Sierra Club Great Lakes Program

The Environmental State of the Union

2012-01-28T07:00:00.003-05:00

Did anyone watch President Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday? The President said a lot of things that sounded great and some things about protecting our water and air quality that left me a bit anxious. We cannot wait much longer for a clean energy revolution.

During part of his address, President Obama spoke about investing in wind and solar power (yay!) while also mentioning off-shore oil drilling and fracking (boo!). He took many strong stances on so many other issues during his address that I was hoping he would take a strong stance to support renewable energy fully and NOT mention investment in dirty energy sources or processes of removing energy sources (i.e. fracking). But he did and of course, these are not things to cheer about.

Any environmentalist should regard fossil fuels and and natural gas as dirty energy sources that should be phased out to get us to the transition to green energy sources. Sure, I understand that we're far from ready to be on 100% renewable energy but we have to work now towards moving beyond oil and coal and not later. Each day, corporate polluters put people's health and our nation's future at risk, polluting the air we breathe and the water we drink with toxic chemicals. All the while, they are also polluting our political system and working to roll back lifesaving public health protections. We need to clean up the fossil fuel industry by ensuring strong safeguards like protections from toxic mercury and natural gas safegurads that go much further than what the President suggested.

I'm well aware everyone is worried about the economy -- I just graduated from a great university and can't even find a job that pays minimum wage -- but this problem is too big to shove aside. We need the President's leadership to push for a clean energy revolution that creates jobs and protects our communities.

So what can you do, you might be asking yourself. Well, I will tell you what I did. I wrote him an email and told him how important I believe it is for our country to shift its focus to renewable energy sources. If you feel the same way, you should contact him too. Also, if you watched the speech, I'd like to hear your thoughts and opinions on it. If you didn't, here's a great summary of the energy portion, complete with a video clip. It starts after the part about fracking and offshore drilling, though, so the impression I get from the clip is much more positive than it was in context. Regardless, President Obama needs to know that clean, sustainable energy is important to us. Just say NO...to fossil fuels.

Posted by Sierra Club Intern Liz Bizer

Wind Power, Birds, Some Links and Facts

2012-01-27T08:47:00.003-05:00

Wind Farm in Michigan's Thumb. Ever notice how, among the "wind power is too ugly" crowd, other towers seem invisible, even when they're right in with the wind towers?

Some of you have expressed a common concern on the facebook page: that wind power is clean but too destructive to birds (check out intern Liz Bizer's Jan. 21 wind-power post). It was time to look into this. It seemed as though, before looking up numbers, that electricity from coal just has more opportunities to kill birds. It has the mining itself, with explosions, storage of slag, air pollution, and destruction of habitat. The coal must be moved by truck, train, and freighter for very long distances; the mere transportation causes a huge impact. Coal plants take up quite a bit of space and the huge mounds of coal waiting to be burned cover some amount of ground. When the coal is burned, of course, it releases mercury, among other toxins. And the climate change and acid rain adds to the mortality, as do power lines (which will, of course, happen whether the energy comes from coal or wind.)

Ornithologist Laura Erickson's book, 101 Ways to Help Birds, covers the range of ways our electrical use kills birds, and her recommendation # 14 is simply to conserve energy. While the environmental movement has rallied, often very successfully, behind seeking out large polluters and investigating the ways they pollute, then using the information to lobby and protect habitats on large scales, we often ignore our nation's high carbon footprints, including our own. Our best direct response to coal, to fracking, to oil pipelines, is to make sure we're each using as little of the toxic, polluting stuff as possible. Then, as Dr. King said in his Letter from a Birmingham jail, we're "self-purified" for the OUTER fight, after that inner change.

On facebook a few days ago, we posted a few links showing numbers for bird mortality from different sources. Wind does kill birds. Apparently the smaller single-home types, which spin fast, kill more than the large ones shown above. If you're interested in this subject, you can find lots of data by googling "wind turbines and birds". Here's a start, from my own search, and this article from Carbon Lighthouse points out that the National Audubon Society "strongly supports" wind power. From the article:

"If we simply count up the birds based on the amount of electricity generated by each source, it means Wind Farms kill about 7,000 birds per year, Nuclear power plants kill about 327,000 birds per year, and coal and natural gas plants combined kill about 14,500,000 birds per year."

From Audubon's wind statement:

"Audubon strongly supports properly-sited wind power as a clean alternative energy source that reduces the threat of global warming. Wind power facilities should be planned, sited and operated to minimize negative impacts on bird and wildlife populations."

That statement goes on with an inconvenient truth: that scientists say we need to reduce our CO2 emissions 80%. Can that happen aside from Extreme Personal Conservation? I doubt it. Anyway, there's little more satisfying than turning the thermostat down, the lights off, getting the vampires on power strips, KNOWING it's saving something, somewhere, and will continue to do so, keeping that carbon out of production forever, out of the atmosphere for good. Carter was right about sweaters. We don't need a warmed-up space, just warm bodies.

Post and photo by Sierra Club volunteer Rebecca Hammond

Wednesday's Great Lakes Lover

2012-01-25T07:00:00.000-05:00

JANUARY BONUS: Follow the directions below to send us your photo. Once we receive it, we will mail you a bumper sticker that says, "I LOVE Great Lakes."

Jordan Albers from Oakdale, IL LOVES the Great Lakes! Do you?

Do you love the Great Lakes?
We know the Great Lakes are a unique, beautiful, and vital resource. They provide habitat to thousands of species, nutrients to all kinds of ecosystems, drinking water for millions of people, excitement for explorers, and serenity to countless dreamers. There are a lot of us out there who love them. We live all over the region, come from different backgrounds, and have all kinds of different reasons for our love. The Great Lakes Program launched the "I Heart Great Lakes" project to visually illustrate this love for the Great Lakes.

Show your love!
Here's what you need to do:
Take a picture of yourself holding this sign and smile big!
Email your photo to sierraclubgreatlakes@gmail.com, include your full name, city, and state in the email message.
Congratulations, you've just shown your love for the lakes!

Have you already submitted your picture?
Make sure you take the Great Lakes pledge!!!

Take Action Tuesday: Throw a Great Lakes Party!

2012-01-24T13:42:00.004-05:00

Lake Huron near Port Huron, Michigan. Photo by Great Lakes Lover Kasey Martin

This is a Detroit-specific action today, although any of you in the region can check out the link and tailor the idea to your locale.

Thank you for showing your Love for the Great Lakes by taking a personal action in your home to protect the lakes from stormwater and sewage pollution. You joined more than 1,000 other Michiganders who have taken the Great Lakes pledge -- a huge win for our lakes.

Are you interested in spreading the love? You can take your pledge a step further and invite your friends and family to love the Great Lakes!

Host an "I Love Great Lakes" house party!

Hosting a house party means you will invite family and friends over to your home to learn more about protecting the Great Lakes and take their pictures with Sierra Club's "I Love Great Lakes" sign.

Next month, volunteers with Sierra Club's Great Lakes Program will visit our public officials in Washington, D.C. We want to show them the faces of the many people that love the Great Lakes and want them protected for future generations.

Once you sign up as a host, we will send you a kit that includes a short video and the Great Lakes pledge -- so your guests can take action to save water, install a rain barrel, plant a rain garden, and much more. We will also send you "I Love Great Lakes" bumper stickers so your guests can take their pictures with them (and then take them home of course!)

Thanks for all you do to protect the environment!

Melissa Damaschke

Reframing Debates

2012-01-23T10:06:00.004-05:00

Well, there is snow somewhere. Michigan's Mackinac Bridge last week, webcam photo.

Do you notice that climate-change conversations between the deniers and the non- go nowhere? The denier says "junk science" or "it's real, but humans didn't have anything to do with it" or "climate patterns have ALWAYS changed." And then we True Believers give our facts, which convinced us to begin with. We don't convince them, and they sure don't sway us.

Here are a few ideas to reframe the debate and take it in other directions. Point out that anyone who does the least research on climate change WILL end up accepting it as fact (I think using the word "belief" validates this topic as one hinging upon belief or non-belief. We have to first remove it from the belief arena.) No one who accepts climate change as fact will be swayed by reading deniers. Anyone who looks things up for a few days or weeks will find their view shifting. Denial hinges upon lack of knowledge. Tell the person you're discussing things with to google "scientific consensus on climate change" and then get back to you. Wikipedia's entry is a good start. If you're having an online discussion, often just cutting-and-pasting their list of scientific organizations who confirm the validity of climate-change science will take the wind fully out of the denier's sails. (Although in a recent discussion I was told, "next we'll try debating religion." THAT is why deniers can so easily argue belief vs. fact. It's their starting and ending point.)

But maybe what really needs pointed out is the absurdity of anyone pitting opinion vs. facts and study and expertise and experience. You might point out that a normal everyday citizen doing that, mismatching their own opinion against decades of scientific study and facts, is oddly arrogant and certainly out-of-line with how they handle other situations in which they need expert advice. When the denier goes to the doctor, suffering, say, chest pains, do they ask the receptionist or anyone in the waiting room what THEY think, if the doc says it's a heart attack? Would they accept the custodian's opinion if the custodian seemed to feel just awfully doggoned certain about it? Or worse, if the custodian sneered? If the car is broken down and towed to the shop, whose opinion ends up counting, and why? The mechanic's, with their experience, their expertise? How about the plumber, if the pipes burst?

In other words, we're a culture of specialists and experts and we use them all the time, confident that, although there might be bad ones, that we might change experts or get second opinions, in general we've accepted that in most areas others who have studied and practiced know more than we do, and this is true of climatologists. Point out how misguided it is for your CPA or clerk or musician friend to suppose that they really know more about climate than the scientist after one day's study, let alone decades. Ask if they really believe that studying something for years has made scientists know less than the average citizen, not more. And if they don't believe that, ask if anyone could walk into THEIR job and instantly do what they do, better. That IS what deniers claim about climate change and climatologists. That you or I could walk in to their job and right away do better; that right-wing pundits somehow, without study or discipline or practice, actually scientifically KNOW more. (And we're not trying to instantly convince anyone. We're planting legitimate seeds of reality-based doubt here, knowing it doesn't work in a flash.)

Lastly, I think we'd do better if we obviously and strenuously practice what we preach. I'm wondering if we're not "believed" enough because we are stating an emergency situation but not reacting in emergency mode. Let people SEE you cutting back on your fossil-fuel use. Look up what each activity uses, the dryer, the plane flight, the thermostat set at 62 vs. 72. What happened to the carbon-footprint craze, anyway? Why didn't it change us?

If someone comes in and asks why your house is cold, tell them, then explain that the SPACE may be colder than their house, but YOU are not, not with your warm socks and sweater. Sometimes I don't blame those who don't buy what we're selling. We'd do better with our message if our lives matches our words and warnings and ice-melting reports. We're deniers, too, if we "believe" and don't react and respond as the situation, in the way we describe it, warrants.

