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Welcome to the Great Lakes Town Hall

Like the town meetings on which it is modeled, the Great Lakes Town Hall provides a "space" where Great Lakes basin residents can come together to share concerns, opinions and ideas about Great Lakes issues. At the Town Hall you will find frequently updated original content offering opinions and analysis on current events from our editors as well as guest features written by important figures in the Great Lakes community. But you don’t have to be an expert to participate! All are welcome and encouraged to give feedback, join the discussion and create their own posts in the community forum. Please read, learn, then log in and start discussing what matters to you.

Dave’s Place

Sound familiar?

Gov. Jennifer Granholm on Tuesday hammered a company responsible for an 819,000-gallon oil spill near Marshall as the crude continued to flow westward along the Kalamazoo River, and government officials and company workers attempted to stop the disaster from spreading.

Cynthia Price of Grand Rapids, MI, puts it this way: "Given that every Republican candidate in Michigan is running on a platform of "fewer regulations on business," it seems unlikely that we ever WILL learn ..."

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Oceans and Great Lakes
Editorials

On January 29th of this year President Obama nominated Lana Pollack of Michigan to the International Joint Commission (IJC).

The IJC is the U.S. and Canadian agency that advises the two governments on a range of transboundary water issues, and one need only look at a map to see the vast scope of what the commission touches.

In the scheme of presidential appointments, Pollack's received scant attention but that doesn't diminish its importance. Water defines the U.S. - Canada border and if it's the oil of the 21st century and beyond, the IJC and Pollack have the potential to be critical players.The Great Lakes region of the U.S. and Canada are stewards of 20% of the Earth's fresh surface water.

Guest Feature

The only thing I remember learning about in school relating to the environment is rocks. That's it. Rocks and minerals. Now I'm sure rocks and minerals are important, but these days there are certainly more important things that kids should be learning in school about the environment. I want kids to graduate from high school (and middle school and grade school) understanding what global warming is, understanding why conservation is important, and believing that they can make a difference on this planet. This issue is so important to me because, more than anything, I believe that environmental literacy in children will transform the environmental movement in the future. It's simple; as more people understand the problems, making large-scale changes just might be easier.