Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/author/jeffgillies/page/2/)
Deer mice once crossed the Great Lakes and into Michigan’s freshly glacier-free landscape. That surprising feat is unlikely to be repeated as a warming climate pushes them north to the tip of Michigan’s mitten. With animation.
The League of Conservation Voters is only two thirds of the way through filling out its 2010 “Dirty Dozen,” the group’s list of Congressional candidates with unimpressive voting records on clean energy and the environment. But candidates from Great Lakes states have already nabbed three of the eight spots. The lineup so far:
Tim Walberg (R-MI): Smilin’ Tim Walberg (pictured at right) opposed 32 of 33 pieces of environmental legislation the last time he was in office, including the No Child Left Inside Act, an environmental education program. Michelle Bachman (R-MN): A few gems from Bachman herself: “The big thing we are working on now is the global warming hoax. It’s all voodoo, nonsense, hokum, a hoax,” and, “I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back.
The EPA recently began doling out a few of the $161 million worth of Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grants announced in May. The EPA’s list of grants is right here. Here’s a quick list of those getting news coverage. The Toledo Blade reports the removal of the Ballville Dam on the Sandusky River will get $2 million in support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act, a program whose funding saw an $8 million boost from the GLRI. The Detroit News reports a $2.8 million GLRI grant through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will help determine whether contaminants from Grassy Island — a big pile of sediment dredged from the Rouge River — are seeping into the Detroit River.
NOAA’s Great Lakes CoastWatch website is updated daily with satellite images of the lakes. It’s a great site, but unfortunately the images are often simple pictures of the tops of clouds floating over the region. But, as a post on NASA’s Earth Observatory site points out, the sky opened up in late August and gave the agency’s Aqua satellite caught a clear, cloudless glimpse of the Great Lakes region. Click the image above for an absurdly large version of the file.
A 1985 revamp of the plan to restore lake trout in Lake Michigan focused stocking on two relatively shallow, rocky sections of Lake Michigan where fishing for the species was banned.
Mike Nichols doesn’t take a position on global climate change. He just writes newspaper editorials downplaying its effects. Nichols, a senior fellow with the free-market think tank Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, took exception in a recent column to the term “climate chaos,” which has gotten a lot of media play as floods drown Pakistan and a heat wave bakes Russia. In a recent article in the New York Times, reporter Justin Gillis describes the connection between chaotic weather and greenhouse gasses:
“Theory suggests that a world warming up because of those gases will feature heavier rainstorms in summer, bigger snowstorms in winter, more intense droughts in at least some places and more record-breaking heat waves. Scientists and government reports say the statistical evidence shows that much of this is starting to happen.”
U.S. cities are dumping a Niagara of sewage into the Great Lakes.
A recent report recommends sewer upgrades to avoid beach closures and drinking water threats.
Such improvements are not eligible for a recent influx of federal clean up dollars so a coalition of environmental groups is urging a boost in low-interest sewer construction loans.
Mistaken identity.
Snakeheads, a scary looking potential Great Lakes invader, apparently have not yet been discovered within the system.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency got tough on the nation’s cement plants this week, issuing new pollution standards that will force the industry to cut air emissions of soot and harmful chemicals like mercury.
Michigan lawmakers approved a package of “complete streets” laws Wednesday that requires the state and local governments to plan for the safety and convenience of bike and foot traffic when building roads.