At age 16, Raina Maiga is making waves in Indiana’s fight against climate change.
As executive director of Confront the Climate Crisis, she’s helped push for state legislation aimed at creating a climate action plan. Now, she’s being recognized with a Brower Youth Award, one of the nation’s top honors for young environmental leaders.
The Indianapolis Recorder sat down with her to discuss her journey and what’s next in the fight for climate justice.
Raina Maiga (Photos/ Jessica Monroy Creative, Earth Island Institute)Q: How did you become involved in climate and environmental activism?
A: I was super passionate about politics and policy at a young age … I realized that every single election cycle, there would be some conversation about hot topics that were impacting people, and the topics that were super important to me and my community were often not discussed as much.
I started in educational advocacy, but I saw the interception of all these issues, which led me to a youth nonprofit called Confront the Climate Crisis, and having a conversation with all the students involved in the organization, I knew that I needed to be involved, especially seeing how climate change was impacting people in my community.
Q: Tell me more about Confront the Climate Crisis.
A: Confront the Climate Crisis is a youth-led nonprofit. It started in West Lafayette, Indiana, and expanded into a statewide organization. We’re entirely youth-led, and we essentially have a strong mission, and that is to expand environmental policy in Indiana and do so in a way that puts youth at the forefront because we’re going to be the ones impacted by those policies.
Q: Why is it important for youth to be involved in environmental activism?
A: If we can have real stories about how people are going to be impacted by the climate crisis in the future, we can make proactive pieces of legislation that aren’t just reacting to the things that happen, but are implementing foundations that will save us a lot of money and a lot of time in the future. The only people that can speak to that are young people because they know what their future potentially looks like if we don’t do something.
Q: How does receiving an award like the Brower Youth Award fuel your cause?
A: Being among some of the best environmental advocates across the country is something that I never thought I could say, but this gives us a new platform to advocate on, and that’s the national platform.
Maiga at the Brower Youth Environmental Activism Awards.
Q: What do you hope to accomplish in this field in the next five years? 10?
A: An ambitious goal that I have is passing a climate task force bill. I haven’t gotten through that finish line of passing it and having it be a law in the state of Indiana, but I think we have made a lot of progress, and I think in the next five years, we can definitely get there. It would create a climate task force that would study current environmental policies, and I think would benefit the state of Indiana a lot.
In the next 10, I think we could be so much better at connecting our initiatives. We’re a state-based organization, but I see a lot of the issues that we face in neighboring states, so I would like to expand our organization, and maybe in the next 20 years, this is something that we do nationally.
Q: How would you suggest people get involved with Confront the Climate Crisis?
A: The best way that they can get involved is by supporting us and attending our events. We hold events every single year. We hold a couple conferences and some online trainings, and that’s the best way to not only learn about our organization, but also contribute.
To learn more about Confront the Climate Crisis, visit confronttheclimatecrisis.com.
To read more climate-related stories, click here.
Contact Health & Environmental Reporter Hanna Rauworth at 317-762-7854 or follow her on Instagram at @hanna.rauworth.