Great Lakes Moment is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor John Hartig. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.
Twenty-five years ago, several lower Detroit River islands and marshes were threatened by development.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/04/great-lakes-moment-saving-the-conservation-crescent/
This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Kayla Nelsen, Great Lakes Echo
A California woman on “The Daily Show” recently swapped her sandals for snowshoes after moving to Duluth to escape her state’s wildfires.
The Comedy Central show featured Duluth as a climate haven, an ideal place to live to avoid wildfires, droughts, hurricanes and extreme flooding.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/03/are-great-lakes-cities-ready-for-climate-migrants/
On April 8, a solar eclipse will march from Maine to Mexico, darkening the skies during midday. The moon’s shadow will black out the sun completely just south of Michigan, but folks in the southeast part of the state will be close to the action and also experience almost complete darkness.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/03/the-solar-eclipse-is-a-great-opportunity-for-students-and-citizen-scientists-alike/
This article was republished here with permission from Planet Detroit.
By Nina Ignaczak, Planet Detroit
Detroit’s urban agriculture movement traces back to Hazen Pingree’s 1890s potato patch plan,World War II victory gardens, and Mayor Coleman Young’s Farm-A-Lot program in the 1970s.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/03/detroits-urban-farming-evolution/
The path of totality during the April 8 solar eclipse is expected to run directly across northwest Ohio, keeping tourism officials in the area, who normally plan for crowds to begin arriving in May, extra busy.
Some private campgrounds in the area that are opening early for the eclipse and have sites available, including Crystal Rock, Erie and Ottawa County fairgrounds, Cedarlane RV Resort, Camp Sandusky and Camp Perry RV Park.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/03/where-to-see-rare-solar-eclipse-in-ohio/
By Jena Brooker, BridgeDetroit
BridgeDetroit reporter Jena Brooker collaborated with One Detroit (Detroit Public TV) on this segment on concrete crushing in a Detroit neighborhood. Read more of her coverage and subscribe to her newsletter.
One Detroit’s senior producer Bill Kubota teamed up with filmmaker and One Detroit contributor Nicole Macdonald to talk with residents about their concerns over heavy industry operating in city neighborhoods.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/03/video-its-detroiters-vs-dust-in-west-side-neighborhood/
Imagine if the world’s longest trail (located in Canada) connected people even further, into another country, via Michigan’s longest trail. That happened last month when the Windsor Detroit Bridge Authority announced that the Gordie Howe International Bridge would become part of a binational trail system.
When the initial discussions for a potential new bridge connecting Windsor and Detroit started about a decade ago, residents of Windsor and Detroit, and a coalition of organizations, came together to envision cross-border linkages.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/03/great-lakes-moment-gordie-howe-international-bridge-becomes-part-of-binational-trail-system/
In order to do meaningful things at scale, everyone has to be at the table. This is what Curt Wolf, Managing Director of the University of Michigan’s Urban Collaboratory, said about the Michigan Center for Freshwater Innovation in an interview with Great Lakes Now. Last month, he explained the benefits of pulling together stakeholders, the Great Lakes Water Authority, and major universities like the University of Michigan, Wayne State, and Michigan State to all work alongside each other to collaborate on grand challenges, like catastrophic flooding in the region.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/02/the-future-of-water-management-with-curt-wolf/
Great Lakes Moment is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor John Hartig. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.
Today, the Detroit River is much cleaner, and sentinel wildlife species have returned.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/02/great-lakes-moment-lest-we-forget-a-history-of-detroit-river-oil-pollution/
This article was republished here with permission from Planet Detroit.
By Brian Allnutt, Planet Detroit
Neighborhoods east of Palmer Park could soon be transformed by a city plan to power municipal buildings with six solar fields, and neighbors are divided over the prospect.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/01/parts-of-detroit-could-be-radically-transformed-by-city-solar-plan-for-better-or-worse/
This article was republished here with permission from Planet Detroit.
By Brian Allnutt, Planet Detroit
Darren Riley noticed poor air quality across much of Michigan this week when off-the-shelf air monitors from companies like IQAir and PurpleAir showed readings as high as 154 for PM 2.5 (fine particulate matter) in Detroit on Sunday – putting the monitors in the red or ‘unhealthy’ range on the Air Quality Index (AQI).
