Climate

Green infrastructure job trainings aim to support growing field

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By Elinor Epperson

As more green infrastructure projects are installed across the state, more workers are needed to maintain them. Friends of the Rouge, a Detroit-area nonprofit that manages the River Rouge watershed, is offering a short course about maintaining green infrastructure like rain gardens. The course is an opportunity for workers to expand their job skills and contribute to green projects in the metropolitan area. Cyndi Ross, the restoration manager at Friends of the Rouge, said more green projects in the city means more trained workers are needed. “It’s in demand, and the demand is growing,” she said.

Every summer, toxic algae blooms form on Lake Erie, posing a health risk to humans and animals. Image: National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science
Climate

Experts predict moderate Lake Erie toxic algae bloom

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By Gabrielle Nelson

Lake Erie’s annual algae bloom has begun to form weeks ahead of schedule off the coast of southeast Michigan, but scientists say they expect only a moderate bloom this year. “There was scum off Monroe,” said Richard Stumpf, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration oceanographer who leads the federal government’s bloom forecasting effort. “It’s not huge now, about 20 square kilometers (7.7 square miles), but it has actually started up in that area.”

Cyanobacteria, known as blue-green algae, fouls hundreds of square miles of western Lake Erie every summer, typically from July to October. The putrid, sometimes toxic, blooms pose a risk to human and animal health and the region’s tourism economy. Under the right conditions, they produce harmful toxins that can sicken humans and kill pets.

: Record-setting heat waves are becoming more frequent due to climate change. Image: JJ Gouin/Adobe Stock
Climate

Heat waves are a sign of ‘creeping changes’ in climate, expert says

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By Elinor Epperson

There’s no easy way to say it: The heat is only getting worse. Extreme heat events in the Great Lakes region will only become more frequent as climate change warms the oceans, lakes and air, a University of Michigan climate expert said. And the earlier that heat waves start each season, the more there may be in the months to come. Richard Rood is a professor emeritus at the University of Michigan Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering. He said extreme weather will change what feels “normal” for each season.

Climate

Are Great Lakes cities ready for climate migrants?

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A California woman on “The Daily Show” recently swapped her sandals for snowshoes after moving to Duluth to escape her state’s wildfires.

The Comedy Central show featured Duluth as a climate haven, an ideal place to live to avoid wildfires, droughts, hurricanes and extreme flooding. 

Climate

Dirty steelmaking unfairly threatens low-income communities

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Michigan residents and activists are pushing the auto and steel industries to buy cleaner, more sustainable steel to clean up pollution in the Detroit-Dearborn area. 

Recently Industrious Labs, a climate advocacy group, gave guided tours of Detroit and Dearborn auto and steelmaking factories to try to convince automakers to switch from steel produced traditionally into sustainable, cleaner steel.