lyon, director of Black Environmental Collective, UrbanKind, said: “I think we have to return to a people-centered approach. The urgency of climate change is the urgency of saving people.
“We get in our own way and we do that partly by not listening. We’re too focused on problems and not solutions. If we actively listen to each other, we’ll realize we have common goals.”
Bower-Bjornson closed the one-hour session by saying: “I’m a doer, and I think more people have to be doers. Don’t be a procrastinator. We have to give a voice to people.”
Rick Shrum
Business Writer
Rick Shrum joined the Observer-Reporter as a reporter in 2012, after serving as a section editor, sports reporter and copy editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Rick has won eight individual writing awards, including two Golden Quills.
Scenery Hill resident urges an environment of cooperation on climate change
https://observer-reporter.com/business/scenery-hill-resident-urges-an-environment-of-cooperation-on-climate-change/article_8ca0e834-56a3-11ec-a1aa-7f7c4acb0ee6.html
Lois Bower-Bjornson grew up in a rural environment, lived in an inner-city environment and returned to the rolling Washington County countryside. Along the way, she has learned a lot about the environment and come to embrace it.
And advocate for it.
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