Unusually warm weather in the central and southern United States on Monday and Tuesday will be followed by a deep freeze as extreme winter weather moves from coast to coast. Monday’s temperatures in the Midwestern states of Iowa and Nebraska were roughly 40 degrees Fahrenheit above average — in the mid-70s — while southern cities […]
By Andrew Blok A record-setting fish was pulled from Hamilton Harbor at the western tip of Lake Ontario in 2015 and the world is learning about it just now. The fish, a brown bullhead, contained 915 particles—a mix of microplastics, synthetic materials containing flame retardants or plasticizers, dyed cellulose fibers, and more—in its body. It […]
In the Great Lakes region, it is quite literally raining toxic chemicals. “You can actually say it’s raining PFAS at this point,” said Marta Venier, an environmental chemist at Indiana University, according to Grist. A team of American and Canadian scientists found high levels of PFAS chemicals, also known as “forever chemicals,” after studying the […]
By Andrew Blok Great Lakes algae is catching huge amounts of microplastics. Researchers found that one type of algae, which has greatly expanded its range within the Great Lakes and is one of the most abundant algae by weight there, could catch up to one trillion pieces of microplastic in the Great Lakes. “It’s just […]
The Canadian company Enbridge is moving forward with plans to build a $500 million oil pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac, which runs between Michigan’s upper and lower peninsulas. The oil transportation company said it would go ahead with plans despite an ongoing lawsuit with Michigan, according to Kallanish Energy. Enbridge Inc. has hired two […]
By Daniel Macfarlane Every fall, I take my environmental studies class camping at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on Lake Michigan. Some years the beach extends more than three meters to the water. This year, in many spots, there was no beach at all. The story is the same throughout the Great Lakes. During my […]
By Anne Schechinger Over the Fourth of July holiday, many of us love to beat the heat in a favorite lake, pond or river. But this year, vacationers from coast to coast will have to look out for a potentially record-breaking number of algae blooms. So far this year there have been news stories about […]
By Valerie Vande Panne In February, the voters of Toledo, Ohio, passed a ballot initiative that gives Lake Erie and those who rely on the lake’s ecosystem a bill of rights. The idea is to protect and preserve the ecosystem so that the life that depends on it — humans included — can have access […]
By Martin LaMonica From its arrival decades ago, plastic has transformed modern life. But in 2018, the alarm over the plastic pollution crisis sounded louder than ever. On Earth Day, the United Nations issued its first State of Plastics report, calling for more recycling and better ways to manufacture and manage the material in its […]