By Dave Dempsey Every now and then an environmental news headline jumps out at you as though it were printed in 12-inch-tall type on a newspaper front page or web site. It’s not necessarily because of its significance when compared to other news, but because of the personal reaction it triggers. Such was the case… Read more »
Photo courtesy of Chikaming Township, Michigan. Editor’s note: This article was originally published on June 19, 2021, in the Northern Express. LEARN MORE ON JUNE 29 FLOW will host a free webinar — Managing High Water and High Tension along the Great Lakes Shoreline — at 1 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, June 29. Want to hear… Read more »
The Groundwork Center’s Michigan Clean Energy Conference and Michigan Climate Action Network’s (MiCAN) Climate Action Summit are joining forces this year to present the virtual Michigan Climate & Clean Energy Summit, May 24-27. FLOW spoke with MiCAN director Kate Madigan about the summit, climate change in the Great Lakes, the environmental justice movement, and what gives her hope for the environmental movement.
Michigan, the state that became notorious for one of the worst episodes of environmental injustice in American history, this week staked a claim to being a leader in ensuring environmental justice.
It’s not often that two high-ranking officials in Michigan’s state government lash out at a company in strong language. But that’s what happened May 7 when Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and Liesl Clark, the director of the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) slammed 3M.
Photo by Sleeping Bear Tour Company’s Julie Den Uyl By Calli Crow, FLOW Development Specialist On Saturday, April 25, members of FLOW’s board and I joined a few hearty volunteers on a trek to North Bar Lake in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore to join Sleeping Bear Tour Company for an exclusive two-hour wilderness tour highlighting the… Read more »
The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed life in many ways, yet Okemos High School junior Bernadette Osborn and her classmates in the Lansing area have moved quickly and energetically to confront the challenges of climate change.
With growing scientific confirmation of accelerating global climate change, Earth Day 2021 is more than just another Earth Day. For the first time, an American president will host an international climate summit on Earth Day to “reset” domestic and international strategies to combat alarming climate trends. The Biden Administration invited 40 world leaders to the summit, and on April 17 announced an agreement with China to “seriously and urgently” tackle the problem. This blog offers tips on how to take part in Earth Day activities, both statewide and locally.
FLOW is excited to announce the growth of our Board of Directors as we welcome tribal law expert Matthew L.M. Fletcher, Foundation Professor of Law at Michigan State University College of Law and Director of the Indigenous Law and Policy Center. He is also the primary editor and author of the leading law blog on American Indian law and policy, Turtle Talk. “We are thrilled to welcome Matthew Fletcher to our Board of Directors,” said FLOW Executive Director Liz Kirkwood. “Matthew’s extraordinary knowledge of tribal history, custom, and law will greatly serve to advance FLOW’s mission to protect our shared waters as a commons from one generation to the next. We have much to learn from traditional indigenous ecological knowledge and teachings about stewarding our precious Great Lakes and freshwater.”
The water barons are finally moving in to gain control over water rights in public water that is supposed to be held and managed by each state as sovereign for the benefit of its citizens. These water transactions, which seek to profit by speculating on an underlying assumption that water is a commodity or can be allocated for sale, signal a significant shift in investors’ attitudes about public water, and, fundamentally pose the question: Just who will own and control the public’s water in the 21st century?
