Sunrise Rice pushes for environmental change

By Krishna Chalise     10/29/24 10:45pm

A new chapter of the Sunrise Movement started this semester at Rice. With over 100 chapters across the country, the Sunrise Movement is a national activism organization that advocates for political action on climate change.   

Anna Stravato, Dyllan Lozano-Lomeli, Sam Foram and Jessica Shi founded the chapter. As a group, the Sunrise board said the chapter is unique in focusing on political action, though  there are many climate and sustainability-focused campus groups. 

“We saw an opening on campus for this type of club because while there are several organizations on campus related to sustainability, none catered specifically to political work, activism or civic initiatives for large-scale change in environmental policy,” Stravato, a Jones College sophomore, wrote in an email to the Thresher. “Rice is a school of engaged and educationally privileged individuals who have a unique capacity to make a change.” 

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Stravato and Lozano-Lomeli said they hope to also be involved locally by organizing trips to City Hall, voter registration drives and teach-ins; in the future, they want to pressure Mayor  John Whitmire and other representatives to support the Green New Deal. They also plan to host art projects to foster engagement and raise awareness about climate change, they said.

“We hope to encourage civic engagement through events that directly pressure Houston government representatives to adopt policies that actively combat the climate crisis,” Lozano-Lomeli, a Jones sophomore, said. 

Lozano-Lomeli said that her summer experience working with a different climate organization inspired her to establish the Sunrise chapter.

“This past summer, through my internship with Air Alliance Houston, I witnessed the lack of transparency of polluting industries and the lack of policies in place to protect Texans from the consequences of pollution,” Lozano-Lomeli said. “I saw the power of community action and pressuring government officials and organizations to achieve climate justice, and this inspired me to help establish a Sunrise hub at Rice.”

Lozano-Lomeli also said that Sunrise Rice hopes to contribute to a larger push for climate-related policy.

“We hope to provide Houston-based support for Sunrise National’s Green New Deal initiative,” Lozano-Lomeli said. “Furthermore, we want to pressure federal agencies to more aggressively practice oversight on industries in Houston that are contributing to large-scale pollution.”

Stravato said she believes Rice has an obligation to promote sustainable policies alongside its investments in energy companies. 

“Rice — if it wants to remain a relevant and successful university — will have to continue adjusting to new levels of sustainability and environmental awareness,” Stravato wrote. “Because Rice is an institution whose endowment comes, in large part, from extensive investments in the energy industry, we have a moral responsibility to use the university’s influence and resources to further sustainable development into the future.”

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