Echo

VIDEO: Lake Huron discovery is a window on the past and future

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By Sarah Coefield, coefield@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
July 14, 2009

Lake Huron’s depths hide a colorful, ancient world that holds keys to the planet’s history and clues for new cancer treatments and antibiotics. The locals in Alpena have long known about sinkholes just offshore from their northeast Michigan community.  But it will take researchers several years to unravel the local diving spots’ mysteries. The story of the Lake Huron sinkholes and their exotic ecosystems begins on a ship.  While surveying shipwrecks in the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in 2001, Steve Ruberg and his colleagues were surprised to detect underwater basins 300 feet below the surface.  To their trained eyes, the basins looked like sinkholes. The discovery warranted further investigation. “Looking at the data and understanding what was going on, we actually came back and revisited the sites in 2003,” Ruberg said.  Ruberg is an engineer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory and a project leader for the sinkhole research.

Echo

VIDEO: New perennial wheat easier on soil, passes cookie test

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By Steven Davy, stevenrdavy@yahoo.com
Great Lakes Echo
June 23, 2009

Crop and soil sciences researcher Sieglinde Snapp hopes her work at Michigan State University produces a more sustainable wheat. The variety she’s developing doesn’t have to be planted every year, and early research suggests it is easier on the soil, needs less fertilizer and contains more protein and micro-nutrients. It tastes good, too. Federal agriculture officials like the wheat so much they recently awarded the university a $1 million grant to help bring it to market. Snapp and graduate student research assistant Brook Wilke explain in this video the wheat’s research, potential and cookie test.

Echo

VIDEO: Minnesota polar explorer finds evidence of climate change in the Arctic

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By Allison Bush, bushalli@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
June 16, 2009

Minnesota native and nationally renowned polar explorer Will Steger has watched ice melt practically under his feet in the coldest regions of the world. “About 15 years ago, scientists predicted that changes in global warming would first be seen in polar regions,” Steger said recently. “So unfortunately, most of the changes people have not seen yet.”

But Steger, who has traversed both Antarctica and the Arctic, and has spent more than 40 years leading and participating in polar expeditions, says that he has seen the changes first-hand. Along with five other explorers, he crossed more than 3,700 miles of Antarctica in 1989 and 1990. Temperatures were at average 80 degrees below zero, and the team spent six months at an altitude above 7,000 feet.

Echo

Solar energy moving in Michigan, but slowly

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By Joe Vaillancourt
Capital News Service
The University of Michigan competes with a prestigious solar car team. Start-up solar projects in Lansing and at Michigan State University (highlighted in the video to the right) show the potential of solar power in the state. Even signs along Michigan’s freeways are powered by the sun. Despite such advances in efficiency, experts say solar energy and self-sufficient homes aren’t in Michigan’s near future–and not because of weather. Costs, among other concerns, remain too high for most consumers.

Echo

VIDEO: Michigan man creatively unravels climate skeptics’ most popular arguments

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Climate Denial Crock of the Week video debunking skeptics’ notion that natural temperature increases causes carbon dioxide to rise

By Matthew Cimitile, cimitile@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo May 5, 2009
What can a prehistoric family, a scarecrow and Stephen Colbert tell us about climate change? For Peter Sinclair,  clips from The Flintstones, The Wizard of Oz and The Colbert Report are one way to grab your attention while delivering the science behind climate change. Sinclair is one of thousands of volunteers personally trained by former Vice President Al Gore to educate the public about climate change. These presentations raise awareness about the climate crisis and potential solutions. The 55-year-old nurse and graphic designer from Midland, Mich.

Echo

VIDEO: Shine on, shine on capitol lights?

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By Amanda Peterka
Great Lakes Echo

LANSING – The lights usually dim at 6 p.m. in Michigan’s Capitol. The schedule is meant to reduce energy use in Lansing’s historic centerpiece. But when lawmakers are trying to pinch the state’s pennies late into the night during budget crises, lights glow long into the night, wasting energy and the very dollars that the Legislature is trying to save. “The last budget crunch — for a week straight — the lighting wasn’t reduced at all until 1 a.m.,” said Steve Benkovsky, the Capitol’s operations manager who oversees the building’s energy use. Spotlights and incandescent bulbs keep the chambers glowing warmly through the night – to mimic the Capitol’s original gas-lit rooms.

But maintaining appearances is costly.