Written by Sierra Club volunteer Rebecca Hammond

Answer to Friday's Where in the Great Lakes?

2012-01-22T07:00:00.000-05:00

How did you do?

Lake 1, Superior (makes sense). Little Presque Isle near Marquette, MI.

Lake 2, Michigan, Cut River Bridge, way up north.

Lake 3, Huron, mouth of Pinnebog River, tip o' the Thumb of Michigan. Great hiking in Port Crescent State Park.

Lake 4, Ontario, surprising Chimney Bluffs. Photo by Robbyn McKie Holzworth.

Lake 5? Erie, and the surprising Cliffs of Cleveland, or more specifically, Lakewood.

Don't we have amazing variety in our region? You could travel the Lakes for lifetime and not take it all in. Should we remain happy that to outsiders, this variety of scenery is still largely undiscovered? Would the boost to our economy make losing our relative seclusion as a "known" tourist destination worth it?

Post and 4 photos by Becky Hammond

Green Energy in the Great Lakes?

2012-01-21T07:00:00.003-05:00

You may have heard about the proposal to put a wind farm in Lake Michigan. The idea has been floating around for a while, gaining and losing force. I hadn't heard much about it in a while, until today when I read this article about a buoy called the WindSentinel in Lake Michigan that measures offshore wind conditions. We posted about this in this blog back in October when the buoy was first placed there, but it's new to me and I just want to put my two cents in because this issue is so important to me. There's a lot of wind power development going on in Michigan, but when the prospective site of a wind farm is way out in the middle of a Great Lake, it can be difficult to evaluate how much power a farm could actually produce. Which is why this buoy--the first of this kind of technology in North America--is so important. Constructing a wind farm out in open water is considerably more complicated, yes, but it has the potential to produce a lot more energy, since there's so much room for the windmills and a lot of open space for the wind to gather speed (on land there are always trees, buildings, hills, etc. getting in the way and slowing it down).

There has been a fair amount of opposition to the idea of a Lake Michigan wind farm among locals. This past summer while I was staying at my family's property in the Ludington area, very close to where one wind farm could have potentially been, it was clear that wind power was a controversial issue. When we drove through town, almost every house had either a pro- or anti-wind farm sign in their yard. One reason people don't like the idea is that they think the windmills are unsightly and ruin the natural beauty of the lake. Some even think it will hurt the tourist industry, which much of the economy in that part of the state is based on. And at first, despite being the environmentalist that I am, I agreed with those people. At this point I realize that that was a mostly selfish opinion. Having spent a large portion of my childhood on that section of the Lake Michigan shoreline, it made me sick to think of having a bunch of windmills in the middle of my beautiful lake.

But if I love my lake, I need to support wind farms. The damage that dirty, unsustainable energy does to our environment is not as visible (at least, not right there) but it is very real. Pollution and climate change are not friendly to our Lakes. As I learned in my Conservation Biology class last semester, since the Great Lakes were formed by the movement of glaciers about 10,000 years ago, the ecosystems there are relatively very young. It sounds like a long time, but geologically and ecologically it's not. There has not been enough time for a wide diversity of species to evolve in the Lakes, and when biodiversity of an ecosystem is low, the ecosystem as a whole is much more vulnerable to pressures like changes in their habitat and invasive species. Coal, oil and hydraulic fracturing for natural gas wreak havoc on the environment, and the Great Lakes are first in line to feel the pain. Transitioning to clean, renewable energy is the most important thing we can do for the planet and our lakes. If someday you look out over Lake Michigan and see some windmills on the horizon, think of them as a direct symbol of the work we're doing to protect the lake itself. Some people may think they are ugly, but when you take everything into account, they are truly beautiful things, because they mean we are making progress toward healing the earth. I sincerely hope to see windmills in the Lakes someday. I hope you'll join me in supporting Great Lakes wind power.

Middelgrunden Wind Farm in Denmark

Posted by Sierra Club intern Liz Bizer

Badger Article

2012-01-20T17:00:00.001-05:00

Here's an article from the Muskegon Chronicle about the S.S. Badger's future, in the face of the pending EPA deadline, issued in 2008 (with an warning that a deadline was coming made in 2006.) Written by Eric Gaertner, it quotes Badger officials as being "confused and frustrated" by the "uncertain" time frame given. No, as we just pointed out, the time frame has been generous and clear for years. The EPA has seemed more than reasonable. And despite constant criticism (and calls by some for the agency's demise) the EPA tends to run towards a tenable, long-term, moderate approach to environmental issues.

Conversations we've had with the EPA give us the information that lawyers representing the Badger call them and ask where things stand. But the EPA has made the deadline clear, as well as its necessity. The EPA has also informed us of air quality issues people have concerns about, and photos received from Ludington residents showing fly ash residue that worries them, even on their pets.

Often repeated is this sense of nostalgia for the last coal-fired ship, and this is, again, seems both understandable, and an attitude which needs to move on. In our own neighborhood, and maybe yours, most houses once had coal furnaces, and no one seems to think of them nostalgically. If they're considered historic, it's with relief. The problems of coal mining, delivery, storage, burning, bottom ash and fly ash, are ones the previous owners of these houses gladly gave up. With good reason. No one wants their neighbor to reboot a coal furnace. Certain fuels in certain situations are over and done with.

Adding this later: there's a new post on mLive on the Badger that mentions Sierra Club and executive committee member Mark Muhich, who wrote a letter to the Badger's owners not long ago. Also by Muskegon Chronicle writer Eric Gaertner, the article mentions a point often made but rarely fully examined, that the Badger saves on pollution because people would have to drive halfway around Lake Michigan but for the ferry. Well, maybe and maybe not, because if we in Detroit, for example, were to drive to Wisconsin, we would not first drive to Ludington, then around the Lake to Manitowoc, then westward. Most of us travel in straighter lines than that.

And it simply leaves out the main point: the dumping of 4 daily tons of coal ash into the drinking water of over 10 million people. How systems like that ever were regarded as safe and reasonable is puzzling, but not the point here. How it ever made sense for a lake to be a dump and simultaneously a drinking water supply is a mystery of our region's industrial past, one we need to put and keep in the past. People driving around Lake Michigan do not seem to dump tons of anything into Lake Michigan. Our concern is the Lake, and keeping its waters safe.

Posted by Sierra Club volunteer Rebecca Hammond

Where in the Great Lakes are These?

2012-01-20T08:36:00.005-05:00

Name the Lake in each picture. Answers on Sunday. Above, Lake 1.

Lake 2.

Lake 3.

Lake 4.

Lake 5.

Answers this Sunday

Privatized Benefits, Socialized Risks

2012-01-19T10:09:00.007-05:00

One type of Great Lakes waterfront, northern Lake Huron

Another type of Great Lakes waterfront, on the Detroit River

People who care about justice, getting inspiration in Detroit's Central United Methodist Church this past Monday

I've been reading Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Letter from a Birmingham Jail and comparing it to a statement called Four Principles of Climate Justice from the Indigenous Environmental Network. Add to that a timely article from Yes! magazine about the injustices of high-carbon lifestyles (specifically air travel), and we have a big topic.

That phrase, "benefits are privatized, risks are socialized," first used in conjunction with Wall Street, is cropping up increasingly. And I suppose that is because a whole way of life has been built on this principle, and although occasionally really egregious results of this system arise and we notice them specifically because they're so far outside the norm, they're the exception that proves the rule.

Look at the top two photos. One is a typical (for some) Great Lakes scene. The other is also a typical (for some) Great Lakes scene. People can and do fish in both spots, though the piles of coal at Zug Island are just beyond the most polluted place in that river. There are residential neighborhoods just behind you, the viewer.

I am typing this on a computer powered by that coal. I have the benefits of that coal. I can say the risks are socialized, but even that is not quite right. We've socialized the risks of coal to mostly a relative handful of people, all relatively poor. Yes, my air here 10 or so miles from the coal plant may be worse than yours, if you're in a rural area or smaller town, but believe me, as I stated in Monday's post, it's nothing like what the people in southwest Detroit live with. Here, we all benefit from their misfortune. My eyes are not burning as they did late Sunday night, my lungs do not ache and tighten up, and I am not nauseous, here at my safe distance.

Dr. King's letter was to fellow clergy, who had warned him that his current actions were "unwise and untimely." He mentions that if he spent time responding to criticism, he would get nothing else done. But now read this:

"In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action."

Well, anyone driving through southwest Detroit or similar poorer and more polluted areas of any Great Lakes city will collect enough facts in each breath to determine that injustice exists. The mere act of breathing is proof of the problem.

Negotiation? It is ongoing; the residents there have community organizations and meetings and canvassing campaigns; they're negotiating. They're fighting back, pretty much on their own.

Self purification? Isn't that an interesting step? This one grabs me and shakes me. What would self-purification mean in ongoing direct battles in places like Detroit, but also in dire but more generalized struggles like climate change?

What it has to mean is direct, personal, daily response, in our own lives. If I oppose the use of coal, am I "pure" if I give no thought to its use in my own life? How can I oppose fracking, then thoughtlessly crank up the heat? Maybe solidarity with the "fracked" means I turn the thermostat not just down, but way down, and know it counts. If Dr. King can willingly go to jail over injustice, can I take the much smaller action of willingly being chilly on behalf of the fracked? Have a darker house on behalf of Appalachians, a house warm in the summer, because their mountains, or the plains of Wyoming, turn literally into my air conditioning? (Does it even make sense to blow up "purple mountain majesties, above the fruited plain" just to make my HOUSE cooler?) In these cases, the self-purification becomes the bottom level of direct action. The first step. It all counts. The rain barrel, getting rid of the lawn, the light bulbs that use a tenth the coal: it's "self-purification", and it matters, not just for the amount of fossil fuels saved, but for the self-alignment, the integration that extended struggles call for. Maybe like nations, environmentalists divided against ourselves cannot really stand.

From Dr. King's letter: "An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself." Well, the environmental problems of our age revolve around just such imbalances. I am part of a power majority group (a person who depends upon coal burned in southwest Detroit) that compels a minority group to obey (live with, meaning breathe) but does not make binding on myself (I don't live too near the coal plant, or the coal mines; their problems are not binding on me, myself.) And no, I didn't set this up and to a certain extent, cannot help it. But I can darn well participate in the benefits to the least possible degree, while helping the struggle over the socialized risks to the greatest possible degree. I am not innocent here, and inaction is not a moral option.

