Northwest Indiana Sustainable Regional Development

The purpose of theEnvironmental Action Committee is to promote environmental awareness on campus in order to further develop ways of improving the quality of the environment in which we live. We also strive to motivate people into action through activities such as Environment Week to be held on campus in April.  Membership is offered to anyone with a genuine concern for bettering our environment. 

On Friday, March 22nd, local students and environmentalists met with Congressman Pete Visclosky in his Merrillville office to discuss a couple major environmental issues to be voted on in the House in the near future. 

Joshua Martin, Midwest representative for the American Lands Alliance in Bloomington organized the meeting for national forest protection.  Claude Chandler and Steve Gil of the IUN Student Environmental Action Committee, and Purdue Calumet sophomore Cindy Drescher, all members of Visclosky’s district, attended the meeting to share their concerns on environmental issues with Rep.Visclosky. 

Their focus was to get Rep. Visclosky to take a stronger position on the protection of national forests, such as supporting the Roadless Area Conservation Rule and the National Forest Protection and Restoration Act, which would ban logging and road construction on national forests. Today two-thirds of America’s ancient forests and one-quarter of America’s endangered species are found in national forests. The Bush administration is looking to increase logging, mining, and road construction in national forests despite annual losses and strong public support for more protection. The national forest logging program alone loses $1 billion in taxpayer money each year. 

The attendees also used the meeting to thank Rep. Visclosky on his pro-environment voting record this past year, and asked for his continued support in the future. Rep. Visclosky was awarded high marks by the League of Conservation Voters, saying he supported their position 64% of the time on 14 major environmental issues in 2001. Rep. Visclosky did, however, vote in favor of the energy bill which would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.

American Lands Alliance– http://www.americanlands.org/
Circle of Life Foundation– http://www.circleoflifefoundation.org/
Earth Island Institute– http://www.earthisland.org/
Endangered Species Coalition-  http://www.stopextinction.org/
Green Party USA– http://www.greenparty.org/
Greenpeace-  http://www.greenpeaceusa.org/
Indiana Forest Alliance-www.bloomington.in.us/~ifa
National Forest Proctection Alliance- http://www.forestadvocate.org/
Rainforest Action Network-  http://www.ran.org/
Save Our Environment Center-  http://www.saveourenvironment.org/
Save the Dunes Council, Inc.-  http://www.savedunes.org/
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society- http://www.seashepherd.org/
Shedd Aquarium, Chicago-  http://www.sheddaquarium.org/
Sierra Club-  http://www.sierraclub.org/
Student Environmental Action Coalition- http://www.seac.org/
Treecycle Products-  http://www.treecycle.com/
World Wildlife Fund-  http://www.worldwildlife.org/

IUN Student Environmental Action Committee: mailto:iunseac@yahoo.com