Published: 10/6/2010
Types: News, Environmental
A few years ago, a mid-Michigan group of fly fishermen won their immediate court fight to prevent an energy company's wastewater from being piped across state land and into the headwaters of their treasured Au Sable River. An Otsego County judge stopped the pipeline, which would have pumped more th...[MORE]
Published: 8/25/2010
Types: News, Environmental
How important are sustainability practices and environmental policies at a particular college or university to prospective students? Well, if you believe the folks at the Princeton Review, the answer often is: very important. For 19 years, the Princeton Review — those good folks who help you...[MORE]
Published: 8/25/2010
Types: News, Environmental
Readers of this column have figured out by now that there ain't no nuclear physicists manning the desks here at News Hits central. And usually that doesn't much matter. It does, however, make a difference this week, because at least an associate's degree in radiology might help us sort through the...[MORE]
Published: 8/4/2010
Types: News, Environmental
One of those tree-hugging environmental wacko liberals here at the Metro Times (the one writing this very column, actually) recently reported on a group of Michigan environmentalists protesting the proposed construction of a pipeline that would carry tar sands — also known as heavy crude &mdas...[MORE]
By Curt Guyette
Published: 7/14/2010
Types: News, Environmental
The question is an obvious one: Why would a handful of local environmentalists and a state representative gather downtown near the spirit of Detroit statue last week to announce their opposition to a proposed oil pipeline that would run from Canada to Texas, coming nowhere near Michigan? It's a str...[MORE]
Published: 7/7/2010
Types: News, Environmental
At this point there are as many questions as answers, but one thing is certain: The owners of Detroit's incinerator are negotiating sale of the facility to the company that provides steam for heating and cooling buildings to 104 downtown and midtown customers — including the city of Detroit. ...[MORE]
Published: 6/30/2010
Types: News, Environmental
The spin was dizzying last week after the discovery of a 20-pound Asian carp beyond the Illinois waterway barriers that were supposed to keep the invasive fish from the Great Lakes. Politicians, scientists, environmental groups and chemical peddlers issued press releases urging acceptance of their ...[MORE]
Published: 6/23/2010
Types: News, Environmental
Right smack dab in the middle of town I've found a paradise that's trouble proof —"Up on the Roof" by Gerry Goffin and Carole King Standing on the roof at 71 Garfield St. on a recent late afternoon, the sun beat down mercilessly on our small group and reflected off the white rub...[MORE]
Published: 5/26/2010
Types: News, Environmental
Old Teddy Roosevelt oughta be angrily looking down and shaking his fist at those who run his Republican Party today. Bill Milliken is sitting up in Traverse City, presumably shaking his head. Once upon a time, Republicans like these two men were leaders in the conservation and environmental movemen...[MORE]
By Curt Guyette
Published: 5/12/2010
Types: News, Environmental
Note to City Council: When it comes to the Detroit waste-to-energy facility, otherwise known as the incinerator, we are here to help. A lot of you are new to the body and, as rookies, have a lot to assimilate. The city's financial predicament is dire, and the number of complicated issues you have t...[MORE]
By Curt Guyette
Published: 5/5/2010
Types: News, Environmental
Two recent events in the Detroit area represent what might be described as the yin and the yang of an issue expected to play a significant role in Michigan's environmental and economic future: wind power. First there was the Michigan Wind Energy Conference, held in late April at Cobo Center. Among ...[MORE]
Published: 4/28/2010
Types: News, Environmental
In the worst-case scenario, all that's preventing Lake St. Clair from becoming a field of giant jumping carp is some poisonings, a few nets and an underwater Taser of sorts: electric "fences" in Illinois waterways designed to keep the invasive fish from reaching the Great Lakes. Because i...[MORE]
Published: 4/28/2010
Types: News, Environmental
The test that detected Asian carp's environmental DNA, or eDNA, above the electric barrier in the Chicago waterways leading to Lake Michigan, was developed in the past year by New Zealand scientist Lindsay Chadderton and researchers at Notre Dame. They say this is the first time DNA testing has been...[MORE]
Published: 4/21/2010
Types: News, Environmental
As a recreational sailor, Rep. Tim Bledsoe (D-Grosse Pointe) is familiar with the challenges of sailing on Lake St. Clair on hot summer days. Drifting is more like it, as the lake, affectionately known as "Lake St. Stupid," often doesn't offer much breeze. On the stillest of days, there c...[MORE]
Published: 4/14/2010
Types: News, Environmental
During his 30 years in the Arkansas fish industry, Mike Freeze has watched federal and state government agencies change from being cheerleaders to exterminators when it comes to Asian carp. Freeze is a former Arkansas Game and Fish commissioner who worked for the agency in the late 1970s. He knew t...[MORE]