Flying is pet peeve of mine, although for years I have had no effective challenge, while vaguely understanding the relatedness to environmental justice. The article in Yes! clears the air. Only a very small percentage of the world's population can afford to fly. The benefits of flying, therefore, are privatized in the extreme. However, the risks are socialized. Poor populations containing no individual wealthy enough to fly are now dealing with rising sea levels, melting tundra and sinking villages, agriculture disrupted by worsening droughts. There is no bigger hit a single human being can give the atmosphere and its carbon levels than a trip by plane. From Joseph Nevins' Yes! article:

"A round-trip flight between New York and Los Angeles on a typical commercial jet yields an estimated 715 kilos of CO2 per economy class passenger, according to the International Civil Aviation Organization. But due to the height at which planes fly, combined with the mixture of gases and particles they emit, conventional air travel has an impact on the global climate that’s approximately 2.7 times worse than its carbon emissions alone, says the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. As a result, that roundtrip flight’s “climatic forcing” is really 1,917 kilos, or almost two tons, of emissions—more than nine times the annual emissions of an average denizen of Haiti (as per U.S. Department of Energy figures).

"Only 2-3 percent of the world’s population flies internationally on an annual basis, but the climate impacts ofair travel are felt by a much larger—and poorer—population. It is difficult to illustrate the meaning of such numbers in terms of who among the planet’s citizens pays the costs."

The statement responding to climate change by the Indigenous Environmental Network makes some sharp points:

Climate change is caused by burning fossil fuels. Stop it at the source. Limit people’s consumption.

End the promotion of false solutions such as carbon trading, carbon offsets, using forests and

agriculture as offsets, agro-fuels, carbon storage and sequestration, clean coal technologies, geo-

engineering, mega hydro dams and nuclear power. These allow the rich industrialized countries to

avoid their responsibility to take major changes. {I'll add that these allow rich individuals to avoid OUR responsibilities.]

An end to over-production for over-consumption, and a dramatic reduction in wasteful

consumption and production of waste by Northern and Southern elites.

Restore to developing countries the atmospheric space that is

occupied by their greenhouse gas emissions. This implies the decolonization of the atmosphere

through the reduction and absorption of their emissions.

The world must forge a new economic system that restores harmony with nature and among

human beings. We can only achieve balance with nature if there is equity among human

beings. The capitalist system has imposed upon us a mindset that seeks competition, progress

and unlimited growth. This production-consumption regime pursues profits without limit,

separating human beings from nature. It establishes a mindset that seeks to dominate nature,

turning everything into a commodity: the land, water, air (carbon), forests, agriculture, flora

and fauna, biodiversity, genes and even indigenous traditional knowledge. Under capitalism,

Mother Earth is turned into nothing more than a source of raw materials. Human beings are

seen as consumers and a means of production, that is, persons whose worth is defined by what

they have, not by what they are. Humanity is at a crossroads: we can either continue taking the

path of capitalism, depredation and death, or take the road of harmony with nature and respect

for the Circle of Life.

The statement ends with a call to stopping "CO2 Colonialism," which is described pretty well in the Yes! article. How did we miss this aspect of our fossil-fuel-centered lifestyles? We can't contain our own carbon, we impose it. We benefit while the risks are socialized.

Again, Dr. King:

"When I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery, Alabama, a few years ago, I felt we would be supported by the white church. I felt that the white ministers, priests and rabbis of the South would be among our strongest allies. Instead, some have been outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting its leaders; all too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained glass windows.

"In spite of my shattered dreams, I came to Birmingham with the hope that the white religious leadership of this community would see the justice of our cause and, with deep moral concern, would serve as the channel through which our just grievances could reach the power structure. I had hoped that each of you would understand. But again I have been disappointed."

I wonder how much of those paragraphs could apply to the current environmental situation. ARE those who bear the risks while we reap the benefits disappointed in us, in the environmental movement? Have we forgotten the poorer neighborhoods, the poorer people worldwide, the tribal people who are tired of our carbon "occupying" their atmosphere? Is this a reasonable way to assess the situation? If so, isn't the first most-gratifying response to be the biggest personal downscale of fossil fuels possible, and wouldn't that be exhilarating, not the onerous burden that not only our consumer culture declares, but even we ourselves often assume? And the second, but just as immediate response, would be direct action against the system that caused the imbalance and injustice, the one that benefits some greatly, while burdening others terribly. We need to join their fight.

And I believe the third response is this: knowing this is some of the greatest work we can do. That it'll create some of the greatest satisfaction we can experience. That we can know in our hearts it's worth it.

Post and photos by Sierra Club volunteer Rebecca Hammond

Wednesday's Great Lakes Lover

2012-01-18T04:07:00.004-05:00

JANUARY BONUS: Follow the directions below to send us your photo. Once we receive it, we will mail you a bumper sticker that says, "I LOVE Great Lakes."

Ava Tinsley from Detroit, MI LOVES the Great Lakes! Do you?

Take Action Tuesday: Take the Great Lakes Pledge

2012-01-17T10:04:00.004-05:00

Do you love the Great Lakes? I do.

I love to climb the sand dunes on Lake Michigan, watch the sun set on Lake Superior from Copper Harbor in the Upper Peninsula, and ice fish on Lake Erie. I love to swim, fish, waterski, snorkel, and boat. I know that we are very fortunate to have access to these great bodies of freshwater to enjoy -- for pleasure, and most importantly as our source for drinking water.

Will you join me in loving the Great Lakes and take a personal action to protect them?

It's important to me that I do my part to protect the Lakes from sewage and stormwater pollution. Last year, I decided to use less water and I installed a new low-flow showerhead (proudly pictured hanging above me at right). I figured the less water that I used, the less wastewater I created.

Now I can say I am doing something to protect the lakes I love. This year I am pledging to disconnect my downspouts and connect them to rain barrels, so I can water my lawn with the rain instead of it going to waste washing down storm drains, or worse yet, washing sewage into Lake Michigan.

Help me protect the Lakes! Show your love by taking the pledge!

When you take the pledge, you'll be committing to do at least one thing to protect the Great Lakes. You can pledge to replace an old appliance with a water-efficient one, plant a tree, connect a rain barrel, use non-toxic cleaners, landscape with a rain garden, and much more.

Together, these small actions can make a difference for our Great Lakes. Take an action for the Great Lakes today by signing the pledge.

Thanks for all you do to protect the environment,
Erma Leaphart
Sierra Club Member & Volunteer
Detroit, MI

Martin Luther King Day in Detroit

2012-01-16T18:59:00.009-05:00

Members of SNCC Martha Prescod Norman Noonan, Gwen Patton, Marilyn Lowen, and Gloria House speak about their new book at Central United Methodist Church in Detroit

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke here on 10 different occasions. The current Rev. Edwin Rowe is beginning today's ceremonies.

One of a number of inspiring and thought-provoking banners hung throughout the sanctuary

Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit finishes the event. They were nothing less than spectacular.

Have we achieved this?

My intent on this Martin Luther King day was to quote some passages from Dr. King's Letter from the Birmingham Jail, and its admonitions to "the white moderate" and "the complacent." I wanted to then contrast that with some writings I've found by Native American groups calling for an end to "climate occupation" and "CO2 Colonialism." There are so many parallels.

But that will come later this week. Today I'd like to tell you something about the inspiring couple of hours I spent at Central United Methodist Church on Woodward Avenue in Detroit, a church where Dr. King not only spoke on a number of occasions but was asked to serve as full-time pastor, an opportunity he felt compelled to turn down.

As you can see, this is a lovely old church, one with the affectionate nickname "the conscience of Detroit." Many of you reading this blog are engaged in your own struggles with local environmental issues, as we are here in SE Michigan. These issues can not only seem insurmountable at times,it can seem as if they overlap to such a degree that victory seems impossible. Or that victory is achieved only to find a new battle instantly on the horizon.

When you hear four women speak, however, who were members of SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, during the Civil Rights movement, or hear the words of actual Freedom Riders, you can't help but feel humbled, and inspired, and even ashamed. Whatever hurdles we need to overcome, we tend to be dealing with issues and issues alone. We aren't beginning far behind the starting gate merely because of our skin color. When we're fighting coal, we're fighting coal, or invasive species, or chemical pollution of our rivers. We don't tend to wonder if our houses will be blown up, or we'll lose our jobs fighting our battles. Or our lives. We get to stand on the issues and the issues alone.

Or do we? Late last night my husband and I arrived back in Detroit from Ohio, passing through the industrial southwest section of the city. The stench through that stretch of I-75 was indescribable. My eyes burned, my asthmatic lungs tightened, and I became nauseous. We had to put up with that for a whole 10 minutes or so, unlike the neighborhoods that live with it 24/7.

I've been reading and mulling over a newer idea in environmentalism, mentioned above, the idea of speaking of the pollution of areas like SW Detroit or other poorer areas worldwide as occupation. As colonialism. I've read certain words used regarding Wall Street, that benefits were privatized while risks socialized, applied to environmental justice situations. And when we look closely at the situation, we can see that this is true. The benefits of SW Detroit are the profits made by the refineries, steel and coal and cement plants, salt mines, the remnants of the auto industry. The nation's largest wastewater treatment plant is there, as well as a huge composting plant. The combined smell is something I have no words to convey.

The profits from those industries have not helped the area much, if at all, but the residents there have born the risks from those same industries. The area is occupied with smells and toxins and disease. The benefits are privatized, the risks socialized. Those benefitting live far from the smell and the diseases and the air-monitoring equipment outside the schools. Just as that indescribable smell is "normal" to the residents of SW Detroit, the profits that create a pleasant lifestyle far from industrial risks are normal to other people, living in much better circumstances elsewhere.

This leaves me angry. You? But if people can return to Detroit to talk about struggles a few decades back that left them worried whether they'd live or die at the hands of those who opposed them, struggles that left them bereft as friends actually did die, we can surely talk about what our next steps have to be to correct that which we know needs corrected. Have our lives begun to end because, as Dr. King warned, we became silent on things that mattered? ARE we a society that can live with its conscience, OUR conscience? And are our lifestyles causing the chemical and carbon occupation of other places, where other people have been forced to bear risks from lifestyles they have no opportunity to share the benefits of?

Photos and post by Rebecca Hammond

Get Outdoors in a National Park This Weekend - for FREE!

