The Great Lakes basin lands are home to more than 42 million people and each one of them has a story, a concern, a question. In the Great Lakes Town Hall, the Community Bulletin is a place for you and your neighbors to voice them.
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Great Lakes Panel in Detroit on August 21 Melissa Damaschke, Sierra Club (Detroit, Michigan)
Great Lakes Panel:
Great Lakes Cleanup Creates Economic Gains for Michigan
Thursday, August 21 (Reception at 5:30pm, Panel Begins at 6pm)
Wayne County Community College – Detroit Campus
1001 West Fort Street; Detroit (Community Room 236)
Panelists and topics include:
Scott Ireland
Environmental Protection Agency – Great Lakes National Program Office
Mr. Cieniawski will discuss the Great Lakes Legacy Act, its history, and its benefits to the region.
Michael Alexander
Michigan Department of Environmental Quality
Mr. Alexander will discuss how the state of Michigan has utilized Great Lakes Legacy Act funds.
Mary Bohling
Michigan Sea Grant and Detroit River RAP Advisory Council
Ms. Bohling will highlight a local Area of Concern that benefited from Great Lakes Legacy Act funds. She will discuss the clean-up of Elias Cove (formerly known as Black Lagoon) and the importance of Legacy Act funding for that project in the Detroit River AOC.
Roy Schrameck
Environmental Consulting & Technology, Inc.
Mr. Schrameck will discuss the economic benefits of cleaning up Areas of Concern to his business.
Great Lakes Photo Contest Deadline Approaching Brenna Wanous (Madison, WI)
The Great Lakes Forever-Budweiser photo contest (http://www.greatlakesforever.org) another summer tradition! The deadline is this 11:59pm CST this Friday, August 8th.
The Great Lakes Town Hall also benefits from the contest – all of the photos submitted can be used in our photo gallery on our homepage. The more submissions we receive, the greater the selection of beautiful, memory-provoking or vacation-inspiring photos we can use here on the Town Hall! Capture in a picture what you love about the Great Lakes, and tell your friends and family to submit as well!!
Details
Who: Amateur and Professional photographers all around the Great Lakes (US and Canada).
What: Submit up to three (3) of your original Great Lakes photos.
When: by 11:59pm CST August 8th. Online judging goes from August 18-29. Winners announced September 1.
Why: Connect with your Great Lakes, get recognized for your photography talents, provide Great Lakes Forever and Great Lakes Town Hall with high quality photos by local photographers, get your photo on the 2008 GLF-Budweiser educational beer coasters, win other prizes.
07:35 am 08/04/2008
Congressman Stupak Questions Compact Gary Wilson (Chicago, Illinois)
Good news on the Compact.
Congressman Bart Stupak (D-MI) has formally asked various federal agencies to comment on certain aspects of the Compact. Specifically, his inquires are related to the public trust doctrine
and whether the Compact leaves the Lakes exposed and vulnerable to export under the GATT and NAFTA trade agreements.
Thank you Congressman Stupak! Finally, someone is willing to ask the hard, inconvenient questions.
If the Compact is as good as advertised in the barrage of press releases by the Healing Our Waters coalition, the Council of Great Lakes Governors, the Great Lakes Cities Initiative, the Council of Great Lakes Industries, and Nestle -- then it will withstand this scrutiny.
Congressman Stupak is arguably the largest stakeholder related to the Compact. His district
has more Great Lakes shoreline than that of any other legislator.
Facing The Freshwater Crisis Alan Maki (Warroad, Minnesota)
Facing The Freshwater Crisis
As demand for freshwater soars, planetary supplies are
becoming unpredictable. Existing technologies could
avert a global water crisis, but they must be
implemented soon
A friend of mine lives in a middle-class neighborhood of
New Delhi, one of the richest cities in India. Although
the area gets a fair amount of rain every year, he wakes
in the morning to the blare of a megaphone announcing
that freshwater will be available only for the next
hour. He rushes to fill the bathtub and other
receptacles to last the day. New Delhi's endemic
shortfalls occur largely because water managers decided
some years back to divert large amounts from upstream
rivers and reservoirs to irrigate crops.
My son, who lives in arid Phoenix, arises to the low,
schussing sounds of sprinklers watering verdant suburban
lawns and golf courses. Although Phoenix sits amid the
Sonoran Desert, he enjoys a virtually unlimited water
supply. Politicians there have allowed irrigation water
to be shifted away from farming operations to cities and
suburbs, while permitting recycled wastewater to be
employed for landscaping and other nonpotable
applications.
As in New Delhi and Phoenix, policymakers worldwide
wield great power over how water resources are managed.
