This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.
Helene and Milton, the two massive hurricanes that just swept into the country — killing hundreds of people, and leaving both devastation and rumblings of political upheaval in seven states — amounted to their own October surprise.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/10/the-climate-stakes-of-the-harris-trump-election/
Freighter food, mail delivery, and the life of a Great Lakes freighter pilot.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/10/freighters-on-the-move/
By Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco, WBEZ
This coverage is made possible through a partnership between WBEZ and Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Sign up for WBEZ newsletters to get local news you can trust.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/10/the-nations-first-commercial-carbon-storage-plant-is-in-illinois-it-leaks/
Great Lakes Now, Ideastream Public Media, Native News Online, Planet Detroit, Wisconsin Public Radio, and Grist held a discussion last week about the national, regional and statewide climate implications of the upcoming election.
Great Lakes Now Host Anna Sysling moderated a panel of journalists as they spoke about the big topics they are covering and thinking about in advance of voting day.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/10/virtual-town-hall-what-does-election-mean-for-great-lakes-climate-and-environment/
I Speak for the Fish is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor Kathy Johnson, coming out the third Monday of each month. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/10/i-speak-for-the-fish-wheres-the-line-in-fisheries-research/
By Lester Graham, Michigan Public
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit PBS; Michigan Public, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; and The Narwhal 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/2024/10/consequences-of-less-ice-on-lakes-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; Michigan Public, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; and The Narwhal 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/2024/10/michigan-a-top-winner-of-climate-funds-trump-wants-to-revoke/
By Nina Misuraca Ignaczak, Planet Detroit
This article was republished with permission from Planet Detroit. Sign up for Planet Detroit’s weekly newsletter here.
Federal aid is coming to Michigan’s sweet cherry farmers, who lost much of their crops this year due to erratic weather patterns and subsequent pest infestations.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/10/federal-aid-to-rescue-michigan-cherry-farmers-after-devastating-crop-loss/
Retirement is in sight for one of the country’s largest coal plants. Ohio’s James M. Gavin plant, the third most gargantuan in the Midwest and sixth nationwide, will likely be closed or converted to run on gas by 2031, Inside Climate News reported. The two coal plants in the region with more generating capacity — the Gibson plant in Indiana and the Monroe plant in Michigan — are set to retire in 2038 and 2032, respectively, after electric utility Duke Energy proposed a couple of weeks ago to delay the Gibson plant’s closure or conversion by three years from its previous target of 2035.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/10/energy-news-roundup-retirement-is-in-sight-for-another-huge-coal-plant/
By Fatima Syed, The Narwhal
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now at Detroit PBS, Michigan Public and The Narwhal 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/2024/10/two-high-school-students-want-to-keep-trash-out-of-the-great-lakes-they-think-rivers-are-the-key/
By Izzy Ross, Interlochen Public Radio
This coverage is made possible through a partnership with IPR and Grist, a nonprofit independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future.
Hurricane Milton made landfall last week in Florida, even as communities across the southeast are still reeling from Hurricane Helene.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/10/how-northern-michiganders-can-help-people-affected-by-hurricanes/
By Emma McIntosh, The Narwhal
Emma and photographer Christopher Katsarov Luna spent four days in northwestern Ontario, reporting from the shore of Lake Superior.
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now at Detroit PBS, Michigan Public and The Narwhal 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/2024/10/the-lonely-lake-superior-caribou-and-a-lesson-in-limits/
By Danielle Kaeding, Wisconsin Public Radio
This article was republished here with permission from Wisconsin Public Radio.
Some Wisconsin groups are urging the Biden administration to do more to protect mature and old-growth forests under its proposal to conserve those trees as logging interests are pushing back against changes.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/10/environmental-groups-and-industry-at-odds-over-plan-to-conserve-old-growth-forests/
The 2024 presidential election campaign is in the homestretch and results in the Great Lakes states of Michigan and Wisconsin could determine the winner. Vice-President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump covet the electors in both states and polling indicates they could go either way.