2012-01-14T07:00:00.003-05:00

Have you been wondering what to do to celebrate this long MLK weekend? Maybe a short trip somewhere wild where you can enjoy the great outdoors and/or absorb some American history? Well, you're in luck: ALL of our country's 397 national parks have totally free admission this weekend from Saturday to Monday! (Read more about it here.) Also luckily for you, there are lots of national parks to choose from in the Great Lakes region. Just one example of where you could go for free:

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Here's a list of parks and other national sites, broken down by state:

Illinois:

Chicago Portage National Historic Site

Lincoln Home National Historic Site

Indiana:

Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery

George Rogers Clark National Historical Park

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore

Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial

Michigan:

Father Marquette National Memorial

Isle Royale National Park

Keweenaw National Historical Park

North Country National Scenic Trail

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

River Raisin National Battlefield Park

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Minnesota:

Voyageurs National Park

Grand Portage National Monument

Mississippi National River and Recreation Area

North Country National Scenic Trail

Pipestone National Monument

New York:

African Burial Ground National Monument

Castle Clinton National Monument

Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site

Federal Hall National Memorial

Fire Island National Seashore

Fort Stanwix National Monument

Gateway National Recreation Area

General Grant National Memorial

Governors Island National Monument

Hamilton Grange National Memorial

Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site

Lower East Side Tenement Museum

Martin Van Buren National Historic Site

North Country National Scenic Trail

Sagamore Hill National Historic Site

Saint Paul's Church

Saratoga National Historical Park

Statue of Liberty National Monument

Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace

Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site

Thomas Cole National Historic Site

Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River

Vanderbilt Mansion

Women's Rights National Historical Park

Ohio:

Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park

First Ladies National Historic Site

Hopewell Culture National Historical Park

James A. Garfield National Historic Site

Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial

William Howard Taft National Historic Site

Pennsylvania:

Allegheny Portage Railroad

Edgar Allen Poe National Historic Site

Eisenhower National Historic Site

Flight 93 National Memorial

Fort Necessity National Battlefield

Friendship Hill

Gettysburg National Military Park

Gloria Dei Church

Hopewell Furnace National Historical Site

Independence National Historical Park

Johnstown Flood National Memorial

North Country National Scenic Trail

Steamtown National Historic Site

Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial

Valley Forge National Historical Park

Wisconsin:

Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

Ice Age National Scenic Trail

North Country National Scenic Trail

Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway

Whether or not you have a chance to get to one of these this weekend, we want to hear from you! What is your favorite national park in the Great Lakes region? What's your favorite thing to do at a national park? What's the one park you've always meant to visit but just haven't found the time? Leave a comment and let us know!

Posted by Sierra Club intern Liz Bizer

Where in the Great Lakes Is Something Important NOT?

2012-01-13T09:32:00.005-05:00

Water Heater dial with little duct tape arrow to help return to lower setting after heating bath water.

Have you clicked through any of the links to the right? NOAA's website is a mass of information. Wave height maps, hazardous weather maps, and satellite images. What we're seeing lately answers the above question, and the answer to what we're lacking this winter is ICE. It's mid-January and the Lakes remain largely unfrozen. The Great Lakes Echo has a recent article on the financial impact of the lack of opportunities for ice fishing and snowmobiling and skiing. But unfrozen lakes also mean more evaporation, and lower lake levels. And there is less reflection of sunlight. The dark open waters absorb the sun's heat; ice reflects it.

Are you like a few of us here who are tired of people jubilating daily over this winter's ongoing indications of climate change? This warmth is not a good omen; not to be celebrated. It seems as though the region's weather has slipped northward, with Detroit's weather more like what we'd imagine for Cincinnati, and northern lower Michigan having a winter like we'd picture for Detroit. Have you come up with a good response when a friend or colleague praises an ominous sign like this unnaturally warm weather?

Among environmentalists, though, the lifestyle response could be stronger. We CAN and should turn down the thermostats, water heaters, anything using the fossil fuels that caused and continue to cause the threat. What do you do? Where is your thermostat set? We're experimenting with 60, reasoning that since 65 now seems too hot after years of steadily lowering the setting, 60 will soon feel pleasant enough. (Think of how warm that first 60 degree day of spring will feel). What IS the average thermostat setting, the average indoor temperature, worldwide? And do we need the whole space heated, or just ourselves? In many cold regions, citizens put on layers and heat their bodies rather than the space surrounding those bodies. Layers of light long underwear, fleece or wool vests, sweaters; often with the thermostat at 60, we can still feel too warm. (And I think we're livelier in the cooler house.) If you're at work, what's the temp there like?

A tank water heater CAN be used somewhat like a heat-as-you-go model. We keep ours set pretty low, and turn it up 15 or 20 minutes before wanting a bath (the low setting is still fine for showers, we've discovered.) I presumed it would take a couple of hours to heat the water to bath temperature, and was pleasantly surprised.

With the daily concerns about not only climate change, but fracking, coal mining, coal burning, coal ASH, tarsands oil, oil pipelines, we can feel lost in the deluge of threats, but also lost in what feels like our group response. What's everyone else doing? Are we ahead, behind the curve? Do we, as individuals, even need to do much of anything, or will the group solve the problem? Will the government somehow force industries to do the right thing and correct this trend, and do it soon enough? What are your thoughts? And your personal conservation measures? What would YOU like all of us to do? What did you try at home and were pleasantly surprised at? Have you ever attempted a lifestyle change and decided, no, can't keep THAT up? Weigh in. Write an agenda for all of us and post it here.

Post and photo by Rebecca Hammond

Holiday Follow-up

2012-01-12T07:29:00.004-05:00

Remember our December 19 post about greening your holiday gift wrap by making your own reusable gift bags, and tags from last year's cards? Well, an article that appeared on Science Daily a few days later made the same point in a slightly more shocking way. "According to some estimates 1.5 billion cards and 83 square kilometres of wrapping paper are thrown away by UK residents over the Christmas period. They currently go to landfill or are recycled in local schemes." And that's Great Britain, with a 2011 population of 59 million, compared to the United States' 300 + million.

The point of the article, however, was not to shock the Brits into either mass guilt or better recycling (a 60 percent recycling rate for paper is stated), but to suggest the idea that waste paper can be fermented into biofuel. "If all the UK's discarded wrapping paper and Christmas cards were collected and fermented, they could make enough biofuel to run a double-decker bus to the moon and back more than 20 times, according to the researchers behind a new scientific study."

There's no better way to make the point that reusable gift bags should be on next year's to-do list.

Post and photo by Sierra Club volunteer Rebecca Hammond

Wednesday's Great Lakes Lover

2012-01-11T07:00:00.000-05:00

JANUARY BONUS: Follow the directions below to send us your photo. Once we receive it, we will mail you a bumper sticker that says, "I LOVE Great Lakes."

Steven Forsyth from Detroit, MI LOVES the Great Lakes! Do you?

Take Action Tuesday

2012-01-10T09:46:00.004-05:00

Another rather embarrassing photo of our simple graywater system

Every Tuesday, we ask you to take a specific action.

Today, we ask you to take a personal action in your home to protect the Great Lakes.

While signing petitions and making phone calls are very important, it's just as important for us to take personal actions to protect our treasured waters.

Commit to protecting the Great Lakes by using non-toxic cleaners, installing a rain barrel, or any of the other items listed on this website. Got another idea on how to protect the Lakes? Post it below. We're always longing to hear what you do.

The photo above? Another aspect of our primitive, non-installed graywater system. If you have a utility sink into which your washer drains, a bucket placed under the hose can yield a lot of water. At this time of year the best thing to do with the water is dump it back into the washer for the next load. It can also be used for house plants, which, on the one hand don't grow as much in winter, so should not need as much water, but on the other hand, dry out quickly in central heat.

Did any of you grow up with a washer that had a "suds saver"? My mom used the big tank from the old wringer washer. The new top-loader was connected to it, and drained wash water into it. That water was reused for each wash cycle, with new water for the rinse cycle. Boy, was it noticeable when a load of jeans was done! The amount of money saved was, for my mom and her household of eight, greatly worth it. The water was emptied once a week or so. Sad that washers no longer come with a Suds Saver button or easy way to set this up.

What do you do? How do you save water? What's your favorite non-toxic home cleaner? What can you teach us about saving money and water, and our Great Lakes?

Post and photo by Rebecca Hammond and Melissa Damaschke

Needle Ice

2012-01-09T09:14:00.005-05:00

Looking down at ice formations on the Au Sable trail, Hartwick Pines State Park, MI

Sleeve closeup showing soil caps and individual cylinders

On a recent hike in Hartwick Pines State Park, known for its virgin stands of not just white pines, but hemlocks and jack pines as well, a swampy stretch sounded crunchy enough to bring Melissa Damaschke and myself to a halt. In the middle of the trail were clumps of what looked like fairy-tale tree trunks, made of ice, 3 to 4 inches tall, and about a quarter-inch thick. Most wore a cap of soil, and some had a secondary cap where what appeared to be an extrusion process had halted, then resumed. To me, they looked like a fluted cake-decorating tube just below ground level had pushed up the "trunks."

We wondered if each little trunk was formed around a blade of grass or twig, but they were ice and only ice. Each clear formation turned out to be composed of tiny cylinders, some dozens. We took pictures and headed back to Hartwick Pines' beautiful Visitor's Center, to show forester Craig Kasmer. Then we came back to Detroit and I began googling.

I found very few photos of what we saw (with about half including the question, "anyone know what the heck these are?") but some were close to dead ringers. Craig Kasmer answered my email query promptly with the identification "needle ice" and this link, with a description of how the little towers are formed. The photos in the link show formations much tidier and more organized-looking than we saw, but obviously the same type of phenomenon. The accompanying explanation gives the incredible statement that needle ice can get as tall as 16 inches.

We saw clusters as big as 9 or so inches in diameter, with dozens of individual stems , and some small clumps of only two or three. If there had been more snow, I doubt we'd have noticed them at all. If our experience is typical, listen for crunching beneath your feet when hiking through swampy areas on below-freezing days, perhaps when the ground is beginning its deep freeze for the winter.

Post and photos by Sierra Club volunteer Rebecca Hammond

Lake Michigan Water Trail

2012-01-06T10:36:00.005-05:00

Lake Michigan photo by Chris Hammond

This article turned up on MLive today. Originally published in the Grand Rapids Press, it explores the idea of a continuous water trail around Lake Michigan. Described in the article are already-completed sections in the four states surrounding Lake Michigan. Our state of Michigan lags behind Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.

Visionaries see a water trail on par with foot trails like the Appalachian. One advantage to Great Lakes water trails is the possibility of combining different modes of travel. A person could do some of Lake Michigan by boat (the photo accompanying the article shows two people in a classic aluminum canoe, so don't think only kayakers can enjoy the scenery), some by bike, some by foot. In our house, we like nothing better than finding a river with a foot trail alongside. Canoe down, hike back. Or we dig out the big atlas and find a bike route from take-out back to put-in spot. The Lakes seem perfect for similar Combination Tours. Work the arms, work the legs.

Here in the Great Lakes office we often bemoan what seems an Industrial view of the Great Lakes, which is so different from the way national treasures are viewed in the rest of the country. It's good to see visions that do not include either removal of water or dumping INTO water, but rather healthy local vacations that lack the huge carbon footprint of taking our recreation elsewhere. The Lake Michigan Water Trail could be designated a National Recreation Trail. Good for us!

