Great Lakes Blogger

Nader reaches nadir

Surprise -- he's running!

Shock: he admits there are differences between McCain and Obama -- but they just aren't enough to keep him out. In 2000, he said there was no real difference between Gore and Bush. Experience suggests he was wrong then too. To name a few: climate change, clean water and the Great Lakes. Gore had a plan he was ready to implement for the Lakes. It took Bush until his re-election to promise such a plan; and four years after that it's unimplemented and poorly funded.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/us/politics/25nader.html?ref=politics

The destructive ego trip worsens.

Minnesota's dwindling moose population

Here's a mystery worth unraveling:

Something strange is killing the moose of northern Minnesota, and wildlife scientists hope Moose 294 and others like it can provide some clues as to why. The task is urgent: In the course of a few years, the number of moose in northwestern Minnesota has plummeted to near extinction.

http://www.startribune.com/local/15895882.html

Lenarz pointed out that global warming, or at least the winter warming in northwestern Minnesota in the past 40 years, can be regarded as a "proximate" cause of increasing moose deaths. That means it's a context that creates the more direct causes or vulnerabilities, much like alcoholism might lead to a person's death from liver failure.

Mean midwinter temperatures in northwest Minnesota increased about 11 degrees from 1961-2001, astonishing by most climate change measures; Lenarz said researchers are still examining the trends in the northeast. Schrage said he believes mild winters and longer growing seasons are a threat to the northeast moose, but they don't explain everything.  

will Michigan be last on the compact?

Gov. Jim Doyle urged the Wisconsin Legislature on Friday to approve the Great Lakes Compact designed to prevent thirsty regions from tapping the area's valuable water supply.

http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/michigan/index.ssf?/base/business-15/1203728042169660.xml&storylist=michigannews

lunar eclipse over the 6th Great Lake

How can you not love the Lakes when you see a photo like the one atop the link? But all of these photos are gorgeous.

http://detroitd.blogspot.com/2008/02/st-clair-de-lune-eclipse-over-lake-st.html

toxic cleanup: no help from the Bay City Times

Now that popular work in Michigan to clean polluted sites and redevelop former industrial properties has run out of money, there's a natural reaction to grab for more cash.

But from where?

http://www.mlive.com/columns/bctimes/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1203524115103140.xml&coll=4

Posing the question -- and acknowledging a need (which amounts to more than $150 million a year in state estimates), this editorial rejects the idea of a voter-approved bond. And it then offers platitudes about going after more polluters for the cost of cleanup -- something made nigh impossible by a 1995 Michigan law -- and other phony alternatives. Either Michigan comes up with an earmarked tax or fee for cleanup, or its legacy of contamination persists and worsens.

a warming Lake Superior

Good piece on what it may mean for fish and other living things...

http://www.minnpost.com/stories/2008/02/20/890/its_cold_outside_but_lake_superior_is_getting_warmer

the solution for invasive species?

This author suggests, tongue-in-cheek one hopes, that we should just learn to eat Asian carp as a staple.

One practical problem: when the idea of selling Great Lakes sea lamprey to European consumers was broached a few years back, contaminant levels were considered too high to make it safe or advisable. Carp are not likely to be contaminant-free. (But Europeans do love their lamprey.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/20/opinion/20grescoe.html?em&ex=1203656400&en=f664086f9bfc7f8d&ei=5087%0A

in anticipation of a spring thaw any day now...

A photo of magnificent cold spray over a Lake Michigan lighthouse.

http://flickr.com/photos/10199807@N00/2254346117/

looking for water in all the wrong places...

Just remember, Sunbelt states; the easiest water to access is the water you conserve at home.

If there's one thing Michigan has, it's fresh water.

 

But now, the Department of the Interior is preparing a 10-year study to determine the nation's water use, supplies and future needs. The department said the study is necessary because of chronic water shortages, dramatic population growth and the potential for water conflicts.

 

Water diversion is not mentioned in the Interior news release, or even the Great Lakes specifically. But there's concern the Great Lakes fresh water repository is being eyed by many.

 

Such as those in the desert Southwest.

http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7888871&nav=0Rce

smothered GL report makes Washington Post

The lead author and peer reviewers of a government report raising the possibility of public health threats from industrial contamination throughout the Great Lakes region are charging that the report is being suppressed because of the questions it raises. The author also alleges that he was demoted because of the report.

Chris De Rosa, former director of the division of toxicology and environmental medicine at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), charges that the report he wrote was a significant factor in his reassignment to a non-supervisory "special assistant" position last year.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/17/AR2008021702186.html?hpid=topnews