Echo

Getting the measure of the green economy: Enviro jobs are hard to count

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By Brian Laskowski and Agnieszka Spieszny

Detroit Workers for Environmental Justice runs a green-jobs training program for low-income or unemployed Detroiters, some of whom formerly worked for the auto industry. Kinnus Paul said his organization boasts a 100 percent job placement mostly in hands-on clean-up work. “You have to clean up before you green up” is the agency’s motto, the job developer jokes. Jobs include hazardous waste clean up, lead and asbestos abatement, weatherization installation. But while Paul knows a green job when he sees one, government agencies tracking an activity they hope fuels the economy struggle with the definition.

Echo

Column: Can a kind man kill?

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Cast your vote: Should Andy hunt? By Andy McGlashen
Nov. 10, 2009

Last week I watched the great John Huston film The Misfits, and there’s a scene I can’t get out of my head.  Clark Gable, Eli Wallach and Montgomery Clift have taken Marilyn Monroe with them on a “mustanging” trip into some Nevada mountains. Monroe goes into hysterics when she learns that the men aren’t wrangling wild horses so birthday girls can lope around on them — they’re to be slaughtered for dog food.  “Honey, a kind man can kill,” Gable says, as much to convince himself as to calm her.  “No,” she insists.  “He can’t.”

The scene resonates because I want to take part in Michigan’s firearm deer season, which opens on November 15, but I’m not sure if I should.  I can’t decide if a kind man can kill. I used to be a deer hunter, and still am in thought if not in deed.  My driving becomes somewhat serpentine in farm country where the fields want a good looking-over.  If I’m lucky enough to spot a band of whitetails, some old urge still gnaws at me if any of them sports an ivory-hued rack.  I still look for rubs and tracks in the woods.  I sometimes crave venison stew.

Wildlife

PFCs are contaminant of new concern in Indiana Dunes’ great blue herons

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What do cologne and Indiana’s great blue herons have in common? They both contain chemicals that are increasingly worrisome to Great Lakes officials. A list of contaminants of emerging concern includes synthetic musks and perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs. Musks are a key ingredient of perfume. PFCs have had a bevy of industrial uses including fire-fighting foams and stain-resistant Scotchgard.

Echo

Climate change study to help cherry growers assess global supply, markets and competitors

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By Steve Davy
Nov. 6, 2009

Despite the global nature of modern industries there has never been a study measuring the impact of climate change across an industry. Until now. The National Science Foundation recently awarded a $1.5 million grant to an international research team to study climate change and the tart cherry industry. The aim of the study is to provide tart cherry farmers with a global perspective on their industry.

Nearshore

Report: Climate change greatest threat to national parks; Indiana Dunes among most at risk

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Click each park to see its threats. View Great Lakes Parks in Peril in a larger map
By Haley Walker and Yang Zhang
Nov. 4, 2009

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is among U.S. national parks most vulnerable to climate change, according to a recent report. The park on the southern end of Lake Michigan faces an increase in flooding, overcrowding and air pollution and a loss of wildlife, plants and fish. Other parks in the Great Lakes region are also at risk of these effects.

Echo

New Great Lakes quiz

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Echo’s quiz matching you with a Great Lake went so well that we’re developing another. The twist:

It’s about Great Lakes invasive species, a group that few people ascribe characteristics with which they associate themselves. So we’re trying another tack:
Which Great Lakes invasive species is your former significant other? There is some low-hanging fruit – people who continue to cling to their exes like zebra mussels or suck the life out of them like sea lampreys. But you’re more creative than that.

Wildlife

Great Lakes wolf stars in political drama

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By Alice Rossignol
Nov. 3, 2009

As a boy, David Radaich’s father shot wolves that wandered onto the family cattle farm in northeast Minnesota. Now a beef cattle producer himself, Radaich tries to deal with wolves in a legal and ethical way. But it’s not easy. “The challenge seems to be increasing in the last couple of years,” Radaich said.

Echo

Great Lakes skies clearing of particulates; Chicago no longer on violator list

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By Sarah Coefield
Nov. 2, 2009

Great Lakes particle polluters are cleaning up their acts. The number of areas violating one particulate pollution standard has fallen from 36 to 12 in the past year, according to a recent report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Large cities like Detroit, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and New York City still report problems. But Chicago is notably absent from the list of particulate polluters. While their compositions vary, the particles in question are all about the same size: small.  In this case, 2.5 micrometers, or about 100 times thinner than a human hair.

Echo

Rate your climate change concern

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This survey shows where you fall on the spectrum of American attitudes toward climate change. This Echo story reports that Great Lakes residents worry less about it than the national average.