Posted by Sierra Club volunteer Rebecca Hammond

Back on Track! (Back on Frack?)

2012-01-06T09:08:00.003-05:00

Okay, holidays are over, and it's time to blog regularly again. Fracking is front-and-center in Ohio, but it's a concern for all of us. Our region is either experiencing it nearby, or we're worried we're about to. Ohio seems to have made quite a mistake in taking on Pennsylvania's contaminated frackwater for disposal. The first question not asked thoroughly enough is why this could possibly be thought a good idea. The deep wells drilled in the Youngstown area have been causing earthquakes, and recent articles put the blame on the wells, and not any natural occurrence. This Chicago Tribune article is a must-read.

This Ohio Sierra Club event might be a must-attend. Tuesday, January 10, from 1 to 3 at the Statehouse in Columbus. Check out that facebook page. People are setting up carpools from Youngstown and the Kent area, among other places. Looks like a bus might be leaving from Youngstown? 2011 was The Year of the Protester. Let's show them that 2011 was nothing.

Posted by Sierra Club volunteer Rebecca Hammond

Wednesday's Great Lakes Lover

2012-01-04T07:00:00.001-05:00

JANUARY BONUS: Follow the directions below to send us your photo. Once we receive it, we will mail you a bumper sticker that says, "I LOVE Great Lakes."

Greg from Berkley, MI LOVES the Great Lakes! Do you?

Do you love the Great Lakes?

We know the Great Lakes are a unique, beautiful, and vital resource. They provide habitat to thousands of species, nutrients to all kinds of ecosystems, drinking water for millions of people, excitement for explorers, and serenity to countless dreamers. There are a lot of us out there who love them. We live all over the region, come from different backgrounds, and have all kinds of different reasons for our love. The Great Lakes Program launched the "I Heart Great Lakes" project to visually illustrate this love for the Great Lakes.

Show your love!
Here's what you need to do:
Take a picture of yourself holding this sign and smile big!
Email your photo to sierraclubgreatlakes@gmail.com, include your full name, city, and state in the email message.
Congratulations, you've just shown your love for the lakes!

Have you already submitted your picture?
Make sure you take the Great Lakes pledge!!!

Take Action Tuesday: Volunteer with Sierra Club to Protect the Great Lakes

2012-01-03T13:40:00.001-05:00

We hope your New Year's resolution or goal for this year is to help protect our magnificent Great Lakes. They certainly need your help! Asian carp, stormwater pollution, raw sewage - these are very BIG concerns in the Great Lakes that we need to educate ourselves, our neighbors and our public officials to take immediate action.

Since Sierra Club's Great Lakes Program is staffed by only two people, we truly rely on the help of our volunteers. Specifically, we need help with research, writing letters-to-the-editor, making phone calls to public officials, reaching out to our Sierra Club members, general office work in the Detroit office, and lots more!

Will you help us?

Will you volunteer for twenty minutes a week from home to write a letter? Are you located near Detroit and interested in helping at the office? Do you like to organize events? If you answered yes to any of these questions, please sign up to volunteer by going to this link.

Take action today to help Sierra Club protect the Great Lakes!

Ohio Experiences Another Earthquake

2012-01-02T13:26:00.003-05:00

On Saturday, the Youngstown, Ohio area experienced another earthquake thought to be related to deep wells drilled to contain toxic water left over from fracking in Pennsylvania. This earthquake was quite a bit stronger than ones previously experienced. For more, look here, especially if your region has fracking now, or you're worried it's headed your way. This is a real cautionary tale. A single well requires in the 5-million-gallons-of-water vicinity. That spent water, containing toxins added before injection or picked up underground, has to be disposed of or treated somewhere, somehow.

Posted by Becky Hammond

Happy New Year

2011-12-31T10:53:00.000-05:00

The Keystone Pipeline

2011-12-29T11:41:00.005-05:00

This is off-topic for the Great Lakes, but is at the top of the environmental agenda. Maybe it's coming up in your life and your conversations and even your facebook pages? Here are some rarely-mentioned facts.

It's claimed that the pipeline will be a jobs boon. But Cornell University's Global Labor Institute has a study that disputes many claims. From that study:

The project will create no more than 2,500-4,650 temporary direct construction

jobs for two years, according to TransCanada’s own data supplied to the State

Department.

» The company’s claim that KXL will create 20,000 direct construction and

manufacturing jobs in the U.S is not substantiated.

» There is strong evidence to suggest that a large portion of the primary material

input for KXL—steel pipe—will not even be produced in the United States. A

substantial amount of pipe has already been manufactured in advance of pipeline

permit issuance.

» The industry’s claim that KXL will create 119,000 total jobs (direct, indirect, and

induced) is based on a flawed and poorly documented study commissioned by

TransCanada (The Perryman Group study). Perryman wrongly includes over $1

billion in spending and over 10,000 person-years of employment for a section

of the Keystone project in Kansas and Oklahoma that is not part of KXL and has

already been built.

» KXL will not be a major source of US jobs, nor will it play any substantial role at

all in putting Americans back to work. Even if the Perryman figures were accurate,

and all of the workers for the next phase of the project were hired immediately, the

US seasonally adjusted unemployment rate would remain at 9.1%—exactly where it

is now.

» KXL will divert Tar Sands oil now supplying Midwest refineries, so it can be sold at

higher prices to the Gulf Coast and export markets. As a result, consumers in the

Midwest could be paying 10 to 20 cents more per gallon for gasoline and diesel

fuel. These additional costs (estimated to total $2–4 billion) will suppress other

spending and will therefore cost jobs.

And these environmental statements:

» Pipeline spills incur costs and therefore kill jobs. Clean-up operations and permanent

pipeline spill damage will divert public and private funds away from productive

economic activity. In 2010 US pipeline spills and explosions killed 22 people, released

over 170,000 barrels of petroleum into the environment, and caused $1 billion dollars

worth of damage in the United States.

» Rising carbon emissions and other pollutants from the heavy crude transported

by Keystone XL will also incur increased health care costs. Emissions also increase

both the risk and costs of further climate instability.

» By helping to lock in US dependence on fossil fuels, Keystone XL will impede

progress toward green and sustainable economic renewal and will have a chilling

effect on green investments and green jobs creation. The green economy has

already generated 2.7 million jobs in the US and could generate many more.

The study begins with this note, given here in part:

. . .KXL is a global project driven by

global oil interests. Tar Sands development has attracted investment capital from

oil multinationals—with Chinese corporations’ stake getting bigger all the time.1 If

approved, KXL will be almost certainly be constructed by temporary labor working

with steel made in Canada and India. Much of the Tar Sands oil will be refined in Port

Arthur, Texas, where the refinery is half-owned by Saudi Aramco, the state-owned

oil company of Saudi Arabia.2 And a good portion of the oil that will gush down the

KXL will, according to some studies, probably end up being finally consumed beyond

the territorial United States.3 Indeed, the oil industry is also trying to build another

pipeline, Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway, to carry Tar Sands oil across British

Columbia for export to Asian markets, although this pipeline also faces serious public

opposition. Clearly, Tar Sands oil and energy independence really do not belong in

the same sentence.

Note that mention of the Port Austin refinery, half-owned by Saudi Aramco. The other half is possibly owned by Dutch Shell. From a report by the State of Texas (scroll way down):

. . .on December 10, 2007, in Port Arthur, Texas, a partnership of Royal Dutch Shell and Saudi Aramco broke ground on a 325,000 b/d refinery expansion that will increase the existing refinery’s throughput capacity to 600,000 b/d by 2010, replacing Exxon’s Baytown refinery as the largest refinery in the world.

So we're hearing that this pipeline is an answer to economic prayers. But taking the above into account, doesn't it seem more as if our nation's land will be used as a mere passage from Canada to our gulf coast, to a refinery at least half foreign-owned, possibly entirely foreign-owned, piping tarsands oil, which is heavier, stickier, more destructive to procure? From the Sierra Club's report on Tar Sands Oil:

Tar sands oil is mined from a black sticky substance called bitu-

men, found beneath the vast boreal forests of Alberta, Canada.

To extract tar sands crude, oil companies clear-cut ancient

trees, then strip mine the oil beneath it, using huge quantities

of fresh water and natural gas to separate the oil from bitumen.

In fact, to create one barrel of oil from surface mining requires

mining two tons of soil. The process leaves behind giant toxic

lakes that are linked to abnormally high rates of cancer in

neighboring communities and are large enough to be seen from

outer space.

“Tar sands is the dirtiest oil on

earth and puts America’s water,

air, and health at risk. It’s an

environmental nightmare.”

What about those jobs? Here's a union statement found on Tar Sands Action's website:

Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) and the Transport Workers Union (TWU) both oppose the pipeline. Their August 2011 statement: “We need jobs, but not ones based on increasing our reliance on Tar Sands oil. There is no shortage of water and sewage pipelines that need to be fixed or replaced, bridges and tunnels that are in need of emergency repair, transportation infrastructure that needs to be renewed and developed. Many jobs could also be created in energy conservation, upgrading the grid, maintaining and expanding public transportation—jobs that can help us reduce air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and improve energy efficiency.”

I'd like to end with a challenge: until we address fossil fuels directly, confront our own use, reduce our own amounts, we're not nearly as likely to win these battles. Complex problems require multifold solutions. When we hear of any fossil fuel issue that riles us, coal, fracking, oil, our first thought needs to be ourselves and our lives. There are many of us, and we can make a difference.

Pass along these talking points. Many people "support" the Keystone pipeline because they've been told it'll provide needed jobs. We don't need to so much reframe this as describe it as it is: a Canadian venture piping Canadian tarsands oil (how soon do they say EPA regulations here are too tough?) a long distance across our nation to an at least half foreign-owned refinery that seems determined to sell the oil overseas.

Posted by Sierra Club Volunteer Rebecca Hammond

Wednesday's Great Lakes Lover

2011-12-28T07:00:00.000-05:00

Bobbi from Detroit, MI LOVES the Great Lakes! Do you?

Do you love the Great Lakes?

Take Action Tuesday: What Would Erin Brockovich Do?

2011-12-27T10:28:00.006-05:00

Backyard Hawk Watches the Birdfeeders

What should a list of the New Year's Resolutions of an environmentalist look like? How do we even get started compiling our own list?

At our Green Your Holidays demonstrations, we suggest some obvious ones, like always taking reusable bags to the store, flying less, joining an environmental organization or becoming more involved in the one(s) you already belong to. Some of what each list consists of should just be filling in the gaps in our own lives, updating the ways we mean to live, but haven't yet gotten around to. And I would not leave out what I may start calling the Green Halo Effect: we forget, when we undertake or suggest greener living that it's gratifying, satisfying, FUN. It just FEELS right, and the more we do, the better it feels. Quite the opposite of what maybe 70% of every ad we see tells us, namely that without constantly tweeking our lives with miniscule increments of convenience, something is sorely lacking. We may even be foolish!

