closed #179208
Other
- Case Date:
- 3/9/2022
In response to uReport case# 178546, thank you for the information as well as the contact information for IU in the case of future questions. It is good to learn that IU has made some solid changes in the ten years since the issue was thrust onto them by student activists. Reducing the use of coal-powered electricity to less than 15% and intermittent use is positive, but I think that that number should really be zero in this year of 2022. I hope that they are still encouraged by the city to completely eliminate coal and supplement their power with sustainable sources such as solar. There has been little action to address the climate crisis by the Indiana General Assembly, and Indiana has a very poor reputation on air quality as one of the worst states in the U.S. for carbon pollution. The latest United Nations climate report states that the climate crisis has reached code red for humanity. Therefore, in 2022 it is hard to swallow that there is still a coal burning power plant in the middle of a dense city on the grounds of an institution of higher education surrounded by throngs of young people with brains that are still developing. We should not be okay with anything other than zero percent. I am not sure what else the railroad line in Bloomington is used for but I know it carries coal. Perhaps, if that need went away and the rail line ever became unused, then it could be converted into a trail that all of the community could use for non-fossil fuel burning purposes. The City of Chicago did that about ten years ago with a dormant elevated rail line and it was transformative for those neighborhoods. Lastly, I leave you all with a line from the Great Law of the Haudenosaunee, the founding document of the Iroquois Confederacy, the oldest living participatory democracy on Earth. "In every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations." I do not seek a reply. Thank you for your time.