At a town hall meeting near Philadelphia, 18-year-old Rose Strauss had a question for Scott Wagner, the Republican candidate for governor of Pennsylvania:
You’ve said that climate change is a result of people’s body heat, and are refusing to take action on the issue. Does this have anything to do with the $200,000 that you have taken from the fossil fuel industry?Wagner responded by calling her “young and naive” in a way that seems to me to be shamefully condescending; judge for yourself: (above)
The 18-year-old environmental studies student offered a sharp rebuke during an interview Friday afternoon:
“The governor doesn’t have to be a scientist, but he needs to understand science,” she said.
That’s ultimately why Strauss, a Chester County resident and student at the University of California-Santa Barbara, is working for the Sunrise Movement, a nonpartisan nationwide organization dedicated to stopping the climate crisis. The organization has Pennsylvania locations in Philadelphia, Downingtown and Lancaster and “builds an army of young people” to share facts on climate change and holds politicians accountable for accepting contributions from the fossil fuel industry.
Strauss was working for that organization Wednesday when she attended her first town hall and said to Wagner, “You’ve said that climate change is a result of people’s body heat, and are refusing to take action on the issue. Does this have anything to do with the $200,000 that you have taken from the fossil fuel industry?”
His response was: “Well, I appreciate you being here. You’re 18 years old. You know, you’re a little young and naive. But are we here to elect a governor or elect a scientist? OK? I’m here to be the governor,” he continued. “I appreciate – and I understand – the question. But I have one for you, Rose.”
He did not answer her question and ultimately shifted the conversation to concern about sewage spilling into the Susquehanna River in Harrisburg.
The exchange, which has gone viral in a video shared thousands of times, was as concerning as the time Wagner said the earth is moving closer to the sun and the planet is warmer because of human beings giving off body heat, Strauss said.
If that’s a photo of him up there then I fully understand why he’d think that.
This is the hilarious beginning of Rose Strauss’s political career!