Tweek in the opposite direction. Find slower, quieter ways to do tasks. It's not the total time involved, it's the quality of life. Who needs more speed, more stress, more "I need to get this over with!" We do tend to need more quiet, a slower pace, more calm. And the clothesline and dustmop may take longer, but barely. It's not a noticeable or important amount of time. It IS a noticeable and important reduction in the stress of constantly revved-up action.

About that air travel: if you're on facebook, and you are hooked into the many environmental groups that post daily, you're getting scary stuff. Ice is melting and methane released. X number leads to Y scary consequence. Yet for the most part, none of the groups has much in the way of suggestions for US. Everything seems to sound as if there's some final bit of legislation that's going to be passed and we'll all be okay.

I doubt this. I think if there were some bill on some table making air travel (or any other aspect of western lifestyle) not the gargantuan emission-spewer it is, it would surely allow fleets to be grandfathered. James Hansen, NASA climatologist, said a couple of years ago that the amount of carbon and other gasses in the atmosphere right now has caused only half the warming it will eventually produce. Yet we keep adding, adding, adding, every single day. I've read that 7% of us emit 50% of the greenhouse gasses. Meaning 93% of us cannot live our lifestyles, do not benefit from how we live, yet deal with melting ice, higher sea levels, disrupted growing seasons. From a Princeton University report:

"By almost any measure, a small proportion of the world’s people take the majority of the world’s resources and produce the majority of its pollution.

The world’s richest half-billion people are responsible for 50 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions.

Take carbon dioxide emissions — a measure of our impact on climate but also a surrogate for fossil fuel consumption. Stephen Pacala, director of the Princeton Environment Institute, calculates that the world’s richest half-billion people — that’s about 7 percent of the global population — are responsible for 50 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. Meanwhile the poorest 50 percent are responsible for just 7 percent of emissions."

If we're in an emergency, as I read every day, nothing could be more gratifying than to respond in emergency mode. Response is what we're built for, what we evolved to do. Sometimes it seems as though a house is on fire, and not only are we not getting out, we're tossing matches. Or blowtorches. And hoping someone else is going to solve all this for us: put out the fire, and make sure matches no longer cause fires.

But we're also evolved to be compassionate. Knowing we help the poorest 50% of the world's population when we reduce fossil fuel consumption is bound to be the Runner's High of environmental action.

Erin Brockovich would go after the source of the problem, for sure. We can do that. We can go after polluters.

We ARE the source, though. Modern life disconnects us, and it takes thought and effort to reconnect. Look at photos of mountaintop removal. I can't do that and tell myself that any electronic or lamp or appliance I'm leaving on is worth that. Think of the entire process of drilling oil, shipping it, piping it, SPILLING it, refining it and shipping it again. Then burning the coal, the oil, the fracked natural gas. We're so removed, so distant from these sources, there's no indication in daily life that this is what we participate in.

Maybe inaction is what we need. Burning fossil fuels takes action. Let's have a Take NO Action Tuesday, leading to a Take Less Action year. Stay home. It's beautiful here in the Great Lakes Region. We're taking action against the climate with every act of personal combustion. Stop the burning, save the planet.

Post and photo of the hawk currently making all the bluejays squawk by Rebecca Hammond

A Use for all that Wrapping Paper

2011-12-26T09:40:00.004-05:00

Next-door-neighbor Jane packed our gift in this artsy, recycled manner. The shredded paper is used gift wrap, just run through the home paper shredder. It's pretty and festive and a good way to reuse all that gift wrap. Last week we posted other ideas for gift wrap, but we all end up with some, whether we made reusable cloth bags or not. The larger pieces can be trimmed down and used next year, but there's still lots to toss. This is a better use. Save the flat pieces and shred them next year. Or use it now for packing away decorations, or send fragile items through the mail. There are other options besides that new gift bag. Search the thrift stores for Christmas containers, or look through the many baskets all thrift stores have. It's all cheap anyway, but right now is probably 50% off. Which means just about free.

As I look at those paper strips, seems like some good crafts could result from them. Imagine them woven. Place mats? Glued over thicker paper and made into a purse? Maybe a post later today will have some photos of where the idea led.

Post and photo by Sierra Club volunteer Rebecca Hammond

The Merriest of Holidays to You

2011-12-23T10:50:00.000-05:00

Michigan Republican Tells Badger to Clean Up Its Act

2011-12-22T08:42:00.005-05:00

BADGER: Michigan state senator Rick Jones, whose district covers the Lake Michigan shoreline from Saugatuck to Holland, has told the owners of the S. S. Badger to "clean up their act and stop polluting Lake Michigan." Read more here. Senator Jones' words include this fierce admonition:

“Today I’m asking the owners of the Badger to ‘Go Green!’ They have stalled long enough. It’s time to capture and contain the toxic coal ash or convert the ship to a clean power source,” said Jones. “The worlds’ finest example of drinkable freshwater, with billions of dollars in fishing industry, must not be polluted so that they can make more profit.”

It's taken us all a long time, but we're finally not only getting what the Great Lakes are, we're fighting what they're NOT. They're not a dump. Not industrial basins full of a convenient resource. They're a national treasure on par with national parks in the west. They've been burdened with an industrial history, and that insidious mindset that anything dumped into them disappears (or turns up for cleanup so far in the future that the culprits are gone).

EPA ENACTS MERCURY STANDARDS: This is a huge step forward, after decades of stalling. Yesterday the EPA unveiled the first-ever rules for mercury emissions. Read more here, by the Chicago Tribune's Michael Hawthorne, whose coverage of the S. S. Badger we've linked to a number of times.

ASIAN CARP: The Detroit Free Press has an article by reporter Tina Lam today about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' final Asian Carp report. It won't reach congress until late 2015; not good news. You can read a paper on the Great Lakes Mississippi River Basin Study's webpage. GLMRIS started a public comment period yesterday that will run till February 17, 2012. From their website:

"To ensure the list of potential Controls is as complete as possible, USACE is asking interested members of the public to review the list contained in the paper and provide information regarding ANS Controls that may be effective but not included in the paper or comments regarding ANS Controls listed in the paper. Comments will be accepted from Dec. 21, 2011, through Feb. 17, 2012 and may be submitted electronically through the GLMRIS website at www.glmris.anl.gov or mailed to GLMRIS ANS Control Comments, 111 N. Canal, Suite 600,Chicago, IL 60606. Comments must be postmarked by Feb. 17, 2012."

I had to do a great deal of clicking around to find the comment form. We'll try to repost it often.

A wonderful holiday time to you and yours.

Posted by Sierra Club volunteer Rebecca Hammond

Hartwick Pines Photo Album

2011-12-21T14:19:00.007-05:00

Finally, the answer to last week's Where in the Great Lakes is this? Scenes from Hartwick Pines State Park in northern lower Michigan. Nature's Prayer, inside the chapel on the big pines trail. Click on the photo to enlarge and read.

Crossing the East Branch of the Au Sable River, on the Au Sable Trail

The beautiful northwoods, on the Au Sable trail

Cathedral pines on the Au Sable Trail. Click on the photo to really see the beauty of these trees.

Post and photos by Becky Hammond

The World's Simplest Graywater System on Take Action Tuesday

2011-12-21T09:12:00.006-05:00

A bucket and tub full of used water. Okay, there are surely simpler ones, but this is pretty basic. And cheap, and needed no installation.

First things first! Happy Solstice, and Happy Hannukah!

It's Take Action Tuesday, no, Wednesday, and we haven't run the Great Lakes Pledge in some time. The basics of our pledge simply involve using water thoughtfully and wisely. Most environmental problems stem from actions that are thoughtless in the most basic sense, using a resource without thinking about where it comes from and what impacts it. Of course, our lives are frought with busyness. And the convenience of having grown up turning a tap and getting cheap and easy water, having our graywater and sewage disposed of without much thought, and the constant advertising we face that hammers in the thought that without constant (and miniscule and probably meaningless) convenience, can make us feel we're off-track for even considering other options.

How optional ARE other options, though? How are things going for the Great Lakes at this moment? It's time to revisit the pledge. Use nontoxic cleaners. Baking soda and/or vinegar can clean almost anything. Plan a tree, plan because it's not the right time to plant. Although, with this drab, globally-warmed fall, your ground might be no more frozen than ours in metro Detroit. Plan that rain barrel, or the additional rain barrels you'll add in 2012. Plan your rain garden, switch out an old appliance for one that's water-efficient.

And go basic, and be imaginative. The graywater "system" shown above is just a bucket and a bathtub, and a small amount of healthy lifting. Leaving hot water in the tub keeps heat in your house instead of your sewer or septic system. Our house is dry, but less so with that water evaporating. The bucket? We use the bathwater to flush the toilet. This, like most adaptations to greenness, is no big deal. Is it advertising that makes such behavioral changes seem too onerous before actually attempting them? Google the numbers and hold onto your head. BP spent almost 100 million for advertising during the Gulf spill, in a three-month period? Social networks now spend close to 50 billion per year? This shows how powerful advertising is; it's worth it to companies to spend those amounts. The thousands of times we've each seen ads telling us convenience is everything does affect us. I've never experienced, though, the action that matches the prior thoughts on the matter. Scooping bathwater while knowing it saves money and uses water twice is satisfying, like any action on behalf of the planet. Seems as though, on this Solstice day, that anything connecting us to the planet and the resources that sustain our lives doesn't just help the planet, it helps us. Oh, you can water plants with the bathwater. And if you take showers, plug the drain and save the water to reuse.

Take that pledge! And remember, don't stop there. Tell us what else you do to save water, and re-mind yourself what it is and where it comes from. And where it goes when used. Into the Great Lake nearest you, or the Great River.

Post and photo by Sierra Club volunteer Rebecca Hammond

Wednesday's Great Lakes Lover

2011-12-21T07:00:00.000-05:00

Brianna from Detroit, MI LOVES the Great Lakes! Do you?

Do you love the Great Lakes?

Green the Gift Wrap

2011-12-19T10:07:00.005-05:00

Gift Tags made from Last Year's Cards

Reusable Cloth Gift Bags Made from Holiday Fabrics

It's not too early to green up next year's holidays. A great after-Christmas craft that can be done with kids is making next year's tags from this year's cards. Many cards can be made into 3 or 4 tags. Most of us give gifts to the same people each year, so the tags can be saved from year to year.

Right now holiday fabrics are marked way down, and they are dead ringers for gift wrap. If you want to take recycling a step further, look for holiday garments in thrift shops. The wrapped present in the above photo was once PJ bottoms. Our family has a drummer, hence the very skinny gift bag, for drum sticks. Look in thrift shops for women's turtlenecks. You'll see many with small images of candy canes, pine cones, holly, everything Christmassy. Or look for red or green or gold plaids, stripes, or dots. Cut simple rectangles and sew by hand or machine. You don't even have to hem the opening. Gather and tie shut, or bind shut with ribbons.

