Sunday, April 21, 2024, Freshman and Sophomore Lydia Arnold and Alice Racek are hosting their local climate strike with Hoosier Power from 4 – 4:30 p.m. at the Monroe County Courthouse. This Demonstration will include IU Professor Isak Asare and our Sierra Club representative to speak about their experiences and perspective on climate action in Indiana. Following their presentation, students and other protesters will begin an organized march around the courthouse. This demonstration is the first step Indiana needs to take for cleaner climate initiatives. This demonstration is also in collaboration with Fridays for Future: a movement started by Greta Thunberg and other students to protest Standard Chartered Banks anti-environmental, profit-driven endeavors. As Lydia says, “We are asking president Biden to demand a climate emergency.”

Hoosier Power hopes to involve students as much as possible, the goal of this demonstration is to start getting students active and teach others about the future of the world if our energy solutions dont change. At the local level, Lydia and Alice want to confront Duke Energy about their use of coal here in Bloomington. Their idea is to accelerate Duke’s coal phase-out plan, and begin the use of renewable energy as soon as possible. Indiana, as Alice said “If the midwest was its own country, it would be the fifth dirtiest polluter in the world.“

If you are a student, whether you are already aware of local climate organizations or not, its important for people like you to be there to show Bloomington how students really feel. Bloomington is among the few Indiana towns that do have many local renewable energy initiatives like the push for electric vehicles, however personal emissions make up quite a small percentage of total carbon emissions. A majority of emissions are contributed by large corporate beings, like Duke, which is what Hoosier Power plans to focus on. As Lydia Arnold says “the big things aren’t being prioritized”

As Hoosier Power grows, Lydia and Alice hope to enact real policy, like carbon-taxing, to target and promote real change in Indiana. Hoosier Power connects young people through means of climate action, which is especially important to students as it will be young people like Lydia and Alice that’ll be making real change in the future.

“Even if you don’t think you can do a lot, you can… Showing your support as the youth, is extremely important” -Alice Racek