Human engineering solves age-old problems each day.
But the natural environment has been engineering solutions to solve problems for thousands of years. People are catching on.
Solutions
How to be a responsible watchdog
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What do you do when an employee comes forward, exposing their company for wrongdoing?
Environmental journalists discussed how to handle that situation at a recent Society of Environmental Journalist Conference in Philadelphia.
Solutions
Reporting the environmental impact of war
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Fields pockmarked by bombs, forests torn up by trenches and littered with landmines, cities around the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine flooded and then left with a water shortage as the reservoir dries up.
These scenes in Ukraine and Gaza are a few examples of how war leaves long lasting damage to the environment.
Solutions
Dingell talks environmental priorities in election year
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When U.S. Rep.-to-be Debbie Dingell was growing up in St. Clair, she’d get in an inner tube and ride in the wake of freighters passing on the St. Clair River.
She fished there too.
Solutions
Liaison office would be first to connect tribes and Legislature
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While the House and Senate have never had a direct, official connection to tribal governments throughout Michigan, new legislation could change that.
A bill would make Michigan the first state with a formal legislative connection with its tribal governments,
Solutions
Study offers new insights into farming-related injuries
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A tractor falls on you. A horse kicks you. A cow pins you against the side of a barn. Your hand gets caught in a corn shucker.
These are just some of the accidents Michigan State University researcher Laurel Morano documented in her recent study of agriculture-related injuries – and only among the most dramatic examples of the dangers farmers face every day on the job.
Solutions
Challenges, reduced public trust confront local health agencies
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Steve Hall used to call public health “the invisible profession.”
“Previously, when we did our jobs well, people didn’t know about us,” said Hall, who for 10 years has been the health officer for the Central Michigan District Health Department.
Solutions
Scrutiny builds as Michigan awaits first ‘chemical recycling’ facility
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When Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed off on expansive recycling reforms in December 2022, she also approved a last-minute amendment allowing chemical recycling — a process decried by many environmentalists — to be classified as a legal manufacturing process.
Chemical recycling, specifically the commonly used plastic pyrolysis process, turns plastic into fuel.
Solutions
Advocates call for more protection of migrant farmworkers
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The number of farmhands in Michigan working on H-2A visas — which allow farms that are struggling to hire U.S. workers to bring in temporary laborers from other countries—increased from 277 in 2010 to over 15,000 in 2023, according to the Michigan Farm Bureau.
Solutions
Faced with COVID-era civil rights complaints, Chicago commits to environmental justice
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Chicago is joining a nationwide trend of large cities incorporating equity or justice goals into preparing for climate change’s impact on public health.
The idea is to better protect Black, Hispanic, Indigenous and other socially vulnerable and marginalized communities. That hasn’t always been the case.
Solutions
Telehealth for pets: advocates, experts split on expansion of veterinary video-chats
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Delilah, the 13-year-old cat of Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, D-Livonia, had to visit a veterinarian every time it got a respiratory infection.
That is, until emergency orders by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer during the COVID-19 pandemic allowed a broad expansion of veterinary telehealth, where owners and pets see their vets through video calls.