Time Magazine just released its list of the world’s most influential individuals of 2010.
From pioneers to pop stars and politicians, the Time 100 claims to be a testament to the power of people.
Several honorees have a direct impact on the Great Lakes region.
BARACK OBAMA
United States President Barack Obama’s receptivity and “ability to coordinate wildly varying political interests” earned him a spot in the leader category. Time has listed the former junior senator from Illinois five times.
But it’s not just the president’s home state that gives him regional cred. Obama approved $475 million for Great Lakes cleanup last September. Here’s what the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative means for the region.
LISA JACKSON
Time likened the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s reputation to a “political wind sock.” But the magazine said that EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson made the list for resisting the currents and attempting to restore the public faith in the agency.
Jackson may have a misperception about the size of the Great Lakes. But she is deeply involved in the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, and for good reason. Last year, Jackson told the Great Lakes Commission that the region drives national water policy.
Allen
WILL ALLEN
Will Allen proves you can grow food just about anywhere, including Wisconsin’s largest city.
Time’s 62-year-old “hero” started Growing Power Inc. to give urban dwellers a chance at healthy, affordable food.
Allen operates a 20-acre community food center in Milwaukee and helps urban communities throughout the region set up similar projects.
Check out Echo’s story on this atypical farmer.
SOCIAL NETWORKING
Time also judged this year’s influential people on their social networking popularity using a mathematical formula based on Facebook and Twitter followers. Obama had the highest social-networking score, but was nearly eclipsed by Lady Gaga.
Here’s the Time 100 list again. Who else is important to the Great Lakes?
Better yet, did Time miss someone with Great Lakes ties who should have been on it? Should the magazine have included Lynn Henning, winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize for exposing pollution from Michigan livestock farms?
Or how about any of the Friday Five recently profiled on Great Lakes Echo?
Sadly the Coast Guard has had a long standing culture of not being interested in addressing ballast water, perhaps this is why we have their proposals with a lengthy timeline. This administration, for all their rhetoric about going green has not encouraged legislation in congress to address ballast water despite the largest elected voice of the American people passing legislation in 2008 395-7. This was while the 3 highest members of this administration were Senators and when the Senate would not address the issue because they considered the issue of dumping pathogens in Us waters a states rights issue. Now with uncontrolled oil spilling into shipping lanes to be spread around the world by ballast system this administration is going to allow the Coast Guard to follow the lead of another (international) organization representing business,the IMO. This despite a report in late 2009 for congress describing how national legislation for ballast water would effect the cost of imports, which would allow the cost of manufacturing to again become competitive in our country. Our largest employers are the big box stores of foreign made consumer products mostly transported into our country by ship. Our Secretary of State calls for quick ratification of the Law of The Sea Treaty despite knowing that creating national ballast water regulation would then be harder to implement, allowing for the cost of foreign goods in big box stores, such as Walmart. our Secretary of States, former employer, to remain cheap, while the President negotiates currency manipulation and hidden carbon emissions with a communist country to create more jobs for Americans. It is time for American to stand up and let our politicians know that we are sick of allowing business interest the rights to destroy our countries environment. We now need an ocean restoration project. Going green is not restoration but prevention.
I think it’s too early to put Jackson in the Hall of Fame.
She’s being compared to her immediate predecessor so whatever she does
will be an improvement.
And as far as being guided by the science as Time points out, it’s still too soon to tell. The EPA flubbed in the early stages of the Asian Carp crisis by saying that the eDNA wasn’t yet suitable for management decisions.
Because if it was, that would have meant closing the locks leading to Lake Michigan as a precautionary measure until the Army Corps and the EPA could figure out what it was up against. And that would have gone against the political grain.
I’m cautiously optimistic about Jackson but let’s keep tracking her performance before we crown her.
gw