By BORJANA ALIACapital News Service LANSING – Energy bills rose in households across the United States after the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study shows. That, in turn, created energy insecurity in many households, which led to looking for techniques for coping with finances and behavior, the researchers said. Financial and behavioral coping techniques include cutting […]
Posted inCommunity
2022: Year in Review
In 2022, metro Detroit averted some of the more spectacular disasters of recent years. There wasn’t the same widespread basement flooding as in 2021, no green ooze appeared on I-696, and the banks of the Detroit River seemed to stop collapsing. But Detroiters continued to deal with the same grinding environmental injustices, including air pollution, […]
Posted inVoices
OPINION | 2022: The year we struck back
To meet the challenges of the global climate crisis, we need bold ideas and to speak truth to power. That’s the idea behind Climate/Justice, a Planet Detroit opinion column written by Detroit-based environmental justice activist Michelle Martinez. Martinez writes not only as an activist but as a mother and fourth-generation Detroiter. Martinez will be donating […]
Posted inSolutions
Hands-on science clubs help bridge gap for underserved students in Dearborn and Detroit
A new partnership between the Huron-Clinton Metroparks and local schools aims to expose underserved students to local outdoor environments while offering career development opportunities. Riverside Academy West middle-school teacher Yvonne Ghedotte told Planet Detroit the program directly impacts students in her school in an economically disadvantaged area of Dearborn, where 100% of students are eligible […]
Posted inSolutions
Iron, salt and water could change power grid
By JAKE CHRISTIECapital News Service LANSING – Batteries come in different sizes: AA, AAA, a 27 billion gallon reservoir of Lake Michigan water. And perhaps someday: a warehouse of iron, salt and water. Those are the basic ingredients for iron-flow batteries, a technology that could help pave the way for the Great Lakes region’s green […]
Posted inAccountability
Eat the weeds, please
By NICOLINE BRADFORDCapital News Service LANSING – Step out into your backyard and what do you see? Look beyond the grass, and a delicious new world will open up to you. From fine dining to TikTok videos, there’s been a renewed interest in foraging and wild food in the past few years. Gabrielle Cerberville, a forager, […]
Posted inAccountability
Climate change is killing our trees, study finds
By MACKENZIE DeRAADCapital News Service A new study by researchers from the University of Michigan, University of Minnesota Twin Cities and their collaborators shows the deadly effect global warming is having on nine North American tree species growing in similar habitats. They looked at balsam fir, white spruce, jack pine, Eastern white pine, red maple, […]
Posted inSolutions
‘Circular economy’ programs aim to reduce trash, build jobs
This story is part of a collaborative series from the Institute for Nonprofit News and five news partners examining climate resilience across the Great Lakes. This reporting was made possible with support from the Joyce Foundation. This piece was originally published in The Land. While meeting with a local farmer two years ago, Eric Diamond of Central […]
Posted inUncategorized
From the Headlines- Dec 5 – 9
Still not fixed: Michigan environmental officials raised fines for Stellantis following seven air quality violations at its auto plant on the east side of Detroit, and are imposing a firm timeline for installing pollution control measures. The total fines for the company were raised from $62,863 to $136,832 after residents complained that the supplemental environmental projects Stellantis proposed […]
Posted inAccountability
Public frustration with DTE is growing. So are its charitable and political spending.
As public frustration over DTE Energy’s long outages and high rates grows, the utility’s political action committee is mounting a defense in Lansing – it’s on pace to spend over 60% more on campaign contributions in the 2022 election cycle than either of the last two elections. Meanwhile, the most recent records available for the […]