Great Lakes Now selected three key topics — Great Lakes restoration, Line 5 and groundwater — and asked veteran policy experts Rob Sisson and Lana Pollack for their views on how a Harris or Trump presidency may deal with them.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/10/what-a-trump-vs-harris-presidency-might-mean-for-the-great-lakes/
By Phil McKenna, Inside Climate News
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.
LUDINGTON, Mich.— Boarding the S.S.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/10/lake-michigan-coal-ferry-transition-to-clean-energy/
By Daniel Wanschura
Points North is a biweekly podcast about the land, water and inhabitants of the Great Lakes.
This episode was shared here with permission from Interlochen Public Radio.
Theresa Eischen would visit her grandparents every summer.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/10/points-north-a-new-hope-for-anishinaabemowin/
Two Michigan State University (MSU) scientists were recently awarded grants to address per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) in agriculture. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded Hui Li $1.6 million, and the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) awarded Cherly Murphy $1.75 million to measure livestock bioaccumulation and plant uptake of PFAS.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/10/pfas-roundup-over-3m-awarded-to-msu-scientists-to-address-pfas-in-agriculture-wisconsin-tackles-pfas-during-hunting-season/
By John McCracken, Investigate Midwest
Investigate Midwest is an independent, nonprofit newsroom. Our mission is to serve the public interest by exposing dangerous and costly practices of influential agricultural corporations and institutions through in-depth and data-driven investigative journalism. Visit us online at www.investigatemidwest.org.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/10/wisconsin-towns-are-trying-to-limit-cafo-growth-big-dairy-is-fighting-back/
By Mike Shriberg, University of Michigan
is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.
If history holds true to form, I expect the presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris to begin touting their support for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative as Election Day approaches.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/10/swing-state-voters-along-the-great-lakes-love-cleaner-water-and-beaches-%E2%88%92-and-candidates-from-both-parties-have-long-fished-for-support-there/
A dozen Ohio counties are currently under a quarantine for transporting plant material as the state works to get a handle on its growing spotted lanternfly problem.
The invasive spotted lanternfly is being spread primarily by hitchhiking. The quarantine aims to stop by putting in place requirements for businesses that ship goods across county lines, Ohio Department of Agriculture Division of Plant Health Chief Dan Kenny said.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/10/ohio-department-of-agriculture-is-working-to-stop-the-spread-of-the-spotted-lanternfly/
By Kelly House, Bridge Michigan
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; Michigan Public, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; and The Narwhal 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/2024/10/a-decade-after-flint-feds-require-nationwide-lead-pipe-removal/
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 PBS.
From a distance, I caught a glimpse of a relatively small elongated furry animal moving along the shoreline of the Detroit River.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/10/great-lakes-moment-mink-thriving-along-the-detroit-river/
By Kristoffer Tigue, Inside Climate News
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.
MINNEAPOLIS—A record amount of federal aid will soon flow to states to help fix, replace or demolish their aging dams, many of which are under increasing pressure as climate change fuels more frequent and severe extreme weather events.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/10/midwest-dam-safety-projects-funding/
Midwestern convenience store giant Kwik Trip is breaking into the charging business. The chain, known for its gas and grocery offerings, will install electric vehicle chargers at “a strategic number of its stores” through its new Kwik Charge program. The announcement comes a few months after Kwik Trip received about $23 million in federal funds aimed at establishing a statewide EV charging network in Wisconsin.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/10/energy-news-roundup-kwik-trip-goes-electric-as-federal-funds-flow-in/
By Keith Schneider, Circle of Blue
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; Michigan Public, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; and The Narwhal 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/2024/10/michigans-new-rules-to-protect-water-from-manure-attacked-by-lawmakers/
By Nina Elkadi, Inside Climate News
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.
The aquifer from which Joliet, Illinois, sources its drinking water is likely going to run too dry to support the city by 2030—a problem more and more communities are facing as the climate changes and groundwater declines.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/10/joliet-illinois-lake-michigan-drinking-water/
Waves of Change is an online interview series highlighting the diverse faces and perspectives shaping the environmental justice movement throughout the Great Lakes region.