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/01/why-poor-air-quality-isnt-just-a-summer-problem-in-detroit/
Ohio will soon embark on removing the Gorge Dam on the Cuyahoga River, but first must clean up 875,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment at a cost of more than $100 million. The result will be a free-flowing river, a healthier ecosystem, improved habitats for fish and wildlife, and expanded public access for fishing and whitewater rapids for kayaking.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/01/great-lakes-moment-ohio-provides-example-for-funding-detroit-and-rouge-rivers-sediment-cleanup/
By Michael Phillis and Camille Fassett, Associated Press
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Flooding is driving millions of people to move out of their homes, limiting growth in some prospering communities and accelerating the decline of others, according to a new study that details how climate change and flooding are transforming where Americans live.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/12/ap-flooding-drives-millions-to-move-climate-migration-patterns-emerge/
Great Lakes Moment is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor John Hartig. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.
For over 100 years the Detroit River was perceived as a working waterway that supported industry and commerce.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/10/great-lakes-moment-detroits-new-ralph-wilson-park-will-provide-habitats-for-a-healthy-ecosystem/
The EPA’s Chris Korleski gets excited when speaking about cleaning up the Great Lakes region’s decades-old, contaminated sediment sites like the Detroit River.
He talks about the “tremendous effort” that’s been rekindled in the past two years under the Biden administration. And how “motivated” the people who work to advance the cleanup are and the value of the partnerships that facilitate restoration.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/09/great-lakes-epa-office-reaffirms-2030-cleanup-goal-for-detroit-river-other-contaminated-sites/
This article was republished here with permission from Planet Detroit.
By Jenny Sherman, Planet Detroit
Detroit resident Andrew “Birch” Kemp has planted trees in Detroit’s Poletown East neighborhood for over 20 years.
By expanding the city’s tree canopy, the former Detroit high school teacher hopes to promote the growth of healthy, resilient and equitable green spaces in his community that would both enrich his and his neighbors’ quality of life and deepen their connection to nature.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/09/grassroots-greenspace-projects-expand-detroits-open-space-network/
By Brian Allnutt, Planet Detroit
This piece is part of a collaboration that includes the Institute for Nonprofit News, Borderless, Ensia, Planet Detroit, Sahan Journal, and Wisconsin Watch, as well as the Guardian and Inside Climate News. The project was supported by the Joyce Foundation.
DETROIT — In 2019, Blake Grannum experienced a catastrophic flood in her home in Detroit’s Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/08/climate-costs-imperil-detroits-unique-diverse-jefferson-chalmers-neighborhood/
Love staring at a map and discovering something interesting? Then “Mapping the Great Lakes” is for you. It’s a monthly Great Lakes Now feature created by Alex B. Hill, a self-described “data nerd and anthropologist” who combines cartography, data, and analytics with storytelling and human experience.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/08/mapping-the-great-lakes-who-is-looking-out-for-the-great-lakes/
Making a film about water came naturally for award-winning documentary filmmaker dream hampton, though water and the environment has not traditionally been her emphasis.
hampton made Freshwater after coming off a hectic schedule in 2018 and 2019 during which she made three films. It was, she decided, a time to shift her focus, a time to be still and reflect.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/08/filmmaker-looks-detroit-through-lens-water-life-events-justice/
By Ashley Zhou, Bridge Michigan
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/08/michigan-river-walker-program-warns-anglers-eating-contaminated-fish/
This article was republished here with permission from Planet Detroit.
By Tom Perkins, Planet Detroit
For 43 years, state regulators and the Environmental Protection Agency have ordered chemical manufacturer BASF to stop discharging up to 72,000 gallons of toxic waste-contaminated groundwater daily from its Wyandotte plant into the Detroit River.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/08/regulators-fail-43-years-stop-basf-staggering-daily-toxic-waste-spill-detroit-river/
Ford Motor Company is aiming to be carbon neutral by 2050, as reiterated by Cynthia Williams last week.
Williams took to the stage to expand on how Ford is accomplishing this, highlighting their latest releases in electric vehicles (EV). Williams is the global director of sustainability at Ford.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/07/ted-countdown-ford-global-director-of-sustainability-cynthia-williams-on-making-detroit-a-hub-for-climate-solutions/
Tunde Olaniran is a musician and multidisciplinary artist from Flint. Last year, their first exhibition premiered at Cranbrook Art Museum, featuring a short horror film — Made a Universe — inspired by their life growing up in Flint.
