Blog
Featuring contributions from JTNWI organizers and community members on the frontlines of environmental justice in Northwest Indiana. From personal stories and poetry to campaign updates, interviews, and reflections, these pieces highlight local resistance, community power, and the collective work of building a just, fossil-free future.
May 2025 Policy Dive
Read through these updates for a crash course on what happened in May, and help us elevate and respond to these pressing issues.
Reflections on World Water Day 2025: Guest Blog
Reflecting on World Water Day this year, it is difficult to ignore that our country is in dark times.
Stop Ratepayer Robbery and Oppose HB 1007, SB 423, and SB 424: Op-Ed
Today, three proposed laws are winding their way through the statehouse, forfeiting what could amount to billions of tax dollars raising our utility prices even higher.
Polluters Paradise is the Problem: A Letter to the Editor
JTNWI’s legislative and policy director, Susan Thomas, points out a few important points about the proposed buyout and why everyone should be taking notice.
An Environmental Justice Poetry Collection
Read six poems about environmental justice by JTNWI member Tim Fab-Eme.
5 Ways to Celebrate Earth Month in Northwest Indiana
Like this year’s theme, “Planet vs. Plastics,” we know that we must do more to carry on the legacy of Earth Day that promotes inclusion and equity for all. Recycling as a sole solution will not save us. It is about both our roles as individuals and a part of a collective to ensure sustainable choices while changing the rules and policies and holding corporations accountable for perpetuating the climate crisis.
The Interconnection of Social Work and Environmental Justice
We applaud these future social workers for their desire to work with vulnerable populations while also protecting the environment, climate, and future generations. Their stories describe their firsthand experiences with the unfair distribution of environmental burdens and the consequences for community health.
An Interview with Artist William Estrada
Artwork allows us to imagine things and make those things a reality through the art we create. Art is a way for us to build the futures that we want to live in. We're taking our imagination and building things that don't yet exist. But through our creation, they are now possible because now people can envision it.
Living Green Garden: An Interview with Libré Booker
When you grow your own food, the nutrients your body needs will be grown in the food that you are connecting with and growing. It is like the plants know what your body needs. It’s a beautiful dance and a beautiful relationship. We have cut off this dance because we have removed ourselves from nature and given up our food sovereignty to solely big businesses.
Voices of Steel: An Interview with Scott Houldieson
They only call it class war when we fight back, you know. The class war has been going on forever. And it only gets termed that when the workers stand up to fight for their rights.
Voices of Steel: An Interview with Elizabeth Palacio
The steel industry is male-dominated, but if women speak up, we can get there too. It needs us!
We Can’t Not: A Poem
We showed up to let the world know
That our stories have the energy, the true power,
The true electricity, to protect all of America,
Just like that able and proud widow
Whose life is now spent in places like this,
With us, protecting America.
She can’t not.
We will be there beside her and for her because, like her,
We can’t not.
Why I’m An Activist: My Journey from Guam to Michigan City
I feel my life here would have similar roads, too, if I had stayed on the island. For that reason, I’m determined to fight to ensure that my home here and the place I came from stay environmentally sound; that the people who live here with me and in Guam can live with nature as we are meant to be. Hafa Adai and Si Yu’us Ma’ase.
The Hourglass: A Poem
Generations of generating will stop,
Buildings will empty,
Quiet and birdsong will prevail.
It’s a transition…
It’s a hard transition.
Make it just.
Project Clean Air: A Reflection of Me and Everyone Who Made It Possible
JTNWI fellow and Freshwater Lab alum, Saif Syed, reflects on the impact and importance of Project Clean Air
How Growing Up in Colombia Led Me to Fight for Northwest Indiana
JTNWI’s digital organizer shares how her childhood in Colombia shaped her commitment to winning a Just Transition in Northwest Indiana
Correcting the Record
Find out the facts about what’s really going on with the NIPSCO coal ash crisis.
Warehouse Developers at It Again
The town of Hobart is fighting back against the latest reckless warehouse development
Earth Day Special: There’s No Environmental Justice Without Worker Justice
Our Community Engagement and Education Director, Mike Santos, breaks down what exactly a Just Transition is and why it’s so important to communities like ours.