Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/tag/commentary/page/17/)
Opinion and commentary about Great Lakes issues.
Each month Echo commentator Gary Wilson recaps news from around the basin.
This week, Gary reflects on Great Lakes Week, the International Joint Commission’s recommendations to fight algal blooms and water use in fracking.
You can’t grow audience without capturing the attention of those who might be interested but don’t know it. Perhaps environmental journalists should worry less about the people already eager to consume their content and go after a new set of eyeballs.
Andy McGlashen, a former Echo reporter and an alum of the graduate program at Michigan State University’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism, showed his Great Lakes roots recently on the Jimmy Fallon Show. McGlashen was called up from the audience to participate in the program’s Wheel of Game Shows segment. Fallon immediately asked, “What is your name and what is on your shirt.” McGlashen said he was sporting the outlines of each of the Great Lakes of Michigan. Fallon’s response: “Hey, very cool. I love that.”
Great Lakes cormorants with deformed beaks like this one were used by members of Great Lakes United in the 1980s to lobby Congress for stricter pollution regulations.
The binational organization claims many longtime respected researchers and activists among its founders. It recently closed.
Jane Elder, a founding member of GLU when she led Great Lakes programs for the Sierra Club, reflects on the vacuum left by the loss of the binational coalition.
This map shows U.S. rivers scaled to the amount of water they carry. It’s a useful way of looking at things, but incomplete. Without Canadian data, the Great Lakes system is underrepresented.
We’ve got a GLEC and now a GLAB.
What’s the next regional group to emerge?
How about a commission charged with whittling the list of Great Lakes agencies, boards, committees, initiatives, councils and collaboratives?
Lake Erie businesses are gearing up for The Biggest Week in American Birding, scheduled for May 3-12. What fascinates me is how quickly the issue of birding has gelled and what that could mean for the future of energy production and the environment by getting more people engaged with our natural resources.
Great Lakes advocates should focus less on federal funding and more on state issues, such as mining threats, groundwater conservation and risky oil shipments.
Nearshore health is a reflection of positive land use.
The Dust Bowl poses important questions and National Parks provide important answers for the Great Lakes region.
The federal government’s carp czar is holding a public meeting in Chicago today to discuss efforts to prevent Asian carp from establishing in the Great Lakes. Here’s what Great Lakes Echo’s Gary Wilson had to say about the issue on WMUK in Kalamazoo, Mich. The White House Council on Environmental Quality Asian Carp Director John Goss is leading the meeting of the Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee. Information at the bottom of this post explains how to participate at 2 p.m. Central time (3 p.m. Eastern) via webcast.