Published: 4/7/2010
Types: News, Environmental
Proponents of wind turbines tout their ability to cleanly generate power, transmit it to the grid and do so without the pollution of coal plants and potential dangers of nuclear sites. But opponents of the giant propellers worry about the noise they create along with threats to birds, disruption to...[MORE]
Published: 3/17/2010
Types: News, Environmental
Asian carp, climate change and clean energy are among the priorities for Nick Schroeck, the new executive director of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center. The Detroit-based nonprofit center is affiliated with the Wayne State University Law School's new environmental law clinic, which started l...[MORE]
Published: 3/10/2010
Types: News, Environmental
When I was a kid, my mother used to make a big jar of honey and fresh-squeezed lemon juice every winter. The thick, bittersweet concoction was our cough medicine, and we would gladly line up for a spoon of that rather than cod liver oil or castor oil — both of which were also freely passed out...[MORE]
Published: 2/24/2010
Types: News, Environmental
Published: 2/24/2010
Types: News, Environmental
Scientists, lawyers and the hosting politician had the to-be-expected informative and persuasive presentations at a forum Monday, Feb. 22, about what it would mean for Lake St. Clair and the Great Lakes if Asian carp breach barriers to rivers and canals in Indiana and Illinois and enter Lake Michiga...[MORE]
Published: 12/16/2009
Types: News, Environmental
You probably know far more about Tiger Woods' sex life than you do about large Asian carp. That's a serious indication of what's wrong with journalism today, and maybe this nation. Here's what you need to know about Tiger Woods: Almost certainly, he is not going to come to your house and have sex w...[MORE]
By Curt Guyette
Published: 11/25/2009
Types: News, Environmental
When it comes to curbside recycling in Detroit, city officials and activists looking to boost participation in a pilot program are hoping children can help lead the way to a greener future. It's help that is definitely needed. In place since July 1, Detroit's pilot program offers curbside recyclin...[MORE]
Published: 10/28/2009
Types: News, Environmental
That Bill Milliken has always been an insight guy. As governor from 1969 to 1983, he worked for education reform, urban policy and civil rights. He signed the state's Freedom of Information Act, which allows the public to access governmental records. He ushered through environmental protection meas...[MORE]
Published: 9/2/2009
Types: News, Environmental
At last week's meeting of the Environmental Justice Committee that she chairs, Detroit City Council member JoAnn Watson noted that she frequently talks with people who think efforts last year to close the city's municipal waste incinerator were successful. The mistake is understandable, considering...[MORE]
Published: 7/29/2009
Types: News, Environmental
When environmentalists and alternative energy advocates last pushed the Michigan Legislature to enact renewable energy standards, the best they could do was the passage of legislation mandating that, by the year 2015, 10 percent of the state's power would be generated by solar panels, wind turbines ...[MORE]
Published: 7/22/2009
Types: News, Environmental
When Canadian filmmaker Liz Miller's documentary The Water Front was released two years ago, local environmental groups met to discuss how they could use the film as an educational and organizing tool. After all, water advocates thought, if access to clean and affordable water was threatened in Hig...[MORE]
Published: 7/8/2009
Types: News, Environmental
The July 1 deadline for deciding the long-term future for disposal of Detroit's garbage has come and gone, but we here at the Hits, even with a fixation on the issue that borders on the unnatural, can't tell you with any certainty what that future will be. And part of the reason we don't know what'...[MORE]
By Curt Guyette
Published: 6/24/2009
Types: News, Environmental
One year ago, it looked as if the question of what to do with Detroit's garbage had been settled. A coalition of environmental and health groups had apparently succeeded in convincing the city's leaders to stop burning trash at a municipal incinerator that produces steam and electricity; instead the...[MORE]
Published: 5/27/2009
Types: News, Environmental
As promised, News Hits has been keeping close tabs on the issue of Detroit's garbage and the question of what to do with it come July 1. That we're just five weeks from that contract deadline and still don't know for certain whether the city will continue burning 5.5 million pounds of trash da...[MORE]
Published: 5/20/2009
Types: News, Environmental
I'm not the biggest meat eater around, but consuming dead animal flesh is OK with me — in moderation. I was a vegetarian for about seven years but gave in when I started craving meat. I read somewhere that your body will tell you what it needs, and I decided to listen. Or as funkmeister ...[MORE]
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