Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/author/guest-contributor/page/31/)
The Michigan Public Transit Association has launched an information advocacy campaign to fill hiring needs and increase ridership. The advocacy initiative includes television, radio, billboard and social media campaigns and is expected to continue into May.
In a small back room of an aquarium in a Michigan suburban mall lies a tank of endangered corals native to places more than a thousand miles away.
Michigan ranks eighth in the country for potato production and contributes about $1.2 billion annually to the state’s economy. Disease is a common concern among farmers, inspiring research partnerships.
As Michigan and other states gradually move away from coal and other brown energy sources, there’s growing interest in carbon-free alternatives, including nuclear energy, which some advocates call a “clean alternative” that now fuels 30% of Michigan’s total electricity. With Palisades and other plants in the Great Lakes region scheduled to shut down in the coming decades, more people are considering the long-term impacts of this energy source.
Eight nuclear reactors at six sites have been shut down permanently in the Great Lakes region. Proper decommissioning takes approximately 30 years to complete. Strict procedures and laws set by the NRC and other agencies are intended to ensure that U.S. nuclear plants operate and decommission in a way that is safe for the environment and public. While no accidents at nuclear plants in the Great Lakes region have had a severe impact on water quality, government officials are still debating the proper way to store nuclear fuel and the impacts it can make.
Banning natural gas hookups in new homes and businesses at the local level is the latest example of environmental extremism, according to Michigan state Sen. Dale Zorn, R-Ida, who proposes prohibiting local bans.
In the Great Lakes region there are community fridges in such major cities as Milwaukee, Madison, Chicago, Cleveland and Toronto. Community fridges are working fridges, usually connected to an organization, that provide free food to passersby. The concept is to take what you need and bring what you can.
As local governments wrestle with the question of how to spend their share of American Rescue Plan Act money from Washington, some are earmarking it to improve broadband access and affordability for their residents.
As the first year of the Biden administration ends at a time that some experts call the “greatest transition in energy infrastructure” and the “third energy revolution,” it may be opportune to check on some of the top energy issues facing Michigan in the future. Here are three of them.
A century after National Geographic published its article on berries, Michigan is witnessing some changes due to climate change and invasive species.