Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/author/keweir/page/38/)
(MI) Booth Newspapers – The tiny worms, midges and water fleas growing in fish tanks at a university lab represent the invasive organisms that have spread throughout the Great Lakes, often by hitchhiking in the ballast tanks of giant cargo ships. A few miles down the road on the shores of Lake Superior, colorful pipes and several 50,000-gallon tanks can mimic a ship’s ballast water intake and discharge system. More
(NY) The New York Times – Rapid transit systems may hold a key to combating climate change. Emissions from cars, trucks, buses and other vehicles in the booming cities of Asia, Africa and Latin America account for a rapidly growing component of heat-trapping gases linked to global warming. While emissions from industry are decreasing, those related to transportation are expected to rise more than 50 percent by 2030 in industrialized and poorer nations. And 80 percent of that growth will be in the developing world, according to data presented in May at an international conference in Bellagio, Italy, sponsored by the Asian Development Bank and the Clean Air Institute. More
(WI) Wisconsin State Journal – Wisconsin’s timber wolves went back on the federal endangered species list in late June for the third time in 27 months. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has considered them anything but endangered the past five years. More
(NY) The New York Times – In 1985, 47 elk were released in the southern section of Theodore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota. Today, that herd numbers some 900 animals, far more than the park can sustain. The herd needs to be reduced to about 300 in order to bring it into balance with its ecosystem. What to do? More
(NY) The New York Times – When Congress passed a new energy law two years ago, obituaries were written for the incandescent light bulb. The law set tough efficiency standards, due to take effect in 2012, that no traditional incandescent bulb on the market could meet, and a century-old technology that helped create the modern world seemed to be doomed. More
(MI) The Mining Journal – In the near future, Upper Peninsula residents may see rows of willows planted across about 50,000 acres of the region. The fast-growing trees will be planted to feed four U.P. biomass power plants, including ones in L’Anse, White Pine, K.I. Sawyer and Escanaba. More
(MI) Detroit Free Press – PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, were used in various mixtures in hundreds of industrial products starting in 1929. A thick liquid containing PCBs was used in the electrical industry as a cooling and insulating fluid for transformers. More
(MI) Bay City Times – Downtown Midland will become a Farmers Market from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday evenings in July and August. Main will close to through-traffic from Rodd to Townsend to allow farmers to sell produce from the backs of their vehicles in the angled parking spaces. More
(NY) The New York Times –
Desperate to halt the erosion of Louisiana’s coast, officials there are talking about breaking Mississippi River levees south of New Orleans to restore the nourishing flow of muddy water into the state’s marshes. But in a new analysis, scientists at Louisiana State University say inland dams trap so much sediment that the river no longer carries enough to halt marsh loss, especially now that global warming is speeding a rise in sea levels. More
(NY) The New York Times – For the first time since territorial days, rain will be free for the catching here, as more and more thirsty states part ways with one of the most entrenched codes of the West. Precipitation, every last drop or flake, was assigned ownership from the moment it fell in many Western states, making scofflaws of people who scooped rainfall from their own gutters. In some instances, the rights to that water were assigned a century or more ago. More