You can also buy large stamps at craft stores in holiday shapes. Pour tempera paint in a plate and stamp newspaper. Kids love doing this. You won't believe how great this looks under the tree. People are surprised it's newspaper.

Post and photos by Sierra Club volunteer Rebecca Hammond

Where in the Great Lakes is This?

2011-12-18T10:14:00.003-05:00

As I post this, it occurs to me that there may be many such northwoods chapels. Do you know where this one is? Is there one in your neck of the woods? Answer will appear soon.

Photo and post by Becky Hammond

The Badger Tweets Us

2011-12-15T09:25:00.009-05:00

Lake Michigan, P.J. Hoffmaster State Park, Michigan

The Sierra Club Great Lakes Program has received a couple of Tweets from the S. S. Badger in the past week. The most recent:

"The EPA's issue is turbidity. The coal ash was found to be inert. It's time to get the facts right!"

In two phone conversations with the EPA's Region 5 office in Chicago, turbidity was not mentioned as an issue or concern at all. What the helpful people at the EPA said about the coal ash was that the methods used for testing were meant for dry land storage of ash, not dispersal in a lake, and that these situations differ quite a bit. We are back in touch with that EPA office and are waiting for a return call and will post information in response to the tweet.

Remember, this entire issue began in 2006, and the 2012 deadline for stopping the coal ash dumping was issued in 2008. The EPA recently affirmed the long-known deadline.

We've mentioned that not far south of Manitowoc, a Lake Michigan coal ash spill is being completely cleaned up, with help, flyovers, and oversight from government agencies.

There is a guest commentary in today's Detroit Free Press by Kimberly Hill on the many problems of coal, including ash. From that article:

"The problem has been clear from the get-go: Burning coal makes us sick. The pollution from burning coal causes a host of serious health problems -- especially for children and senior citizens -- including asthma, respiratory illness, cancer, neurological problems and heart disease. Disposing of toxic coal ash is also dangerous: Studies show that living near a toxic coal ash site is worse for your health than smoking a pack of cigarettes a day."

A 2008 coal ash spill in Tennessee was called an environmental disaster in a NYT article.

Why is there such a problem with consistency regarding coal ash information? It's inert in one situation, more toxic than smoking in a second, a disaster in a third? Stay tuned as we pass along EPA information and tackle the Badger's air quality issues.

Post and photo by Sierra Club volunteer Rebecca Hammond

Wednesday's Great Lakes Lover

2011-12-14T07:00:00.001-05:00

Logan Dirks from Wichita, Kansas LOVES the Great Lakes! Do you?

Do you love the Great Lakes?

Take Action Tuesday

2011-12-13T10:33:00.003-05:00

Youngstown, Ohio is again reporting earthquakes after a year with the first since records have been kept. The Youngstown Vindicator has a "shale sheet," a webpage on fracking, with links to related articles, videos, and citizen postings of meetings. The earthquakes, which have cracked foundations, made people think a car ran into their house, and caused a fireplace to break, with a piece falling free, are thought by many to be related to Ohio's taking on of Pennsylvania's contaminated water. Fracking requires in the vicinity of 5 MILLION gallons of water per individual well. The used water is contaminated with not only the chemicals used for the fracking process, but other possible toxins from the soil and shale itself. Ohio is disposing of PA's water in drilled wells.

Fracking is either a reality or a worry for all of us. Becoming informed and speaking out at meetings listed in the above link, by letter, by email, by signing petitions, is a good action for anyone in our region. If you're dealing with the realities of fracking and don't live in NE Ohio, you can find action support by googling your state name + Sierra Club. The Ohio Sierra Club has fracking information, and the Youngstown Area has a Salt Springs Group on facebook.

Youngstown's earthquakes are being mentioned in newspapers nationwide. Write your editor.

minnpost.com ran an interesting and balanced editorial by Ron Meador on the S. S. Badger yesterday. Balanced, because it began by describing pleasant memories of a night trip across Lake Michigan on the coal-fired ferry. And balanced because it has a photo of the black smoke that pollutes the air and is said to settle on deck, and because it reminds us that the Badger dumps a ton of coal ash per trip. The editorial also describes the Badger's PR campaign, undertaken as criticism of the dumping grows and the deadline for stopping it draws near:

"First it challenged the EPA's authority to regulate the ash-dumping, preparing tests that purported to show the coal ash wasn't harmful in terms of mercury or other toxics. EPA disagreed.

"Next, it launched a "Save the S.S. Badger" publicity campaign, blanketing the boat and businesses all over Manitowoc and Ludington with leaflets that were long on emotional appeals and short on specifics. The overall impression left by the materials I saw last summer was that the EPA had suddenly noticed the Badger, after 50-some years of problem-free operation, and ordered it to make immediate, impossible repairs."

And this summing-up statement: ". . .if the Badger can't or won't follow the rules, it deserves to follow the lake's other ferries into history."

Our Action Alert continues with this petition to sign to Secretary Ken Salazar, asking him to deny the Badger historic status. And of course, letters to your editor are always important.

Posted by Sierra Club volunteer Rebecca Hammond

DIY Air Cleaner

2011-12-12T15:53:00.005-05:00

Make a simple and effective air cleaner by placing a furnace filter against a window fan

Tape shows how much dust accumulates

This is one of the cleverest ideas I've ever seen and really works. Many of us with old houses and forced-air heat have dust issues, and having the ducts cleaned didn't seem to help our house much. This is simply a standard 20-inch window fan with a 20-inch furnace filter held in place by the suction of the fan running. It fills with dust about twice as fast as the filter in the furnace, which needs replaced much less often now. We saw this in a home for sale in Marquette, MI, and will be forever grateful to whoever thought of it. We use one in our bedroom, one downstairs, and keep each one running part-time.

I've experimented with using a dust mop instead of a vacuum, and like it much better. The dust mop will probably never wear out and doesn't need bags or filters, so I've assumed the total carbon footprint will be less, but I didn't count on how pleasant it is compared to a vacuum, or that the house seems less dusty in general.

By the way, another experiment has been dismantling the used furnace filters to recycle the cardboard and metal mesh (I'm sure some craft idea will emerge for the washed filter fabric!) This takes a very few minutes (do it outside and use gloves, as the ends of the metal are pokey). I'm always pleased when Mother Earth gets less to pile up outside the city on my behalf, as plenty of those huge piles are mine already. Recycling the metal is especially gratifying, as producing metal is energy-intensive and polluting.

Post and photos by Sierra Club volunteer Rebecca Hammond

Mother Earth News Solar Window Box

2011-12-12T10:38:00.004-05:00

My husband's version of Mother Earth New's DIY solar box.

Mother Earth News once had an article on how to build your own solar heater for a south-facing window. This is our version (the electric cord goes to a string of LED Christmas lights). Phil used Mother's plans with two additions: see the small solar panel on the left? That runs a computer fan mounted inside the solar box. It's, according to Phil, a "trickle charger" meant for the dashboard of a car. He found it online. The little fan was found at a local electronics supply. So this version is both passive and active solar. I envision a version that has an accordion bellows between the panel and the house, and could be moved to follow the sun throughout the day.

My husband is no experienced woodworker; he's a jazz sax player. This is probably the most complicated carpentry he's attempted, but he had no trouble with it. I'd like at least two more, for our windows on the first floor (that' a porch roof you're looking at.) This simple little device really heats that room up. I'm betting a house with 3 or 4 could, on sunny days, avoid hours of a furnace running. If we are going to stop fracking and coal burning, we have to think of our own homes as well as those far-away places being destroyed or contaminated.

Those LED lights, by the way, use so little electricity that a watt meter registers "0" with only one string plugged in. This is quite a coal/mercury savings over even mini lights.

Post and photo by Sierra Club volunteer Rebecca Hammond

The Real 12 Days of Christmas in the Great Lakes Region

2011-12-08T11:51:00.003-05:00

We recently posted a fairly negative and cautionary) version of the 12 Days of Chrismas. Well, in the spirit of the season, here's a positive (and very grateful) alternative.

12 Days of Christmas in the Great Lakes Region

On the first day of Christmas, the Great Lakes gave to me

A cottage on the shores of Erie

On the second day of Christmas, the Great Lakes gave to me

Two friendly nations

And a cottage on the shores of Erie

On the third day of Christmas, the Great Lakes gave to me

Three island sojourns

Two friendly nations

And a cottage on the shores of Erie.

On the fourth day of Christmas, the Great Lakes gave to me

Four lighthouse views

Three island sojourns

Two friendly nations

And a cottage on the shores of Erie

On the fifth day of Christmas, the Region gave to me

Five Noble Lakes!

Four lighthouse views

Three island trips

Two nation friends

And a cottage on the shores of Erie.

On the sixth day of Christmas, the Great Lakes gave to me

Six trout a-leaping

Five Noble Lakes!

Four lighthouse views

Three island trips

Two nation friends

And a cottage on the shores of Erie.

On the seventh day of Christmas, the Great Lakes gave to me

Seven major cities

Six trout a-leaping

Five Noble Lakes!

Four lighthouse views

Three island trips

Two nation friends

And a cottage on the shores of Erie.

On the eighth day of Christmas, the Great Lakes gave to me

Eight roller coasters

Seven major cities

Six trout a-leaping

Five Noble Lakes!

Four lighthouse views

Three island trips

Two nation friends

And a cottage on the shores of Erie.

On the ninth day of Christmas, the Great Lakes gave to me

Nine Pictured Rocks trips

Eight roller coasters

Seven major cities

Six trout a-leaping

Five Noble Lakes!

Four lighthouse views

Three island trips

Two nation friends

And a cottage on the shores of Erie.

On the tenth day of Christmas, the Great Lakes gave to me

Ten freighters hauling

Nine Pictured Rocks trips

Eight roller coasters

Seven major cities

Six trout a-leaping

Five Noble Lakes!

Four lighthouse views

Three island trips

Two nation friends

And a cottage on the shores of Erie.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, the Great Lakes gave to me

Eleven state-park campouts

Ten freighters hauling

Nine Pictured Rocks trips

Eight roller coasters

Seven major cities

Six trout a-leaping

Five Noble Lakes!

Four lighthouse views

Three island trips

Two nation friends

And a cottage on the shores of Erie.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, the Great Lakes gave to me

Beaches, cliffs, and dunes

Eleven state-park campouts

Ten freighters hauling

Nine Pictured Rocks trips

Eight roller coasters

Seven major cities

Six trout a-leaping

Five Noble Lakes!

