Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/author/garywilson/page/12/)
A study released this week called for permanent physical barriers in the Chicago Area Waterways System. Instead of spurring a conversation, groups stuck to preexisting positions.
Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak, was a creative genius that put results ahead of the process.
As collaborations and coalitions proliferate in the Great Lakes region, we need a Wozniak to break us from the chains of groupthink that are stalling environmental progress.
What qualifies a state to be a “Great Lakes state”? Shoreline? Progressive policy-making when dealing with the lakes? While the Great Lakes club has traditionally been determined by geography, perhaps we should start including other factors.
It’s the time of year for wishes.
And I hope you receive yours – Santa and the economy willing.
But let’s not get too comfy with the frivolity and joy of the season.
Here’s my Great Lakes wish list for 2012.
Can the Great Lakes region truly collaborate for the greater good of the eight states … or will it continue to play in a zero sum economic game by competing with each other while the region’s combined strengths go untapped?
Significant constituencies in the Great Lakes region refuse to let go of the old technology and ways of commerce.
And it’s causing serious environmental backsliding.
Water privatization has the potential to impact everyone, not just thousands of poor people who have had their water shut off in Detroit.
The Windward Shore: A Winter on the Great Lakes (University of Michigan Press, 2011) chronicles author Jerry Dennis’s thoughts while retreating to various remote lake homes in the dead of northern Michigan winter.
Canadian and U.S. officials are working to update the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
But the region’s environmental groups are frustrated by the lack of transparency.
The carp fights rage on.
An appeals court ruled against closing the Chicago locks. Now Great Lakes state attorneys are looking for support outside the region.