Most Hoosiers want policies that reduce carbon pollution, make communities resilient

April 22 is Earth Day and a majority of people around the world want their governments to address climate change. The Hoosier State isn't any different.

Indiana University asked residents a variety of questions on reducing carbon emissions and making communities resilient to extreme weather for its Hoosier Life Survey in 2019.

Somewhat surprisingly, most Hoosiers supported using tax dollars to do things like expand access to public transit and help residents install solar. And 82 percent of them supported the idea of a tax increase on companies that pollute more than others.

Environmental sociologist Matthew Houser co-led the project. He now works in a joint role as an assistant research professor at the University of Maryland and The Nature Conservancy's Chesapeake Bay Agriculture Program.

Houser said many Hoosiers also supported actions that make their community more resilient to climate change — like planting trees — which can also reduce carbon emissions.

He said the way climate change is framed can get politicized, but at its core — many Hoosiers want the same things.

"And whenever we start having those conversations, it moves us step-by-step slowly toward actualizing some of those ideas in our community," he said.

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How do you start those conversations? Sarah Mincey is the managing director for Indiana University's Environmental Resilience Institute.

"We can ask questions like, what's important to you for your community? What's important to you for your family, for your health and well being? For the spaces that you live in? For the way that you get to work and the work environment that you're in?" she said.

Mincey said, though the Hoosier Life Survey was conducted in 2019, Yale Climate Opinion Maps have shown Hoosiers continue to support government action on climate change and climate resilience.

Rebecca is our energy and environment reporter. Contact her at rthiele@iu.edu or follow her on Twitter at @beckythiele.

This story is part of The 89 Percent Project, an initiative of the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now.