They were asked to perform one of their latest works for the TED Countdown Summit at the Fillmore Detroit on Thursday, July 13.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/07/ted-countdown-musician-tunde-olaniran-from-flint-michigan-on-the-role-of-art-in-the-climate-crisis/
Laprisha Berry Daniels is the Executive Director at Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice. Daniels is a public health social worker who is interested in focusing on harm-reduction when dealing with the climate crisis. She specializes in developing interventions to help to improve the health and wellbeing of communities.
In her talk on Wednesday, July 12, Daniels said she was inspired by her family’s move to Detroit during the Great Migration.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/07/ted-countdown-detroiters-working-for-environmental-justice-executive-director-laprisha-berry-daniels-on-supporting-communities-preparing-for-the-future/
With nearly 125 million buildings across the United States, all these spaces account for about 30 percent of the country’s emissions. In 2014, Donnel Baird created BlocPower to get these spaces off fossil fuels by changing out old water systems, gas ovens, gas and oil furnaces and air conditioning units with electric equipment, like air source heat pumps, which are compatible with renewable energy options.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/07/ted-countdown-blocpower-ceo-donnel-baird-greening-americas-buildings-improving-communities/
Great Lakes Moment is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor John Hartig. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.
A business case is a document that outlines whether a project is worth undertaking.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/07/great-lakes-moment-a-business-case-for-the-great-lakes-way/
TED wants to bring Detroit to the world and the world to Detroit. As the city at the heart of the automotive industry grappling with building a sustainable future, Detroit was a deliberate choice for this year’s Countdown Summit.
This invite-only gathering will take place from July 11-14 in Michigan Central, the Fillmore Detroit and other locations around the city.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/06/ted-countdown-summit-is-coming-to-detroit/
By Christopher T. Migliaccio, University of Montana
is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.
Smoke from more than 100 wildfires burning across Canada has been rolling into North American cities far from the flames. New York City and Detroit were both listed among the five most polluted cities in the world because of the fires on June 7, 2023.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/06/wildfire-smoke-harm-human-health-even-when-hundreds-miles-away/
Great Lakes Moment is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor John Hartig. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.
What do a former naval air station, a Nike missile site, and a wildlife refuge have in common?
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/06/great-lakes-moment-trail-connects-people-secluded-detroit-river-wetlands/
By Kelly House, Bridge Michigan
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/05/once-beset-industrial-pollution-rouge-river-slow-path-recovery/
Great Lakes Moment is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor John Hartig. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.
For over a century, vast amounts of toxic contaminants were discharged by industries into the Detroit and Rouge Rivers.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/05/great-lakes-moment-solving-the-contaminated-sediment-remediation-funding-puzzle/
TORONTO (AP) — Gordon Lightfoot, the folk singer-songwriter known for “If You Could Read My Mind” and “Sundown” and for songs that told tales of Canadian identity, died Monday. He was 84.
Representative Victoria Lord said the musician died at a Toronto hospital. His cause of death was not immediately available.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/05/ap-folk-singer-songwriter-gordon-lightfoot-dies/
Love staring at a map and discovering something interesting? Then “Mapping the Great Lakes” is for you. It’s a monthly Great Lakes Now feature created by Alex B. Hill, a self-described “data nerd and anthropologist” who combines cartography, data, and analytics with storytelling and human experience.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/04/mapping-the-great-lakes-flood-risk/
Climate change continues to have an impact on some residents in Southeast Michigan. For the average homeowner, when it rains, one may grab a good book, kick their feet up and relax under the gloomy skies. For Detroit resident Semone Alexander, every time it rains, it’s anything but relaxing.
As heavy rains have become more frequent in the last half-decade, so has the flooding of Alexander and other residents’ homes— so much so that many of the homes have fallen into disrepair.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/04/climate-change-could-spell-catastrophe-for-detroits-older-homes/
This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Vladislava Sukhanovskaya, Great Lakes Echo
Laptops, phones, keys, a drone, a picnic table, a meat slicer, axes, spoons, chairs, a horseshoe, guns and a 90-year-old condom are among the items Michigan’s Magnet Man has fished out of the state’s rivers.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/04/michigans-magnet-man-attracts-river-trash/
Across Detroit the effects of climate change are evident. In the Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood on the city’s lower east side, overflowing stormwater drains, contaminated waterways and flooded basements are just a few examples of how the city’s aging infrastructure struggles to keep up with our changing climate.
