Mark Covington might live in the city, but he knows a lot about raising farm animals. The lifelong Detroiter is the founder of the Georgia Street Community Collective, an urban farm on the east side. Located near Harper and Gratiot, the site is a combination garden and community center encompassing 17 lots and features a […]
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Climate change brings strange weather, threatens Michigan's forests
CO2 2022/2021 : 417.39 ppm / 414.54 ppm Dear Michigan Climate News readers, Climate change is making a real difference in Michigan's weather patterns. Northern boreal forests may not last to the end of the century. And Ann Arbor will vote on whether to study the feasibility of setting up its own municipal utility. That […]
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From the Headlines- Aug 29 – Sept 2
Rate hike? While DTE Energy pushes for a nearly 9% rate hike, roughly 370,000 residents lost power after heavy storms on Monday. And on Wednesday around 200,000 were still without power with DTE predicting some would have to wait until Saturday to be reconnected. Downed power lines also resulted in the death of a 14-year-old girl in Monroe, while an 8-year-old […]
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A balm in Detroit: How residents find tranquility and togetherness across the city’s green spaces
Researchers say gardens, parks, and other green spaces help boost mental health and offer pathways toward wellness. These Detroiters are taking advantage of nature’s healing effects. Demetrius Thomas felt called to the river. After playing music for a yoga class last Saturday, Thomas didn’t go right back home. Instead, he drove to Belle Isle. All […]
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OPINION: The Inflation Reduction Act is a win for healthcare, but it needs to go further
The classic heart attack patient in medical textbooks is someone who collapsed while shoveling snow. For one 72-year-old metro Detroit resident, it was a flood. The stress of watching flood waters overtake her home, and moving possessions up from the basement, led to a heart attack. This is one example of how climate change is […]
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Great Lakes threatened by toxic coal ash + climate change
CO2 2022/2021 : 417.39 ppm / 414.54 ppm Dear Michigan Climate News readers, What happens to coal after it's burned? It's transformed into toxic coal ash, and it poses a threat across the Great Lakes. In other news, Grand Rapids could feel more like Memphis by 2100 and Michigan could offer crucial habitat for the […]
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Coal ash timebomb ticks away in the Great Lakes
Many coal-fired power plants have been located on the shores of the Great Lakes, and there’s increasing concern that climate change-related flooding could cause water from coal ash ponds – waste ponds storing wet ash that include heavy metals like chromium, arsenic and selenium – could enter Lake Michigan. These impoundments are vulnerable to extreme […]
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From the Headlines- August 22 – 26
Punishing water debt: Highland Park will have to pay a disputed $21 million debt to the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) following a Michigan Court of Appeals ruling. Highland Park Mayor Hubert Yopp says the city was overcharged after being compelled by the state to enter the GLWA system. However, two suburban sewage districts representing Macomb County residents joined […]
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ICYMI: Why carbon fundamentalism won’t solve climate change in Michigan
Planet Detroit’s managing editor Nina Ignaczak spoke with Michelle Martinez, inaugural director of the Tishman Center for Social and Environmental Justice at the University of Michigan’s School for Environment & Sustainability. Martinez has 15 years of experience of practicing environmental justice in her hometown Detroit. Most recently she served as Executive Director of the Michigan […]
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Feeling like home: A Highland Park gardener reflects on her visit to Soul Fire Farm
Social media introduced me to Soul Fire Farm, an Afro-Indigenous-centered community farm committed to uprooting racism and seeding sovereignty in the food system. I would see their posts and photos of Black, Brown and Indigenous people digging and planting and tending animals and think, one day, I will visit that farm. I finally got the […]