Wise use of such power will become increasingly
important as the years go by because the world's demand
for freshwater is currently overtaking its ready supply
in many places, and this situation shows no sign of
abating. That the problem is well-known makes it no less
disturbing: today one out of six people, more than a
billion, suffer inadequate access to safe freshwater. By
2025, according to data released by the United Nations,
the freshwater resources of more than half the countries
across the globe will undergo either stress-for example,
when people increasingly demand more water than is
available or safe for ...
05:16 pm 07/29/2008
America's Got Water Problems; No Plan to Fix Them Alan Maki (Warroad, Minnesota)
I thought since much of this essay focuses on the Great Lakes and Great Lakes Region people might find it interesting...
Alan Maki
America's Got Water Problems, and No Plan to Fix Them
By Elizabeth de la Vega, Tomdispatch.com.
The lives and income of millions have been upended by
government mismanagement of water issues.
"Lisa, the whole reason we have elected officials is so
we don't have to think all the time. Just like that
rainforest scare a few years back. Our officials saw
there was a problem and they fixed it, didn't they?" --
Homer Simpson
On June 24, 2008, Louie and I curled up on the couch to
watch seven of the nation's foremost water resources
experts testify before the House Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee's Subcommittee on Water
Resources and Environment.
This was a new experience for us. For my part, the
issue to be addressed -- "Comprehensive Watershed
Management Planning" -- was certainly a change of pace
from the subjects I ordinarily follow in Judiciary and
Intelligence Committee hearings. I wasn't even entirely
sure what a "watershed" was. I knew that, in a
metaphorical sense, the word referred to a turning
point, but I was a bit fuzzy about its meaning in the
world of hydrology. (It's the term used to describe
"all land and water areas that drain toward a river or
lake.")
What was strange from Louie's point of view was not the
topic of the day, but that we were stuck in the house.
Usually at that hour, we'd be working in the backyard,
where he can better leverage his skill set, which
includes chasing squirrels, digging up tomato plants,
eating wicker patio chairs, etc. On this particular
afternoon, however, the typically cornflower-blue San
Jose sky was the color of wet cement, and thick soot
was charging down from the nearby Santa Cruz Mountains.
Sitting outside would have been about as pleasant ...
02:12 pm 07/29/2008
Toledo Blade's Tom Henry Puts Us on Notice! Gary Wilson (Chicago, Illinois)
In his weekly commentary piece, Tom Henry from the Toledo Blade put us all on notice -- citizens, politicians, environmentalists, and even his employer -- concerning our oil addiction.
Today: LAKE SUPERIOR ADVOCATES Alan Maki (Warroad, Minnesota)
Subject: Lake Superior 7.20 10am Duluth MN
LAKE SUPERIOR ADVOCATES TO WALK & RALLY FOR CLEAN UP OF ARMY BARRELS DULUTH, Minn. --- A coalition of groups and Native American activists will conduct a free public "Walk & Rally for the Lake," Sunday, July 20 to draw attention to the nearly 1,500 barrels of hazardous military waste that were dumped by the Army Corps of Engineers into Lake Superior near Duluth in the late '50s and early '60s.
The free Lake Superior Day event is also a celebration of the success of the Red Lake Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in being awarded a $603,000 grant to expand its investigation of the status of the aging barrels.
The 5-mile walk will move along London Road from Brighton Beach (63rd Ave. E. & Congdon Blvd.), and end with a rally and music at Leif Erikson (11th Ave. E. & London Road). In case of bad weather the rally will take place at the (Quaker) Friends Meeting House, 1802 E. Superior St.
At 10:00 a.m. walkers will gather at Brighton Beach, just past Lester River , and the walk will start at 11:00 a.m. It will finish at Leif Erikson Park at about 1:30 p.m. with the rally and music beginning at 2:00 p.m.
Speakers for the event include Rick Defoe of the Duluth American Indian Commission, Jean Buffalo of the Natural Resource Damage Assessment Committee, former Chairwoman of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Duluth City Councilor Sharla Gardner, and Wisconsin State Representative Frank Boyle of Superior. Jan Conley of the Lake Superior Greens will MC and the musical entertainers are Duluth's own singer/songwriter Rachael Kilgour and internationally renowned folk singer David Rovics.
The event's endorsers and sponsors include the Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes, Earth Protector, Don't Waste Michigan, Grannies for Peace, Great Lakes United, Great Northern Solar, Lake Superior Greens, Loaves & Fishes Catholic Worker, the Northern Futures Foundation, Nukewatch, North American Water Office, Northland Anti-war Coalition, Duluth's /Northland Reader/, Seeds of Peace, the Progressive Foundation and Veterans for Peace Chapter 80. The Walk and Rally for the Lake are part of the annual Lake Superior Day celebration promoted by the Lake Superior Binational Forum.