This month, we spoke with Ashley Williams, executive director of Just Transition Northwest Indiana, or JTNI, a grassroots environmental justice organization representing the northwest region of Indiana — one of the most industrialized zip codes in the country.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/09/waves-of-change-meet-just-transition-northwest-indiana-executive-director-ashley-williams/
How fish adapt to life in large urban rivers, like the Chicago River, is one of the questions Dr. Austin Happel is trying to answer at the Shedd Aquarium.
“Knowing where different fish species are hanging out, we can look around that area and kind of understand what that habitat looks like and what it’s providing for them,” Happel said.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/09/how-do-fish-survive-in-large-urban-waterways-like-the-chicago-river/
In a few months, many products with “forever chemicals” will be officially banned in Minnesota. Known as Amara’s Law, starting January 1, 2025 resident’s won’t be able to sell or distribute products with intentionally added PFAS from cookware, cosmetics, dental floss, juvenile products, menstruation products, textile furnishing, ski wax, upholstered furniture, cleaning products, or carpets and rugs — accirding to Vice Magazine.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/09/pfas-roundup-minnesota-pfas-regulation-said-to-be-the-strictest/
By Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco, WBEZ
This coverage is made possible through a partnership between WBEZ and Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Sign up for WBEZ newsletters to get local news you can trust.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/09/chicagos-beach-season-is-over-or-is-it-lake-michigan-temps-are-breaking-records/
“Nibi Chronicles,” a monthly Great Lakes Now feature, is written by Staci Lola Drouillard. A Grand Portage Ojibwe direct descendant, she lives in Grand Marais on Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior. Her nonfiction books “Walking the Old Road: A People’s History of Chippewa City and the Grand Marais Anishinaabe” and “Seven Aunts” were published 2019 and 2022, and the children’s story “A Family Tree” in 2024.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/09/nibi-chronicles-the-gift-of-manoomin/
By Daniel Wanschura
Points North is a biweekly podcast about the land, water and inhabitants of the Great Lakes.
This episode was shared here with permission from Interlochen Public Radio.
Kathleen Knight was doing some research in a forest in Ohio.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/09/points-north-the-last-to-leave/
By Izzy Ross, Interlochen Public Radio
This coverage is made possible through a partnership with IPR and Grist, a nonprofit independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future.
Environmental advocates have long focused on how coal harms the climate and environment.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/09/traverse-city-lawyer-national-recognition-for-making-an-economic-arguments-against-coal/
In the early 2000s a movement to address the plight of the heavily polluted and long neglected Great Lakes started to gain traction.
The goal was to bring the gravitas of the federal government to the issue and in 2004 President George W. Bush signed an executive order declaring the lakes a “national treasure.” An interagency task force was established to bring together the disparate efforts of various federal programs who had been working independently on Great Lakes issues.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/09/groundwater-whos-in-charge/
This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Anna Barnes, Great Lakes Echo
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is banking on public oversight of the largest Great Lake to help gauge the threat of increasingly common algal blooms.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/09/wisconsin-officials-ask-the-public-to-report-algal-blooms-in-lake-superior/
By Kathryn Peiman, The Narwhal
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; Michigan Public, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; and The Narwhal 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/2024/09/a-tiny-endangered-fish-lies-on-the-path-of-highway-413-canada-has-a-plan-but-no-new-power-to-protect-it/
By Lester Graham, Michigan Public
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; Michigan Public, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; and The Narwhal 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/2024/09/retirements-by-water-and-wastewater-plant-operators-are-leading-to-workforce-shortages/
By Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco, WBEZ
This coverage is made possible through a partnership between WBEZ and Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Sign up for WBEZ newsletters to get local news you can trust.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/09/trying-to-build-a-more-climate-resilient-chicago-one-balloon-at-a-time/
Experts now say “climate havens” are not places immune from climate change, but areas where adequate preparation is implemented to account for a drastically different climate than anticipated.
