Which Great Lakes fishery do the Asian carp threaten? The $7 billion one or the $4.5 billion one? Does that include the commercial fishery? What about Canada?
A couple natural resource economists help us settle up.

I have been groomed to be an “organic food snob.”
I munched on whole grain bread with organic peanut butter and jelly, organic apples and grapes as a 5-year old in the cafeteria. I had organic carrot cake for every birthday until I was 16 and trips to the local farmers market in my family were made more frequently than trips to any major supermarket.
So, today I guess that it is understandable that I feel very comfortable spending a significant part of my income buying groceries with the organic label on …

Mercury and PCBs in Lake St. Clair fish dropped rapidly when polluters closed up shop and dredging removed toxic hotspots.

But fish consumption advisories for the lake won’t be going away any time soon.

The government is doling out $300 million nationwide for clunker appliances to spur economic growth and encourage the use of energy-efficient refrigerators, washers and dryers and heating and cooling systems.

Under the category “Cool Things on the Web”, I’d like to file the Great Lakes virtual tour by NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.
The tour uses a Google Earth plugin and narration to navigate the Lakes.  My favorite part of the tour is the Lake Huron sinkholes by the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
I wrote a series of articles on the sinkholes last summer, and am always pleased to give them a shout out.
The tour works fine online, but if you have Google Earth on your computer you can download …

The Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies – a joint effort between UW-Madison, NOAA and NASA – runs a blog featuring posts of weather-related satellite imagery. The posts often include beefy animated images of things like volcanoes in the West Indies and potential vorticity anomalies on the California coast.
Luckily, the institute’s Wisconsin bias sometimes shows through and they offer up cool Great Lakes scenes. In December, they put together this mesmerizing shot of cloud bands streaming over Lake Superior.

Photo: University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center

Be sure to let …

Spotting a bald eagle may not be a big deal for people who live in Alaska, along the East and West Coasts, the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River, where the large, predatory raptor lives year-round.
But Great Lakes staters take what we can get when we get it.
Below are the best spots in each of the Great Lakes states to spy the national bird, courtesy of the National Wildlife Federation.
And once you see one, ask the bald eagle why it finally decided to clarify its stance on war.
Indiana
Monroe Lake, (812) …

More than a decade ago, Maplewood, Minn., officials began creating rain gardens whenever they rebuilt streets.

The shallow basins collect rainwater that washes pollutants into lakes and streams.

A Great Lakes swing state is a bit more, well, swinging, now that Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh announced he would retire this year.
So what does it mean for the basin?
It depends on how you link political parties to environmental protection. The retirement of Bayh, who was once rumored to be President Barack Obama’s VP choice, puts his Indiana seat in play for Republicans.
Bayh has $13 million on hand for his campaign, and recent polls had him leading his Republican challengers, former Sen. Dan Coats and former congressman John Hostettler, by …

When the number of people having trouble feeding themselves and their families increases, and the services that are instituted to help them, suffer at the same time, what I call “an equation of desperation” is created. Food isn’t really a commodity, and if it isn’t available, there certainly aren’t replacements. I mean, hell…the stuff has generated wars and caused people to do outrageous, unspeakable things. So, while we may not be to that point yet in the United States, could it get there if the system that was put in …