Solutions

Stories that offer environmental solutions.

ENVIRO JUSTICE DATA MAP: MiEJScreen is an online tool that maps how health and socioeconomic factors intersect with environmental contamination. Source: Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy

Michigan updates data sharing tool on environmental justice

By Elinor Epperson | August 20, 2024

By Elinor Epperson

Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy has updated an online tool that maps which communities may be most susceptible to adverse effects from pollution. The department first released MiEJScreen as a draft in 2022, but released an updated version in early August after seeking public comment. It says it hopes the tool will make it easier for advocates, residents and government officials to understand how environmental contamination affects different populations in their community. The tool combines data about health, socioeconomic and environmental factors to determine which communities are at higher risk of adverse effects from pollution. The data reflect what residents have known for a while, Regina Strong said.

Limited access to health care contributes to higher rural death rates

Nature has clues to solve environmental problems

Wisconsin court case paves way for bird-friendly buildings

Rural reporting needs trust, common ground

Solutions

Experts give insights on effective, ethical environmental reporting

By Guest Contributor | April 30, 2024

Environmental reporting experts at the recent Society of Environmental Journalists conference in Philadelphia discussed how to report on climate in a more productive way.

Allen Arthur, the engagement director at Solutions Journalism Network, emphasized the need to avoid negative sentiments while engaging in the climate crisis dialogue to promote engagement in community-based activities.

Solutions

Rethinking environmental journalism education

By Shealyn Paulis | April 24, 2024

Environmental journalists and educators face a changing media field and systemic barriers that make it difficult to improve the profession.

Experts at a recent Society of Environmental Journalists conference in Philadelphia addressed some of these challenges to reimagine a more sustainable system.

Solutions

How to be a responsible watchdog

By Anna Barnes | April 17, 2024

What do you do when an employee comes forward, exposing their company for wrongdoing?

Environmental journalists discussed how to handle that situation at a recent Society of Environmental Journalist Conference in Philadelphia.

Solutions

Reporting the environmental impact of war

By Gabrielle Nelson | April 16, 2024

Fields pockmarked by bombs, forests torn up by trenches and littered with landmines, cities around the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine flooded and then left with a water shortage as the reservoir dries up.

These scenes in Ukraine and Gaza are a few examples of how war leaves long lasting damage to the environment.

Solutions

Dingell talks environmental priorities in election year

By Eric Freedman | April 8, 2024

When U.S. Rep.-to-be Debbie Dingell was growing up in St. Clair, she’d get in an inner tube and ride in the wake of freighters passing on the St. Clair River.

She fished there too.

Solutions

Liaison office would be first to connect tribes and Legislature

By Guest Contributor | April 3, 2024

While the House and Senate have never had a direct, official connection to tribal governments throughout Michigan, new legislation could change that.

A bill would make Michigan the first state with a formal legislative connection with its tribal governments,

Solutions

Study offers new insights into farming-related injuries

By Guest Contributor | April 2, 2024

A tractor falls on you. A horse kicks you. A cow pins you against the side of a barn. Your hand gets caught in a corn shucker.

These are just some of the accidents Michigan State University researcher Laurel Morano documented in her recent study of agriculture-related injuries – and only among the most dramatic examples of the dangers farmers face every day on the job.

Solutions

Challenges, reduced public trust confront local health agencies

By Guest Contributor | March 29, 2024

Steve Hall used to call public health “the invisible profession.”

“Previously, when we did our jobs well, people didn’t know about us,” said Hall, who for 10 years has been the health officer for the Central Michigan District Health Department.

Solutions

Scrutiny builds as Michigan awaits first ‘chemical recycling’ facility

By Guest Contributor | March 28, 2024

When Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed off on expansive recycling reforms in December 2022, she also approved a last-minute amendment allowing chemical recycling — a process decried by many environmentalists — to be classified as a legal manufacturing process.

Chemical recycling, specifically the commonly used plastic pyrolysis process, turns plastic into fuel.

Solutions

Advocates call for more protection of migrant farmworkers

By Guest Contributor | March 27, 2024

The number of farmhands in Michigan working on H-2A visas — which allow farms that are struggling to hire U.S. workers to bring in temporary laborers from other countries—increased from 277 in 2010 to over 15,000 in 2023, according to the Michigan Farm Bureau.