11:16 am 07/20/2008
Global trend to return water back to public Carolyn A. Marsh (Whiting, IN)
PARIS, Jun 23 (IPS) - The announcement by the Paris municipality that water services will return to public hands by 2010 is in line with a global trend of ending privatisation of such services.
Mayor Bertrand Delanoë announced Jun. 2 that the municipal administration would regain control of all water services for the city, ending a private monopoly that has lasted more than 100 years.
The contracts with the world's two biggest water service companies, Suez and Veolia, will not be extended after Dec. 31, 2009.
"We want to offer a better service, at a better price," Delanoë said.
"We also promise that prices would be stable."
Delanoë said his administration will encourage other municipalities in the Ile de France region around Paris to end privatisation of water services.[more'>
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42922
12:35 am 07/15/2008
The Structural Roots of Hunger, Food Crises... Alan Maki (Warroad, Minnesota)
I think this editorial from Canadian Dimension magazine puts water in relation to food into a slightly different perspective from that which we usually view the issues surrounding water. Water is an important part of how we eat and how people live... this editorial kind of gives us an alternative view of how others see water in the lager scheme of things.
I wasn't sure if this editorial really belongs here; but, then the longer I thought about it the more I thought it belonged posted here... I am curious what others think.
Here is a quote from the editorial that I think makes this editorial important:
"Simple access to food is not enough, La Via Campesina argues. What’s needed is food sovereignty: access to land, water and resources. The people affected must have the right to know and to decide about food policies. Food is too important to be left to the global market and the manipulations of agribusiness."
The Structural Roots of Hunger, Food Crises and Riots
Editorial
Canadian Dimension magazine, July/August 2008
In recent months major international banks, financial newspapers and mass media have been forced to recognize that there is a major food crisis and that hundreds of millions of people face hunger, malnutrition and outright starvation. World conferences have been convoked and national emergencies have been declared, as millions riot in nearly fifty countries, threatening to overthrow regimes. In North America and Europe, skyrocketing food prices, combined with stagnant wages, home evictions and debt payments threaten incumbent regimes and increase pressures on all governments to take urgent action.
Mainstream responses are predictably inadequate, and their explanations for the crisis range from inadequate and self-serving to silly. The World Bank repeats the call for emergency food aid and several hundred-million-dollar grants to the “most needy,” which usually turn out to be regimes who have been model pupils of the World Bank and IMF policies.
Academics and policy advisers blame China, “for eating too much meat.” Others point to the diversion of production to biofuels like “ethanol” and “bio-diesel.” But they fail to ask which classes fashioned ...
02:21 pm 07/14/2008
Rights of Nature Approved In Ecuador Constitution Carolyn A. Marsh (Whiting, IN)
The Pennsylvania-based Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund is challenging the old way of fighting for environmental protection. This is their press release.
July 8, 2008
Ecuador Constitutional Assembly Votes to Approve Rights of Nature In New Constitution
Legal Defense Fund: Ecuador First Nation in the World to Shift to Rights-Based
Environmental Protection Using Legal Defense Fund Support
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
On July 7, 2008, the Ecuador Constitutional Assembly – composed of one hundred and thirty (130) delegates elected countrywide to rewrite the country’s Constitution – voted to approve articles for the new constitution recognizing rights for nature and ecosystems.
“If adopted in the final constitution by the people, Ecuador would become the first country in the world to codify a new system of environmental protection based on rights,” stated Thomas Linzey, Executive Director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund.
“Ecuador is now leading the way for countries around the world to make this necessary and fundamental change in how we protect nature,” added Mari Margil, Associate Director of the Legal Defense Fund.
Over the past year, the Legal Defense Fund has been invited to assist Delegates to the Ecuador Constitutional Assembly to re-write that country’s constitution. Delegates requested that the Legal Defense Fund draft proposed Rights of Nature language for the constitution based on ordinances developed and adopted by municipalities in the United States.
The Legal Defense Fund has now assisted communities in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Virginia to draft and adopt new laws that change the status of natural communities and ecosystems from being regarded as property under the law to being recognized as rights-bearing entities.
Those local laws recognize that natural communities and ecosystems possess an inalienable and fundamental right to exist and flourish, and that residents of those communities possess the legal authority to enforce those rights on behalf of those ecosystems. In addition, these laws require the local governments to remedy violations of those ecosystem rights.
In essence, these laws represent changes to the status of property law, eliminating the authority of a property owner to interfere with the functioning of ...
04:11 pm 07/10/2008
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Note: The opinions expressed in the Great Lakes Town Hall are those of Town Hall participants and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Biodiversity Project or any participant's institution.
The Great Lakes basin lands are home to more than 42 million people and each one of them has a story, a concern, a question. In the Great Lakes Town Hall, the Community Bulletin is a place for you and your neighbors to voice them.