Four lighthouse views

Three island trips

Two nation friends

And a cottage on the shores of Erie.

Written by Sierra Club volunteer Rebecca Hammond

Badger Update and Links; EPA affirms 2012 Deadline!

2011-12-07T13:00:00.000-05:00

Lake Michigan, view south from the Cut River Bridge, with the Lower Peninsula in the distance.

The Milwaukee Courier-Journal reports that last week the EPA "affirmed the deadline" granted to the S. S. Badger in 2008, and that the company still seeks a longer period of time. The short news item also states that federal dollars will be used for a study on converting the ship to natural gas.

Public outcry has been quite large (thanks, everyone!) EPA information used to be a bit wearisome to find, but now there is a page devoted to the Badger, with links to documents, comments, etc. A statement near the top of the page: "Due to significant public interest, EPA is making the petition and attached documents available on this website."

Significant public interest. That's us. Thanks again.

Photo and post by Sierra Club volunteer Rebecca Hammond

Wednesday's Great Lakes Lover

2011-12-07T07:00:00.000-05:00

MI Sierra Club Chapter Director, Anne Woiwode, LOVES the Great Lakes! Do you?

Do you love the Great Lakes?

Take Action Tuesday: Badger Action Alert

2011-12-06T09:57:00.002-05:00

We've been covering the Badger and its decades of coal ash dumping for a couple of weeks now. Today's action: sign our petition to Secretary Ken Salazar asking him to deny historic designation unless the Badger stops the dumping. A coal-fired ship isn't historic; it's outdated.

Find the alert here:

https://secure2.convio.net/sierra/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=7474

Posted by Rebecca Hammond

The 12 Days of Great Lakes Christmas

2011-12-05T13:50:00.001-05:00

On the First Day of Christmas, please do not give to us

Another caved-in coal plant ash bluff.

On the Second Day of Christmas, please do not give to us

Two ferries dumping

And another caved-in coal plant ash bluff.

On the Third Day of Christmas, please do not give to us

Three Fermi nuke plants

Two ferries dumping

And another caved-in coal plant ash bluff.

On the Fourth Day of Christmas, please do not give to us

Four CSOs

Three Fermi plants

Two Badger boats

And another caved-in coal plant ash bluff.

On the Fifth Day of Christmas, please do not give to us

Five Dead Great Lakes!

Four CSOs

Three Fermi plants

Two Badger Boats

And another caved-in coal plant ash bluff.

On the Sixth Day of Christmas, please do not give to us

Six Beach Advisories

Five Dead Great Lakes!

Four CSOs

Three Fermi plants

Two Badger boats

And another caved-in coal plant ash bluff.

On the Seventh Day of Christmas, please do not give to us

Seven Algae Blooms

Six Beach Advisories

Five Dead Great Lakes!

Four CSOs

Three Fermi plants

Two Badger boats

And another caved-in coal plant ash bluff.

On the Eighth Day of Christmas, please do not give to us

Eight mercury warnings

Seven Algae Blooms

Six Beach Advisories

Five Dead Great Lakes!

Four CSOs

Three Fermi plants

Two Badger boats

And another caved-in coal plant ash bluff.

On the Ninth Day of Christmas, please do not give to us

Nine Oil Spills

Eight mercury warnings

Seven Algae Blooms

Six Beach Advisories

Five Dead Great Lakes!

Four CSOs

Three Fermi plants

Two Badger boats

And another caved-in coal plant ash bluff.

On the Tenth Day of Christmas, please do not give to us

Ten Carp a Leaping

Nine Oil Spills

Eight mercury warnings

Seven Algae Blooms

Six Beach Advisories

Five Dead Great Lakes!

Four CSOs

Three Fermi plants

Two Badger boats

And another caved-in coal plant ash bluff.

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas, please do not give to us

Eleven Fracking Wells

Ten Carp a Leaping

Nine Oil Spills

Eight mercury warnings

Seven Algae Blooms

Six Beach Advisories

Five Dead Great Lakes!

Four CSOs

Three Fermi plants

Two Badger boats

And another caved-in coal plant ash bluff.

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas, please do not give to us

Twelve bottling plants

Eleven Fracking Wells

Ten Carp a Leaping

Nine Oil Spills

Eight mercury warnings

Seven Algae Blooms

Six Beach Advisories

Five Dead Great Lakes!

Four CSOs

Three Fermi plants

Two Badger boats

And another caved-in coal plant ash bluff.

Sierra Club volunteer Rebecca Hammond

New Link, Christmas Trees, etc.

2011-12-02T09:25:00.005-05:00

Lake Huron and the Straits of Mackinac filled with ice flows, seen from the Mackinac Bridge

Did you catch the National Geographic show last night, Drain the Great Lakes? No, it didn't refer to our fear that the desert southwest will take our water, or some company will bottle it till it's gone. It used computer stuff to show what's beneath the surface, like the river that once flowed through a canyon in the scene above, or (most fascinating to me) the long line of stones at the bottom of Lake Huron. Speculation is that they were placed by hunters to funnel caribou in the desired direction, and divers have brought up sediment that seems to contain flakes of stone tools. I'm sure it'll be rerun, although I got tired of trying to figure out when on their website.

We're adding the Lake Superior Binational Forum to our list of links (and hope a link to us will be added to more blogs and websites.) At the moment, they've been highlighting Lake Superior books each day on their facebook page.

This is a shame. Even considering that live holiday trees are a home-grown product, a true local industry, a recent conservative outcry stopped a potential federal program (similar to "Beef: it's what's for dinner") that would have helped our region's tree farmers in the face of declining sales. The idea would have been that 15 cents from each tree be used for an ad campaign, maybe with Leroy Anderson's Sleigh Ride instead of Copland in the background. This was called a "tax" and the uproar eventually caused the halt of the efforts. Did anyone really think that the tree they bought last year would now cost, say, $30.15 instead of just $30? And that that would be the deciding factor and keep people from buying that tree? Not surprisingly, at least one article opposing the .15 surcharge had a photo of, you guessed it, a fake tree, probably made in China (certainly not in Michigan). The Mackinac Center claims that Whoville spoke out, but if they did, they didn't listen to the Michigan Christmas Tree Association first.

From the Grand Rapids Press via mlive.com:

"Michigan Christmas tree growers said they were disappointed Wednesday after the Obama Administration suspended a federal marketing program in the face of conservative criticism.

“'This story has been so mis-reported, it's very frustrating to our industry,' said Marsha Gray, director of the Michigan Christmas Tree Association."

Fake trees from China have cut into the sales of this local product. As we're said before, real trees are close to a win/win. They provide habitat while growing, most farmers plant as many as 3 trees to replace what was harvested, they're good air filters and carbon sinks in the fields, and they're not made of vinyl and shipped all the way from China. Fake trees can't be recycled while real trees can be in any number of ways. Ours from last year is out back under the bird feeders, providing shelter and keeping chipmunks safer from cats. They can be ground into mulch or tossed into lakes at the ends of docks to provide fish habitat. And they are home-grown and local.

Surprising to me and Melissa Damaschke, who spearheads the Green Holidays demos, fake trees eventually cause the same allergy problems as real trees (maybe not surprising when you consider we store them in attics or basements) and can burn faster, with more toxic smoke, than real trees. I find so many hits googling "artificial christmas trees cause allergy problems" that I'll leave it to the interested to sort them out. Some of the hits refute the common idea that real trees are moldy.

And a Great Lakes regional weather peculiarity update: it's sunny right now, but apparently one lone cloud is snowing in our front yard. Lovely, and apparently almost over.

Post and photo by SC volunteer Rebecca Hammond

Take Action Tuesday; Our Lakes are not Oxymorons

2011-11-29T09:37:00.009-05:00

A reminder that our coal use in the Great Lakes region doesn't impact and harm only us. Acid rain and a slowly-dying forest in the Adirondacks. Photo from the Adirondack Council.

Yesterday's post had a suggestion that you find your local news source and weigh in on Badger articles or op-eds they've run. If you live near Lake Michigan, there probably is such a story. Start with google, and hit "news". A new search box will pop up. Type in, say, S. S. Badger. Today we found a Sheboygan, WI op-ed. All newspapers, as far as I know, now allow almost-immediate comments. You click on "register" and fill in a few boxes. Sometimes they send an immediate email, with a link to click, sometimes you don't even have that step to badger you.

I'm a believer that a focused and energetic environmentalist has some daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. Finding ways to speak out matters on several levels: one is, you vent. We need to vent. The sense of environmental depression, even despair, is something we do not want building up. Paradoxically, it seems to make us less active, not more. Today's social forums and websites with comment sections make this much easier than the old way, where we wrote actual LETTERS on real PAPER. Our culture likes things quick and easy, and now it's quick and easy, but unlike writing your officials (still very important!) a potentially large group gets to read your views and respond. If you like, you can sign back in later and fill in any points they brought up that you may have overlooked.

There are many components to a healthy environmental life, and balance between outspoken activism and renewal in the places we try to save is important. Consciously strike a balance. If you went for a hike, come home and write letters or comments on facebook or forums. Spend some time just looking for new sources to potentially be involved in. Google your current issue of concern and look through the hits. What groups are addressing it? Is there one nearby? Is there one nearby that's ignoring it? We don't simply need to hold businesses and government accountable, we need to make sure the groups we're members of know what we think. And we need to get outdoors regularly.

Look on facebook for names of officials and see if your concerns appear on their pages. If not, "liking" their page allows you to raise that concern. Doesn't mean you "like" them, necessarily! See if you can find ways to reframe debates. For example, the fact that businesses that depend upon Lake Michigan are treating Lake Michigan in a far different way than businesses that depend upon, say, Yosemite or the Grand Canyon or your state's most beloved fishing/canoeing river may need pointed out. WHY does the Badger dump coal ash while scenic railroads do not?

An industrial view of the Great Lakes prevails from decades ago. We don't need to just clean up businesses and lakes, we need to clean up this attitude. The businesses that dump in our Lakes don't own them. We all own them. Protect your property, and don't let anyone treat it as a dump, or speak as if it's a dump. Our lakes are not oxymorons. They can't simultaneously be a healthy water supply, fishing industry, boating/beach destination, and big receptacles for sewage, coal ash, contaminated ballast water, whatever someone (probably someone making a profit) doesn't want to hang onto.

Ask yourself: what should any activist, any committed environmentalist, do? NOT do? And align yourself with a set of goals. I suspect that each of us will find (this is seeming obvious now that I'm typing it) that living increasingly according to our values system will produce a more centered, focused, grounded individual. An active environmentalist doesn't end up overwhelmed by problems (well, sometimes maybe). An active environmentalist becomes increasingly realigned, reintegrated. And influential. The movement needs your unique imagination.

Choose an action!

Written by Sierra Club volunteer Rebecca Hammond