The city’s combined sewer system is the crux of the problem.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/04/detroit-neighborhood-faces-uncertain-future-due-to-climate-change/
By Kelly House, Bridge Michigan
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/03/enbridge-line-5-tunnel-project-michigan-delayed/
It’s a mistake, environmental law attorney Nick Leonard says, for Michigan to invest so heavily in private auto transportation in place of public transit options.
Leonard was referring to the billions of dollars in subsidies Michigan has recently budgeted primarily for electric vehicle (EV) production. Investment in public transit better serves lower income groups who don’t have resources to purchase EV’s and it’s the better option to deal with climate change, according to Leonard.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/03/environmental-justice-expert-questions-michigans-subsidies-electric-vehicles/
Great Lakes Moment is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor John Hartig. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.
On that September day in 1998, more than 1,000 rain-soaked and determined people stood up for what they felt was right.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/03/great-lakes-moment-the-event-that-saved-humbug-marsh/
This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Vladislava Sukhanovskaya, Great Lakes Echo
The city of Detroit and a nonprofit agency recently added 1,125 gallons of water per person per month to a program that prevents water shut-offs in low-income households.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/03/detroiters-can-get-another-1125-gallons-of-water-under-discount-program/
In 2014, Detroit and Michigan received international attention on a water issue, but it wasn’t the spotlight either would have wanted.
The United Nations dispatched an official human rights rapporteur to Detroit to document the harm caused by water shutoffs based on the inability to pay. “There was no water for food or toilets or for care of the elderly or kids, people had to go to public parks and put water in cans,” water rights advocate Maude Barlow told Great Lakes Now in a 2022 interview.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/02/hope-springs-eternal-for-michigan-legislator-who-champions-drinking-water-equity/
Great Lakes Moment is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor John Hartig. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.
A good example of community science in metropolitan Detroit is the Rockwood Christmas Bird Count, which is part of the longest-running community science survey in the world.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/02/great-lakes-moment-community-science-survey/
Science Says What? is a monthly column written by Great Lakes now contributor Sharon Oosthoek exploring what science can tell us about what’s happening beneath and above the waves of our beloved Great Lakes and their watershed.
The Great Lakes contain a whopping 5,500 cubic miles of freshwater, making them one of largest sources of freshwater in the world – large enough in fact to influence the region’s weather which impacts the 40 million people living around the lakes.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/01/science-says-what-climate-change-deluges-snow-days/
By Nina Ignaczak, Planet Detroit
This story is part of a collaborative series from the Institute for Nonprofit News, Planet Detroit, Tostada Magazine, Energy News Network, The Land, and Borderless Magazine examining climate resilience across the Great Lakes.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/01/detroit-restaurants-tackling-climate-change-kitchen/
Great Lakes Moment is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor John Hartig. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.
Have you ever gone for a peaceful walk along a creek or lake and been spooked by the sound of what you think is a pterodactyl?
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/01/great-lakes-moment-great-blue-herons-stony-island/
By John Flesher, AP Environmental Writer
DETROIT (AP) — In a bustling metro area of 4.3 million people, Yale University wildlife biologist Nyeema Harris ventures into isolated thickets to study Detroit’s most elusive residents — coyotes, foxes, raccoons and skunks among them.
Harris and colleagues have placed trail cameras in woodsy sections of 25 city parks for the past five years.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/12/ap-extinctions-shrinking-habitat-spur-rewilding-in-cities/
Great Lakes Moment is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor John Hartig. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.
National parks serve as pilgrimage sites because they provide spaces that provide a degree of solitude and access to unique natural resources.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/12/great-lakes-moment-detroits-benefits-of-national-urban-park-in-windsor/
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois
The town of Zion, Illinois, went into an economic spiral after the sudden closure of a nuclear power plant 25 years ago.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/11/energy-news-roundup-nuclear-communities-sidelined-mid-michigan-wind-energy/
Elections have consequences, the saying goes, and for the Michigan Democratic party, the election last week resulted in a sweep of the race for governor and the legislature.
Now comes their opportunity to deliver on long-stalled environmental initiatives.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was re-elected and for the first time in almost 40 years, Democrats will be the majority in the legislature.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/11/advocates-want-action-on-justice-climate-stronger-leadership-gov-whitmer/
DETROIT (AP) — Sailors who lost their lives in shipwrecks on the Great Lakes and Michigan waterways will be remembered at a historic church in downtown Detroit.
The annual Great Lakes Memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday and will be livestreamed from Mariners’ Church along the Detroit River.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/11/ap-detroit-church-to-remember-sailors-lost-on-great-lakes/
