BY NYLAH BURTON As a child, Leah Thomas dreamed of becoming a veterinarian. When she arrived at Chapman University in 2013, her fascination with the animal world expanded to studying ecology and declaring a major in environmental science. But Thomas, now 27, was heartbroken to discover how often the environmental movement sidelined people of color. She wrote about […]
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Michigan cities, state step up planning efforts to combat climate change
This is part in an ongoing series about Michiganders working toward climate solutions. Know someone we should write about? Hit reply! SUBSCRIBE TO MICHIGAN CLIMATE NEWS! Climate change has come to Michigan in the form of extreme heat in the southern part of the state, multiple 500-year-floods the Metro Detroit area has experienced in the […]
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From the headlines- April 18 – 22
End of coal: Consumers Energy will stop using coal by 2025 and scale back its plans to purchase new methane gas facilities, according to terms of a proposed settlement. The utility had previously planned to purchase four gas plants but will now only buy one, concentrating instead on adding 8,000 megawatts of solar power and 550 megawatts of battery storage by 2040. […]
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Policy Tracker: Bottle deposits, DTE shutoffs, solar caps
SUBSCRIBE TO MICHIGAN CLIMATE NEWS! Dear Michigan Climate News readers, We asked you what topics we should cover in this newsletter, and we got a resounding response — you want to stay up-to-date on climate solutions, politics, and policy. To that end, in addition to regular solutions-based stories, we will be bringing you this monthly […]
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Achoo! 5 essential reads for pollen season
As spring expands across North America, trees, shrubs and flowers are releasing pollen. This fine, powdery substance is produced by the male structures of cone-bearing and flowering plants. When it’s carried to the plants’ female structures by wind, water or pollinators, fertilization happens. As pollen travels, it also triggers allergies in some 25 million Americans. Pollen exposure […]
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Solar windows made in Michigan, Why Michigan has fewer electric vehicles, lifting the state's solar cap
CO2 2022/2021 420.87 ppm / 418.37 ppm TAKE OUR READER SURVEY HERE! Solar windows: Researchers at the University of Michigan and Michigan State University are developing transparent solar panels that could be used in place of normal windows, dramatically increasing the surface area available for solar energy on buildings. “(I)f a building can create its […]
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Hundreds of salamanders were getting crushed by cars — now Marquette cheers them on
By MAX COPELANDCapital News Service LANSING – It’s a chilly night in Marquette. About 40 degrees and rainy. But that’s not stopping dozens of people from gathering on a short stretch of road in Presque Isle Park. Because after a long, cold winter, blue-spotted salamanders are on the move. Hundreds of salamanders are emerging from their wintertime […]
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From the headlines- April 11 -15
Waiting for help: Many Detroiters continue to wait on financial assistance to help them recover from last summer’s devastating floods. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) sent money to roughly 39,000 families, but 8,204 households are still waiting for aid and 14,163 have had their claims denied. Local utilities may not provide relief either. The Detroit Water and […]
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How to celebrate Earth Day in Metro Detroit—without the greenwashing
An estimated one billion people have participated in Earth Day events every year on April 22 since the day was launched in 1970. But in the five decades since that first Earth Day, the day has, in many ways, been “greenwashed,” defined by the Oxford dictionary as “disinformation disseminated by an organization so as to […]
Posted inAccountability
As utility-scale renewables expand, some Midwest farmers are pushing back
This story was originally published by Grist. You can subscribe to its weekly newsletter here. By: Diana Kruzman, Grist In mid-March, about 80 people gathered in the auditorium of a local high school in Licking County, Ohio, a rural area about 40 minutes outside the state capital. The public hearing, set up to discuss a proposed 350-megawatt […]