Great Lakes cities, like Chicago, are generally considered to be at a lower risk for extreme climate impacts such as wildfires and tropical storms.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/09/chicago-reveals-climate-havens-dont-exist-they-must-be-created/
Plastic is the dominant source of beach trash in the Great Lakes region.
That’s the finding by the Chicago-based non-profit Alliance for the Great Lakes in a recently released report that analyzed beach litter picked up by its volunteers over the past 20 years.
“Twenty years of data collected by volunteers shows that 86% of the trash was either fully or partially made from plastic,” the Alliance said in a press release.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/09/after-10-million-pieces-of-beach-trash-chicago-advocates-push-for-sustainable-packaging/
There’s a whole lot of energy stuff happening in Michigan.
The push to restart the Palisades nuclear reactor in the southwestern part of the state is gaining steam. So is the opposition. The plant, which shuttered in 2022 amid competition from cheaper energy sources, is now set to receive more than $2.4 billion in public subsidies.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/09/energy-news-roundup-michigan-michigan-michigan/
By Erica Hobbs, Planet Detroit
This article was republished with permission from Planet Detroit. Sign up for Planet Detroit’s weekly newsletter here.
Wetlands don’t often come to mind when thinking about major metropolitan cities like Detroit. Bogs, marshes, vernal pools, and swamps contrast starkly with the city’s skyscrapers, roads, and industrial plants, and up to 90 percent of the area’s wetlands along the Detroit River have been lost since European settlement.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/09/who-working-to-preserve-and-restore-wetlands-in-metro-detroit/
By Danielle Kaeding, Wisconsin Public Radio
This article was republished here with permission from Wisconsin Public Radio.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear a case that could have sweeping effects on state environmental regulators’ authority to force businesses to clean up PFAS pollution under the state’s spills law.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/09/wisconsin-supreme-court-to-hear-case-with-broad-implications-for-pfas-cleanup/
By Zaria Johnson, Ideastream Public Media
This story was originally published by Ideastream.
In Northeast Ohio, composting is becoming more common due, in part, to local organizations sharing knowledge, resources and the benefits of composting for the planet.
Leftovers often end up in the trash rather than in our stomachs.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/09/northeast-ohio-composters-reduce-emissions-from-food-waste-one-pile-at-a-time/
I Speak for the Fish is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor Kathy Johnson, coming out the third Monday of each month. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/09/i-speak-for-the-fish-a-sturgeon-goes-to-wisconsin-and-a-michigan-muskie-visits-new-york/
By Morgan Springer
Points North is a biweekly podcast about the land, water and inhabitants of the Great Lakes.
This episode was shared here with permission from Interlochen Public Radio.
Growing up, Nic Theisen thought farming was a terrible way to make a living.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/09/points-north-labor-mixed-emotions/
By Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco, WBEZ
This coverage is made possible through a partnership between WBEZ and Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Sign up for WBEZ newsletters to get local news you can trust.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/09/major-federal-funding-aims-to-speed-transition-to-clean-energy-in-the-rural-midwest/
Six states were selected by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), to be awarded $5 million in order to test residents for environmental chemical exposures — like PFAS. Four out of the six states are located along the Great Lakes including Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and New York. These biomonitoring grants start September 2024 and go until 2027.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/09/pfas-roundup-four-great-lakess-states-selected-to-test-residents-annually-for-environmental-chemical-exposure/
By Izzy Ross, Grist
This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.
This coverage is made possible through a partnership with Grist and Interlochen Public Radio in Northern Michigan.
Last year, Michigan became one of the latest states to adopt a clean energy standard, passing sweeping legislation that calls for utilities there to use 100 percent clean electricity by 2040 and sets targets for renewable energy development, among other requirements.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/09/michigans-ambitious-clean-energy-laws-face-peninsula-sized-hurdle/
By Kelly House, Bridge Michigan
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; Michigan Public, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; and The Narwhal 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/2024/09/palisades-nuclear-relaunch-gets-more-subsidies-in-michigan-more-backlash/
